The cabinet is the novel's central symbol, representing Nella’s life. When Johannes first presents the dollhouse as a wedding gift, Nella feels the cabinet highlights everything she lacks. The replica of her home reminds Nella that Marin remains mistress of the full-scale house, while Nella is left to “play” with its miniature. Johannes’s declaration that he has bought the cabinet for his wife’s “education” also suggests that he does not perceive her as a mature adult. The extravagant gift seems to mock Nella’s powerlessness and inability to understand what is happening in her home.

As Nella’s character evolves, the cabinet proves to be an educational tool, but not as Johannes intended. As the miniaturist sends miniatures to fill the cabinet, Nella uncovers the secrets of her household and gains greater agency. For Nella, the cabinet becomes a metaphor for the way the miniaturist opens her life’s “compartments and let[s] [her] look inside” (372). The protagonist’s destruction of the dollhouse toward the end of the novel signals that she has learned everything she needs from it.

Observation is a recurring motif in The Miniaturist. While Nella observes the members of the Brandt household, listening at doors and spying through keyholes, the miniaturist watches Nella and the other women of Amsterdam.