Living In A Boarding Symbol
Ernest, and most other people of the era, believed that nice girls didn't live in boarding houses. In this book, living in a boarding house was a symbol of questionable morals in a young woman.
Spiritual Searching Motif
Christianity is a theme of the book and one of the motifs is Ernest's journey from religion that is imposed upon him, to orthodoxy as a young man, to heterodoxy in middle age. Throughout the book, he is searching for something that he seems unable to find in any religion, although Christianity seems to tick more of the boxes for him than any other religion does.
Benefits of Hard Work Motif
The benefits of hard work are expounded from the vey start of the book. The motif acts as an introduction to John Pontifex, who is Ernest's great grandfather. John is a man who works hard and makes the most of the talents that he has, working several "side hustles" outside of his profession as a carpenter. Success is seen as the natural outcome of working hard throughout the book, even in the case of Ernest himself.
Towneley Symbol
Towneley is not really a fully developed character but is more of a symbol of the kind of person for whom everything just falls into place and who is comfortable in whichever environment they find themselves in. He is also symbolic of the kind of person Butler despises for always conforming to the status quo of society whilst being at the forefront of the development of it.
Anglicanism Symbol
To Ernest, Anglicanism is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the church in general, and Victorian society in particular. which he viewed as deeply hypocritical and almost childish in its insistence that what it said was what everyone was obliged to believe. Anglicanism to Ernest symbolized a child with its hands over its ears chanting "la la la, I can't hear you" in its way of ignoring basic science and logic just for the sake of being right.
