A word, phrase, or image that recurs several times throughout the work, tied to a character or an idea, and gains meaning with each return.
In The Red and the Black
When Fouqué summoned the courage to look, she had placed, on a small marble table before her, Julien's head, and was kissing it on the forehead…
Julien's head, kissed by Mathilde, closes the image of the severed head that goes back to the legend of Boniface de La Mole, and this final return gives the legend its meaning, that of love made in the face of death.