Grace Burrowes | Symbolism in Romance Novels

Once upon a time, I wrote a little Scottish contemporary novella about an American florist who falls in love with a Scottish farmer, and as so often happens, down the research rabbit hole I did go. The florist and the farmer were standing up as maid of honor and best man with her sister and his friend, and my heroine was also doing the flowers for the wedding.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that for many wedding planners, everything— everything—revolves around the bride’s dress. The choice of venues, the flowers, the typeface on the invitations, the lighting (the lighting?), the groom’s attire, the cake, the guest book… everything must harmonize with, flatter, and focus on that dress (and presumably, the person wearing it).

Novels will often have organizing symbols too.

In DANIEL'S TRUE DESIRE, I use toads, books, and eyeglasses in symbolic ways (no toads are harmed!). When Lady Kirsten sees Daniel wearing his spectacles, her impression of him changes. He’s not merely a kind, honorable vicarly sort of fellow, she sees for the first time that he’s also a scholar. He loves literature, languages, the natural world, and sharing his love of learning with even unruly small boys—especially with unruly boys, in fact.

Until Daniel puts on his glasses, Kirsten’s view of him is narrow. One of Daniel’s scholars, Matthias, has the opposite problem. He’s wearing his father’s second pair of spectacles, and told to never take them off, lose them, or let them come to harm… but they don’t fit. They slip down his nose, limit the activities he can participate in, and instead of improving his vision, they cause him constant worry and make him an object of pity.

Daniel is similarly afflicted with troublesome paternal admonitions, though Daniel’s father has long since passed away. Daniel is still trying to view the world—and himself—through his father’s lenses, and as with Matthias, the fit is all wrong. When Daniel and Matthias are searching together to find the boy’s missing spectacles, insight as well as clarity of physical vision can intersect on the page.

I was born literally cross-eyed, and while many babies are, my mother was a nurse. When my vision didn’t gradually correct itself, she went looking for a pediatric vision specialist who’d give her solutions instead of lectures about over-reacting. I was wearing thick glasses by the time I was three years old, an eye patch before I was five. The right glasses (and my mother’s tenacity) likely saved my entire academic career, if not my self-esteem, and other aspects of my well-being.

I know firsthand what it’s like to be unable to see well, and we all know how hard it can be to set an outdated self-image aside. Symbols and scenes that twine emotional and dramatic arcs together are purely enjoyable for the author, but I think they make the story more resonant and memorable for the reader, too!

About Grace Burrowes

Grace Burrowes started writing as an antidote to empty nest and soon found it an antidote to life in general. She is the sixth out of seven children, raised in the rural surrounds of central Pennsylvania. Early in life she spent a lot of time reading romance novels and practicing the piano. Her first career was as a technical writer and editor in the Washington, DC, area, a busy job that nonetheless left enough time to read a lot of romance novels.

It also left enough time to grab a law degree through an evening program, produce Beloved Offspring (only one, but she is a lion), and eventually move to the lovely Maryland countryside.

While reading yet still more romance novels, Grace opened her own law practice, acquired a master's degree in Conflict Transformation (she had a teenage daughter by then) and started thinking about writing.... romance novels. This aim was realized when Beloved Offspring struck out into the Big World a few years ago. ("Mom, why doesn't anybody tell you being a grown-up is hard?")

Grace eventually got up the courage to start pitching her manuscripts to agents and editors. The query letter that resulted in "the call" started out: "I am the buffoon in the bar at the RWA retreat who could not keep her heroines straight, could not look you in the eye, and could not stop blushing--and if that doesn't narrow down the possibilities, your job is even harder than I thought." (The dear lady bought the book anyway.)

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About DANIEL'S TRUE DESIRE

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Grace Burrowes comes a brand-new Regency romance filled with love, desire, and drama.

An honorable life

Daniel Banks is a man of the cloth whose vocation is the last comfort he has left-and even his churchman's collar is beginning to feel like a noose. At the urging of family, Daniel attempts to start his life over as vicar in the sleepy Kentish town of Haddondale, family seat to the earls of Bellefonte.

Challenged by passion

Lady Kirsten Haddonfield has resigned herself to a life of spinsterhood. Then the handsome new village vicar, Reverend Daniel Banks, becomes a guest of the Haddonfield family while the vicarage is being renovated, and Kirsten finds herself rethinking her position. Lady Kirsten does not know that Daniel's past is about to cast a shadow on love's future.