67 pages • 2-hour read
The Weight of Ink
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Symbols & Motifs
Fire
Fire is a significant motif in the novel and is used to mark moments of transition and significant change. The fire that kills Ester’s parents in Amsterdam propels her into a new life in London; almost a decade later, the Great Fire of 1666 is burning as she marries Alvaro and begins her new life in Richmond. Fire also emerges as a threatening possibility when Ester and Rivka are barricaded in the da Costa Mendes house, facing a hostile antisemitic crowd. Fire is a dangerous and destructive force, especially in the context of a plot with a strong focus on paper and documents—for the centuries that they lay dormant and hidden, the precious cache of Ester’s documents was vulnerable to a fire that could have destroyed them at any time. The Amsterdam fire was undoubtedly destructive, and cost the lives not just of Ester’s parents, but, indirectly, the life of her brother as well.
However, the repetition of the motif reveals that when one period of time comes to an end, a new chapter can begin. Typically, after fire, either new growth will occur (in the natural world) or buildings will be rebuilt (in more urban spaces); the latter occurred after the 1666 fire, with London quickly reemerging as an important global capital. Likewise, Ester is resilient and able to build a new life for herself. After each fire or prospective fire, she emerges stronger and more certain of the choices she needs to make.
Masada
Helen has a framed print depicting Masada, an ancient fortress located in Israel, hanging on her office wall. The print, and the history that it alludes to, function as symbols of Jewish history and identity.
During the First Roman-Jewish War (66-73 CE), a group of Jewish rebels barricaded themselves in the isolated fortress to resist Roman domination. According to ancient sources, after being besieged for months, more than 900 Jews died by suicide rather than surrender. The image and story of Masada symbolize how Jews have faced atrocities throughout their history. By the time of the mass suicide at Masada, the ancient Jews had faced repeated invasions and exile from their homeland, and by the time Helen has the print hanging in her office, Jews have endured centuries of religious persecution and the atrocities of the Holocaust. Helen is not Jewish, so the print represents both her respect for Jewish history and her acknowledgment that this history is not her own. It also symbolizes the choice she made when she broke off her relationship with Dror: Helen feared that his Jewish identity and the legacy of suffering that he lived with would mean that they could never truly understand one another.
In addition to being a pivotal event in Jewish history, Masada symbolizes the significance of history, and the tension between sacrificing oneself for a cause or choosing to adapt. The events at Masada were documented by an ancient historian named Josephus, based on an account by two women who chose to hide rather than participate in the mass suicide. As professional historians, Aaron and Helen appreciate the importance of documenting events so that they are not lost over time; had the women not chosen to live, future generations may never have known what took place. Since characters will repeatedly have to choose between holding firmly to principles or adapting in order to survive—such as when Ester and Rivka endure a conversion ceremony in order to escape from London— the events at Masada symbolize how the choices made by individuals are often ambiguous.
Blindness
Rabbi Mendes is blind due to torture he endured as a young boy during the Spanish Inquisition. His lack of sight is a significant factor in the plot, since it is because of this blindness that he needs Ester to scribe for him. His blindness is also symbolic of how individuals can ignore or refuse to see information about others.
Ester initially believes that she is deceiving Rabbi Mendes, but before his death, he confides that he knew she was writing her own documents and also that there was no theological crisis in Florence—the letters he dictated were so that she would have access to the ideas and teachings he wanted to share with her. While Rabbi Mendes was physically blind, Ester was symbolically blind to the truth that he saw her for who she truly was, and could predict how she would behave.
Later, Ester is shocked to learn that Rivka can read, and thus has also known the whole time that Ester was writing. Ester has been symbolically blind to realities around her, partially out of arrogance: As she reflects, “in her pride, she’d been blinder than the rabbi” (441, emphasis added). Rabbi Mendes’s blindness symbolizes how physical sight has nothing to do with an individual’s ability to be astute and truly understand, and thus “see,” the context and people around them.
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