54 pages • 1-hour read
The Shoemaker's Wife
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Symbols & Motifs
Ciro’s Ring
Ciro Lazzari’s ring is a symbol of commitment, love, and the past, linking to the theme of Love Enduring Through Hardship. Images of the ring recur throughout the novel as consistent reminders of Ciro’s ties to his family and loved ones. The ring originally belonged to his mother, Caterina Lazzari. Her late husband, Carlo Lazzari, gave her the “gold signet ring” imprinted with a “swirling artful C in an oval of heavy yellow gold” (7). The ring was originally a symbol of Carlo and Caterina’s love. When Caterina leaves her boys at the convent, she gives Ciro the ring as a reminder of her love for him despite their trying circumstances, and the C monogram creates a connection between Caterina and Ciro.
Ciro wears the ring for many years. He doesn’t remove the band despite his fraught feelings toward his mother and her decision to leave him and his brother, Eduardo, behind. In the US, one of his girlfriends, Felicitá, demands that Ciro give her the ring. Ciro imagines he could be “in love with her, but his feelings did not consume him” (152), so he retains his ring, which reminds him of his life back home in the Italian Alps, a temporal era and geographical realm that Felicitá knows nothing about.
Ultimately, Ciro gives Enza Ravanelli the ring when he proposes to her after returning from the war. When the two first meet, Enza is curious about the ring and is moved when Ciro explains that it’s “all I have from my family” (86). Many years later, he offers her the ring as a symbol of his love for and devotion to her: “When she [spins] the gold ring on her finger, it [is] as though it was made for her, but it [means] even more that her husband [has] worn it since he was a boy. She [is] a part of his history now” (341). The ring is a physical tie to Ciro’s past life and the family he lost as a child. In giving the ring to Enza upon their engagement, he’s committing to her, offering her love, and inviting her into his past and future.
New York City
Symbolizing hope and possibility, New York City links to the theme of Immigrant Resilience and the Pursuit of the American Dream. The bustling metropolis is an archetype of new beginnings and opportunities. In the context of The Shoemaker’s Wife, New York City is associated with the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and immigration to the US. The city offers individuals like Ciro and Enza entry into a new life. When they arrive in New York, the myriad of geographical and cultural changes that face them feel overwhelming.
At the same time, the city offers them endless opportunities for self-reinvention and cultivation, even though they must still endure some hardship along the way. Both Ciro and Enza face daunting challenges as they orient themselves to the city and begin to pursue their dreams. They work tirelessly, withstanding mistreatment and threatening circumstances; they long for their families and homes but never give up: “Well, dream big,” Laura Heery always reminds Enza when she’s feeling discouraged about their plans to “make the crossing to Manhattan” (196). The city is a place where Enza (and Ciro) can reify futures and pursue dreams they never could have imagined for themselves back home in their small Alpine villages in Italy.
The Italian Alps
Throughout most of the novel, the third-person narrator refers to the geographical setting of the Italian Alps simply as “the mountain.” The Italian Alps symbolize home and belonging because this is where both Ciro and Enza grew up. Ciro primarily grew up in Vilminore at the San Nicola convent, while Enza primarily lives with her family in the northern village of Schilpario, just a few miles up the road. The characters do not know each other for much of their coming-of-age years, but their chance meeting on the day of Stella Ravanelli’s burial solidifies their uncanny connection to each other; later, Ciro and Enza begin to associate one another with the place they once called home.
Ciro and Enza come and go from one another’s lives throughout the novel. Whenever they’re apart, they remember one another with fondness, dreaming of the day they chatted while outside in their home country. Whenever they reunite, they rediscover their connection to the mountains back home. In this way, the Italian Alps connect to the theme of The Journey Toward Self-Discovery, Meaning, and Purpose. Through each other, Ciro and Enza find themselves and derive deeper meaning and purpose. They find safety and security in their relationship because they both know where they came from. They offer each other a connection to the mountain, and thus to the original, innocent versions of themselves.
At the novel’s end, the mountain offers Ciro peace and reassurance when he returns home alone. Enza has sent him here, hoping the mountain might heal him. Though the journey doesn’t physically cure Ciro, returning to Schilpario does clarify his and Enza’s love and reminds him of the beautiful family and home they fostered via their indelible connection.
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