Symbolism is one of the most effective literary devices in writing.  Authors use it to help readers relate personally to a piece, and shed light on deeper, more intellectual, meanings in their work.   Symbols come in many different forms.  It is the author’s responsibility to provide context clues that help the reader understand how to interpret symbols in their writing.   Typically, symbols require additional readings to be fully understood.  In the sonnet “Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room”, William Wordsworth uses symbolism to communicate to the reader that the consuming, monotonous jobs of daily life give life purpose.

Nuns pray alone for hours in the confines of their convent, hermits spend their lives in seclusion, avoiding human contact, and diligent students study in isolation until the early hours of the morning.  These situations paint pictures of extensive time passing in isolation, consumed by hours of tedious work.  Wordsworth creates this image in the first three of his sonnet to symbolize the jobs of everyday people.  A full time job demands the attention of an individual for the majority of their day, leaving them exhausted and drained of motivation at day’s end.  By using these three situations to symbolize everyday workers, he intensifies the confinement and solidarity that comes with the average full time job.  The symbolism of daily jobs in the first three lines of the poem, assures that the reader is visualizing the environment that Wordsworth intended, making it possible for him to convey his message later on in the sonnet.

Wadsworth uses the symbolism to relate the lifestyle of humans to that of bees.  Bees are known to work mindlessly, continuously, and tirelessly throughout the day.  Yesterday is like today and tomorrow will be the same in the life of a bee.  The majority of bees perform the same job day in and day out, needing to know only one task in order to make the hive thrive.  Wordsworth uses bees in his sonnet to symbolize people consumed by their job.  He writes, “Maids at the wheel, the weaver at this loom, sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom” (Wordsworth 65).  The only thing that bees are concerned with, in this context, is the flower in bloom.  The flower in bloom symbolizes the sole objective of the maid, weaver, nun, student, and hermit.  This one task demands the entirety of their attention and restricts the freewill and open-mindedness that comes with human nature. By describing the maid, the weaver, and the other workers mentioned previously, in comparison with the bee, the author makes obvious that a day in the life of a bee, is not too different than that of a common worker.  An every day worker wakes up in the morning, prepares for the day, goes to work to perform what is expected and required until it is time to go home.  After looking at a generalized workday, it’s clear that a bee’s day of work is almost identical.  Although the comparison between these two lives implies that the repetition of a job is inescapable, one has to consider that in order for a hive to be survive and be productive, every bee must do their part.   The overall comparison of a bee’s life to that of the worker strengthens the message that although jobs are be repetitive and tedious, they’re important for the wellbeing of the individual and society.

 Symbolism is imperative to communicate the meaning of the sonnet to the reader.  The use of symbolism in the octave of the sonnet is groundwork for Wordsworth’s main idea, “In truth the prison, unto which we doom ourselves, no prison is” (Wordsworth 65).  In this quote Wordsworth introduces the work’s most important symbol, the prison.  Normally prison implies confinement, solidarity, seclusion, and a strict day-to-day routine.  All of the characteristics of a prison coincide with the mental image Wordsworth has been painting throughout the sonnet.  The actions of the nun, hermit, student, maid, and weaver are all symbols of the prison in which the everyday working class is trapped.  The reader sees these people trapped in extremely repetitive and tedious lives, but is blind to the fact that these jobs symbolize a prison until this quote.  The prison that Wordsworth uses to represent daily routine is not as confining as the reader initially believes.  He uses the Italian sonnet’s strict rhyme scheme to symbolize a prison into which he is himself trapped.  By finessing his words around the rules of the rhyme scheme, he demonstrates that the confinement to this prison is not as confining as an actual prison.  His cleverness proves that all people exist in this prison, and that the prison actually represents the career of an individual.  By using a prison as a symbol for work, the reader can reach the deeper meaning of Wordsworth’s message; one’s job is not a limitation but instead a way in which life can develop meaning.

In the closing of his sonnet, Wordsworth explains that the prison the working class is kept in is important rather than dangerous.  Living in this prison of routine gives life meaning.  The workers mentioned earlier work for something greater than themselves.  The nun, the hermit, and the student all work diligently in their “prisons”.  Nuns devote hours to God, hermits work to avoid human interaction for their satisfaction, and students know that diligent and devoted hours of study produce results.  Wordsworth encourages those, “who have felt the weight of too much liberty” to search for a purpose in life and rid themselves of their boredom (65).  By doing so, people will find purpose in the form of work. 

Throughout “Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room”, symbolism plays a large part in the communication of the main idea to the reader.  Wordsworth’s use of symbolism helps him create a visual image for the reader that facilitates the interpretation of the sonnet later on.  The continuous use of symbolism makes the delivery of the main idea much more understandable and relatable for the reader.  Overall, Wordsworth’s use of symbolism helps him convey the importance of work in order to give life meaning.
