51 pages • 1 hour read
Lisa BarrWoman on Fire
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Woman on Fire
The painting Woman on Fire is the most prominent symbol in the novel, and the symbolism surrounding the idea of a woman on fire and its connotations is the novel’s central motif. The painting itself is described as 170 centimeters in height. The central figure is a woman, a nude “blonde goddess” with “aquamarine eyes” standing in engulfing flames. The painting is colorful but is notably not described in detail, which allows readers to fill in the gaps by imagining how a blonde woman in flames could be portrayed in the Expressionist style; thus, its image is fluid and adaptable, and its meaning is interpreted differently by each figure in the novel who has seen it.
There are three characters for whom the painting is most important: Ellis, Margaux, and Jules. For Ellis, though he has never seen the painting, it represents the memory of his mother, since she was the model for it. The image of his mother on fire reflects her fate: She was murdered by the Nazis. Thus, the flames represent her torment and demise.
For Margaux, the painting serves as a memento mori of her grandmother and grandfather. The beauty of the woman amid interpretable suffering represented by the flames gave comfort to her dying grandmother, and thus, to her grieving grandfather. The painting also has a personal meaning to Margaux. Margaux sees in the woman burning passion, unrivaled beauty and sexuality, and fierce ambition, things at the core of Margaux’s view of herself and what she holds as most important in her life. At the end of the novel, Margaux’s drive and ambition result in her death at Jules’s hands. Her blood saturates the painting’s flames so that the negative aspects of a woman on fire, i.e., her flames of ambition, tie her and the painting together and make the comparison inseparable.
Lastly, while the painting itself has little meaning for Jules outside of her ambition to solve the investigation, the motif of a woman on fire represents her drive to be the best investigative journalist there is.
Adam’s Paintings of Margaux
While Margaux identifies with the woman in Engel’s painting, she is the actual subject of two of Adam’s paintings in the novel, each reflecting her in a different way. These paintings are a motif that reflects Adam’s feelings toward her at a given time, reflecting the power of art to convey emotion. The first painting appears at the end of Chapter 14. In it, Margaux is depicted nude, in heels with straps that wrap around her legs, standing atop the world. It symbolizes her sexuality as a means of dominance and her ambition to control the world—or at least her world. Adam painted it years before Jules discovered it, when he was still connected to Margaux.
In Chapter 23, Adam paints Margaux again, but this time, the painting depicts her duplicity and villainy. This painting of her receives an even briefer description than Woman on Fire: It is an “abstract composition” (256) of a woman with wild black hair, black eyes, tanned skin, and a commanding smile. She is naked except for tall black boots. Later, Adam describes Margaux as a Medusa-like figure. The emphasis on the color black in the painting symbolizes the evilness of Margaux’s personality, the nudity represents her seductive nature, and the “omnipotent smile” (256) represents her ambition and domineering nature. The black waves of hair are the abstract snakes associated with Medusa. The duplicity of Adam’s painting is the duplicity inherent in the Medusa figure: the juxtaposition of beauty and danger.
The Jules Shoe
Fashion references, and especially shoes, are a recurring motif in the narrative. The shoe that Ellis designs with Jules in mind is particularly symbolic. He wants it to meet the quality and aesthetic standards of all his other shoes, but he recognizes that a hard-working woman like Jules needs a foundation more practical and durable than the elaborate heels he typically designs. He names the design after Jules because of everything she has done for him, and he adds a subtitle to the name—“a woman on fire” (392). This adds another symbolic layer to the eponymous painting, casting it as a reflection of Jules’s ability, drive, and healthy ambition.
While much of the novel focuses on depictions of women through the medium of painting, Ellis’s shoe is a functional, tangible representation of Jules’s aesthetic and personality. Because a shoe serves as one’s literal foundation, Ellis designs the shoe to be both elegant and practical, fit for an investigative journalist who is on the move. The shoe also reflects that Jules, like Margaux, has the power to inspire art, as Ellis has never designed such a shoe before. The Jules shoe represents great ambition and creativity from Ellis, inspiring him to approach his art in new ways at the end of his life.
