MacbethWilliam Shakespeare
Blood appears in almost every scene after the murder.
It begins as literal blood on hands, becomes a stain that will not wash, and ends as a way of saying 'murderer' without saying it.
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Symbolism
An object that carries meaning beyond itself — but only because the work has spent effort making it carry that weight. A symbol is not a code word; it is a thing the story keeps returning to.
How to spot it
Look for the object that appears at a moment of change, and notice whether the characters themselves react to it.
Why writers use it
So that a single image can hold a whole argument without the writer having to state it.
In the texts
The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald
The green light at the end of Daisy's dock.
Hope, distance and money at once. By the final page it has become the American future itself — always receding.
Wuthering HeightsEmily Brontë
Windows and thresholds between the two houses.
Every intrusion across a window is a violation of someone's interior life, which is why the ghosts keep asking to be let in.
Common misread
Do not decode one-for-one. If the symbol has a single fixed meaning, it is an emblem, not a symbol.