The Symbolic Importance of Maria's Home in Nights of Cabiria

The heartbreak of Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria comes from the duality and opposition of the world Cabiria lives in and the one she desires to be a part of. Despite Cabiria’s career as a “woman of the night”, Cabiria just craves happiness, acceptance, and love. Cabiria’s fundamental human needs are uncomplicated. She roams the seedy street of roaming searching for herself and is greeted with cruelty, false hope, and hollowness. Cabiria feels like an outsider wherever she goes. She feels vast emotional disconnections between her and her clients and even within her own kind. Her fellow prostitutes ridicule her for wanting more for her future in a sophomoric manner. Her yearning for a better life is a result of her treatment in society, but comes off as childlike innocence, which we can see directly symbolized in the Cabiria’s home. 

Cabiria lives in a cinder block home; sturdy, strong yet isolated and sheltering. Cabiria has her walls up physically and emotionally throughout the movie. We can see this early into the film when Wanda tries to comfort Cabiria inside the cinder block home, but Cabiria resists opening up about her true situation. Cabiria’s alienation from society plays a major role in her character development and arc. Cabiria emotionally quarantines herself, which is an inexperienced and innocent way to handle tough situations; it is how an adolescent would face adversity. The cinder block home is simple in its design, another way Felinni represents her in a naive light. 

Nights of Cabiria features many long, tracking, and close-up shots of Cabiria. By doing a careful job of not framing her with other characters except when absolutely necessary, Fellini is able to send subliminal messages to the audience that Cabiria is extremely cut off from society and shut in her own mind.