Wedding Ring on a Necklace Symbol in All the Dangerous Things

What is the Wedding Ring on a Necklace?

In Stacy Willingham’s novel All the Dangerous Things, the wedding ring on a necklace is a concrete object that Isabelle Drake wears after she and Ben separate. The ring—Ben’s wedding band—is removed from her finger and strung on a chain, which she keeps tucked beneath her shirt. She touches it reflexively, especially during moments of emotional distress. The necklace is a metonym for her marriage and her identity as a wife, but its meaning shifts as the story progresses.

Where Does the Symbol Recur?

The necklace appears at key moments throughout the narrative, always in connection with Isabelle’s psychological state. For example:

After Ben’s visit to her home (Chapter Five): Ben tells Isabelle he is seeing someone new. When he leaves, she dips her hand beneath her shirt, finds the necklace, and clutches the ring. The action is automatic, a physical anchor for her pain. (Evidence: [chapter-0007-chunk-0004])
During her conversation with Waylon (Chapter Seventeen): When Waylon asks about her and Ben’s grieving process, Isabelle’s fingers hover over the ring still hidden under her shirt. She acknowledges they “handled it differently.” (Evidence: [chapter-0019-chunk-0002])
At the vigil (Chapter Ten): Ben hugs Isabelle, and she feels his other ring (the one he now wears?) push into her chest. She mentions the ring around her neck. (Evidence: [chapter-0012-chunk-0001]) The contrast between the ring on her necklace and Ben’s visible wedding ring highlights their separation.

How the Symbol’s Meaning Changes

Initially, the necklace represents Isabelle’s refusal to accept that her life with Ben is over and, more broadly, her refusal to accept that Mason may never return. She wears Ben’s ring close to her heart as a talisman of a past she desperately wants to preserve. The object is static—the ring itself never changes—but its symbolic weight evolves as Isabelle learns more about Ben’s betrayals and her own culpability.

As a marker of denial: In the early chapters, the ring symbolizes her inability to move on. She clings to the marriage even after Ben has left, just as she clings to the hope that Mason will be found alive. The necklace is a physical manifestation of her arrested grief.
As a tool of self-deception: Later, the ring becomes part of the story Isabelle tells herself. She framed Ben for Valerie’s murder, and in Chapter Sixty, she recalls planting the ring at Valerie’s house. The necklace originally symbolized her loyalty to Ben; now it becomes a prop in her own narrative of revenge. She used his ring—the very symbol of their union—to construct a false story of a violent lover’s quarrel.
As a symbol of self-awareness: By the epilogue, Isabelle has confessed everything to Waylon. She no longer needs the necklace as a crutch. The physical ring is gone (planted), and emotionally she has started to let go of the idealized version of Ben and her marriage. The symbol is thus transformed from a token of hope to one of manipulation and finally to a relic of a past she has accepted.

Connections to Characters and Themes

Character Connections

Isabelle Drake: The necklace is most intimately tied to Isabelle’s psyche. She uses it to regulate her emotions, gripping it when she feels vulnerable. The ring is a substitute for the husband she lost, but also for the son she is losing. Her sleep deprivation—a core theme—makes her more reliant on such physical anchors.
Ben Drake: Ben’s own attitude toward the ring is significant. When he visits Isabelle, he wears his wedding ring only in public, a signal of his social performance of grief. He removes it when alone with Isabelle, revealing his duplicity. Ben’s new girlfriend later becomes another iteration of the same type (dark hair, olive skin), suggesting that the ring—and the marriage—was never unique to Isabelle. (See Chapter Thirty-One, where Isabelle realizes she looks like Allison and the new girlfriend looks like her.)
Waylon Spencer: Waylon serves as the interviewer who pushes Isabelle to articulate the meaning of the ring. Her reflexive touch during their conversations forces her to confront what the ring represents: not just grief, but also her own complicity in Ben’s manipulation.
Margaret and Valerie: The necklace also echoes the theme of “replacement.” Ben’s first wife Allison wore a ring; Isabelle inherited the role; and Valerie was the mistress. The necklace highlights how women are interchangeable in Ben’s life.

Theme Connections

Insomnia and Sleep Deprivation: Isabelle’s sleep-deprived state makes her vulnerable to physical cues. The necklace is a tactile reminder that she cannot rest. Each time she touches it, she is pulled back into her obsessive loop. The theme is explored in depth in our insomnia and sleep deprivation analysis.
Guilt and Unreliable Memory: The necklace becomes part of a story Isabelle constructs—first to herself, then to the police. Her memory of events is filtered through her need to control the narrative. The ring is a tangible piece of evidence that she manipulates, just as she manipulates her own recollections. Learn more about guilt and unreliable memory.
Motherhood and Societal Pressure: Isabelle’s refusal to remove the ring mirrors society’s expectation that a mother should remain loyal to her child’s father, even after separation. She is judged for “not moving on,” and the necklace is a silent rebuke to those who think she should. This theme is central to our page on motherhood and societal pressure.
Deception and Manipulation: Both Ben and Isabelle use the ring as a tool of deception. Ben hides his ring to pretend he is available; Isabelle plants her ring to frame Ben. The object that once symbolized fidelity becomes a weapon. The full theme is covered under deception and manipulation.
Family Secrets and Cover-Ups: The ring’s journey from finger to necklace to crime scene evidence symbolizes the unraveling of secrets. The Drake family’s hidden dynamics—Ben’s affair, his role in Allison’s death, Isabelle’s framing of Ben—are all tied to this single object. For the broader context, see family secrets and cover-ups.

Study Questions with Answers

Why does Isabelle keep Ben’s ring on a necklace instead of simply removing it?
Answer: The necklace allows her to keep the ring physically close to her heart, satisfying her emotional need to remain connected to Ben and to the family they had before Mason disappeared. It is a tangible symbol of her refusal to move on: as long as she wears it, she can pretend the marriage is not over. The act of wearing it also signals to others that she is still a wife, which aligns with her identity as a mother desperately holding onto her son.
How does the ring’s role change when Isabelle plants it at Valerie’s house?
Answer: The ring shifts from a private symbol of grief to a piece of manufactured evidence in a narrative Isabelle constructs. By planting it, she transforms the ring into a prop that tells a story of a lover’s quarrel turned violent. This act shows that Isabelle has learned to weaponize symbolic objects, just as Ben once weaponized words. The ring stops being a token of love and becomes an instrument of revenge.
In what way does the necklace connect to the theme of “replacement” in Ben’s relationships?
Answer: Ben has a pattern of choosing women who resemble each other—Allison, Isabelle, and the new girlfriend all share dark hair and olive skin. The ring on the necklace originally belonged to Ben and was meant to symbolize his exclusive bond with Isabelle. Yet the pattern of replacement suggests that no woman is truly unique to Ben. The necklace, therefore, becomes ironic: it ties Isabelle to a man who sees women as interchangeable, undercutting the supposed specialness of their marriage.
What does Isabelle’s final confession about the ring reveal about her character development?
Answer: By the epilogue, Isabelle has admitted to Waylon that she planted the ring. This confession marks her transition from a woman trapped in denial to one who can acknowledge her own agency and moral compromises. She no longer needs the physical ring because she has internalized the truth about her marriage and her actions. The necklace, once a symbol of clinging to the past, is absent in the final scene; instead, Isabelle opens Mason’s nursery door, symbolizing her readiness to accept reality rather than hold onto totems of a lost life.