Once again we find Charles' sympathy focusing on things (his stare at the cracked
urn is highlighted twice), and Emily's focusing on people. Observe that Charles
is unable to finish the phrase which would have expressed his human feeling, and
at that precise moment the sympathetic response in Emily is released, with tears
included, as if she understands that he requires her to do his feeling for him
(see "the best of my feelings are in your keeping" ).
Symbolically, Emily's sunshade represents her own dream-ideal, which falls aside
at the full realization of the death, but her dedication to Charles is made under
another shade: that of her hat, decorated with roses. Meanwhile, Charles' stressed
focus on the urn almost insists aloud on a larger meaning to the prop; it is clearly
suggesting to him the first stirrings of his vast ambition of national material
reclamation.