The House Is on Fire

Due to fire’s significance to the plot, it is unsurprising that it shows up repeatedly, not only as a symbol of destruction and damnation but also as a propelling force. After the theater burns, the fire remains in Richmond’s collective thoughts as a huge loss due to the scope of the tragedy. Maria, while recounting her experience to her brother and mother, describes the burning theater by saying it “looked like the mouth of hell” (232). The young girl who dies at Mrs. Cowley’s is made unrecognizable by her burns, the fire having taken her identity. Even mentions of fire unrelated to the theater burning have connotations of destruction. For example, Gilbert keeps written copies of the Baptist minister’s sermons appreciating the “fire and fury” of the most intense ones (103).

The fire itself propelled people, just as it destroyed them, forcing them out windows and into new phases of their lives. It ends Jack’s time with the Placide and Green Company, leads Sally to realize how unreliable the men around her are, and allows Cecily to make a break for freedom. Cecily’s decision to run is framed around the consequences of the fire: “[Cecily] lodges the ash on the soft meat in the middle of her tongue and allows it to melt there like snow.