Downturned torch

Meaning

Phrase.

The downturned torch is a funerary attribute carried by two children at Trubert’s civic lying-in-state. Through Gamelin’s eyes it recalls spirits of love and death on Roman sarcophagi. The next glimpse of Joséphine, punished for dirtying the funeral dress, returns the idealised emblem to an actual vulnerable child. The adjective describes the torch’s orientation, not a political overthrow.