Clockwork Angel

The clockwork angel is a symbol of Tessa’s identity. The pendant was a gift from her mother and is one of the only items she retains when she is captured by the Dark Sisters at the start of the novel. As clockwork devices become synonymous with the novel’s antagonists, it seems like the clockwork angel could potentially be dangerous, just as Tessa’s warlock powers could become dangerous if misused. The clockwork angel saves Tessa’s life during the battle at the Institute and returns to her possession at the end of the novel, demonstrating that Tessa’s identity—a combination of her mother and a demon—is her own. The clockwork angel also connects to the human vs. monster motif: Though the clockwork automatons deployed by the Magister are evil, the clockwork angel indicates that the automatons are not inherently evil; rather, the evil lies in the ends to which they are used.

Yanluo is a symbol of the English-run opium business in China during the late 1800s. Yanluo is the demon who killed Jem’s parents in Shanghai and tortured Jem with demonic poison. Jem connects Yanluo’s invasion of his home and use of the poison to the way the British created an opium addiction crisis in China. Jem explains that “Shanghai, [his] city, is built on opium. It wouldn’t exist as it does without it” (339). Similarly, Jem would not have survived after his torture and imprisonment if he did not continue to take the demonic poison that Yanluo forced on him. Like people with opium addictions, Jem is also judged for his dependency by his peers even though it is not his fault, and even though he has it well-managed. The fact that the Shadowhunters blame Jem for the result of his own torture reflects the way that Chinese people with opium addictions were blamed for the scourge introduced by British imperialists—and the way that today those with opioid addictions are blamed for a crisis created by pharmaceutical companies.

The dichotomy between human and monster is a motif repeated across Clockwork Angel. At the start of the novel, Tessa categorizes everyone she meets into two groups: humans and monsters. As she meets Shadowhunters, Silent Brothers, vampires, and warlocks, her categories become confused. Tessa wrestles with her own identity as a half-human, half-demon warlock and confesses to Jem that she does not know how to think about herself if she is not human. Over time, she learns that supernatural creatures, what Tessa would initially have called monsters, have love and relationships, which makes Tessa reconsider thinking of them as something “not human.” In turn, humans are capable of monstrous behavior: the Magister, the source of the evil the Shadowhunters are trying to stop, is the human being Axel Mortmain. Automatons provide a foil to supernatural beings and mundanes (non-magical humans): They are inhuman because they cannot feel or act for themselves. As tools, they are inherently neither good nor evil.