Extinguished and dying candles Symbolism
Extinguished or guttering candles in art signal mortality and the end of a life’s span; a snuffed flame stands for a life just ended or about to end. They frequently mark a threshold moment, casting scenes as rites of passage from earthly presence toward the spiritual or unknown.
Extinguished and dying candles in The Lady of Shallot
In John William Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shallot (1888), extinguished candles accompany the heroine at the instant she releases her chain and sets her black, coffinlike boat adrift. Paired with the small crucifix and the tapestry trailing into the water, the dead flames frame the scene as a funerary voyage toward Camelot, anticipating the life that is ebbing as she chooses experience over enclosure.
