The Portrait
The huge framed portrait of Laura is the central symbol of the film, of course. The painting is Laura frozen forever as the idealized image that Lydecker had of her. The painting is also the idealize image that McPherson has constructed of the dead woman he’s fallen in love with. In a profoundly symbolic way, the portrait of Laura is actually a symbolic prefiguring of her death.
The Clocks
The identical grandfather clocks in the homes of Lydecker and Laura symbolizes their relationship. That relationship is more intellectual than romantic and is marked by time from the beginning due not only to Lydecker’s considerable advancement in age over the younger woman, but due the countdown of the inevitable moment when a romance will come between them. The clock also has a secret compartment which is symbolically evidence enough, but it is the hollowness of the compartment within the overall construction that is even more representative of their bond.
The Shotgun
Lydecker gets the idea for using a shotgun to murder Laura from a column he wrote about a previous crime. In this instance, the shotgun symbolizes Lydecker’s detachment from normal social interaction; he is also one step removed from real contact. This also explains how the shotgun symbolizes to a man like Lydecker the sort of low class weapons a rube from the sticks like Shelby Carpenter would use to commit murder thus working as a dual weapon: he will frame Shelby for the crime. The devastating effects of a shotgun blast to the face also symbolizes Lydecker’s desire to wipe Laura’s memory completely from his consciousness and the fact that he didn’t actually shoot it off in Laura’s face thematically explains why he cannot forget her.
McPherson's Baseball Game
To calm himself while on a case, McPherson carries around a little pocket game with the image of a baseball game on it in which the object is to get the tiny little balls into the tiny little holes. As a symbol of what McPherson does for a living it is better than perfect; it is sublime. A detective’s job is to fill in the holes to solve the puzzle of the mystery. On a certain level, detective work is like a game that ultimately is either won or lost. The choice of baseball reflects a game where teamwork is essential, but victory or defeat can turn on one individual member’s play.
Laura Hunt
Laura’s very name endows her with the allegorical meaning of her utilization as symbol: all the men in the story on their own particular “Laura hunt.” Allegorically speaking, this makes Laura the ideal woman that all men (and not necessarily just heterosexual men, either, as Lydecker demonstrates) seek for whatever purpose or ends they desire. But it is not Laura Hunt who is the ideal; it is the portrait of Laura that is the ideal. The real Laura is bound to disappoint and the hunt for the next Laura will continue.
