First Street With Pale Yellow Paint
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| First Street's Egyptian Keyhole Doorway |
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First Street's Egyptian Keyhole Doorway Up Close |
The symbolism of the doorway and the thirteen torment Michael Curry throughout The Witching Hour, though Rowan repeatedly advises him to forget about their meaning. Rowan herself learns partially their meaning, but doesn't learn their full meaning until it is too late.
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Detail of the Front Door From the Original Plans 1 |
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| Detail of the Front Door From the Original Plans 2 |
The Doorway
Doorways are what we enter and leave places through. The
symbolism of the doorway in the Mayfair series can be partially
interpreted as Lasher's means of entering the world. Indeed,
though Carlotta did despicable things to Rowan's forebears, she was
right when she told Rowan that Lasher wanted to "be like us."
In order for this to happen, Lasher needs a doorway by which to
enter the world.
The question throughout The Witching Hour was, what was the
doorway? The builder of the Mayfair Crypt must have been
instructed by one of the previous witches to put the bas-relief of
the keyhole doorway on the tomb. Since Lasher claimed to have
put the ideas for the First Street house in Katherine's head, it was
probably Lasher who indicated the crypt should have a doorway on
it. Putting the doorway on the crypt was probably meant to be
a covert way on Lasher's part of indicating his plan. He
certainly had no intention of bluntly telling his witches what he
really wanted as they could have thwarted him through their own free
will.
Of all the witches, Stella Mayfair might have come the closest to
understanding what the doorway and the thirteen meant. She
understood Lasher wanted to "come through" and understood that it
would take thirteen witches to do it. She just didn't know
which thirteen would be the ones to bring him through, though she
was most decidely one of them. Her parties may also have been
a way to kick up enough noise to distract and confuse Lasher as
Marie-Claudette had done.
The Number 13
The number 13 has had many associations over time, many of them
ill. In Roman times, the number 13 was associated with bad
omens, which is how it is used in the Lives of the Mayfair
Witches. Hints and clues at the thirteen are all over, most
notably the Mayfair Crypt - twelve crypts, one doorway. The
principle characters - Rowan, Michael, Aaron Lightner, and Rowan's
forebears - spend a great deal of time trying to interpret it's
meaning, knowing it is not good.
Once again, Wikipedia has something to say on the subject of the
number 13. Below is a link to their page, where you may read
further on it.
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The Emerald Key From Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches
