Burial Rites

The customized axe that is designed for the execution of the prisoners is a representation of the impersonal nature of the justice system and capital punishment. Despite its role in ending the lives of two people, it is treated merely as a piece of hardware to be haggled over in terms of cost and ownership.

A confirmation gift Lauga received, the way it is treated in its two appearances shows the change in Agnes’s status with the Jonsson family. When she first sees it, she is scolded by Lauga and Margret for touching it. However, at the end of the story as she awaits execution, Lauga gives Agnes the brooch to take with her, symbolizing that all members of the family have accepted Agnes as their own.

For both Inga’s family and the Jonsson household, the storage house is used as a place of retreat in times of trauma. During her childhood, after Agnes lost her foster mother Inga, she would go into the cold storage house where Inga’s body was kept until spring to be with the woman she saw as her mother. Shortly before Agnes was taken to be executed, Lauga—who had the least sympathy for Agnes—was overcome with emotion herself and withdrew to the storage area to be alone and cope with her grief.