Complicated Shadows is a painting which examines how moral principles may upon times become a prison unto themselves; for example, when too good becomes no good. The Satyr symbolizes temptation and the guilty pleasures of sin, as a bizarre foetus lays in her womb and is the fruit of wrongful indulgence. Though lacking in purity of origin, the mother and child image acts as a symbol of love and nurturing, while the scapegoat off in the distance is a token attempt at salvaging that which has long since run afoul. Vice challenges Virtue, forcing Virtue to adopt Vice in order to prevail, in a complicated balance of competing forces.