The novel showed several themes but the most important theme is the social status of men and women. The sub themes are living up with the codes and values such as loyalty, duty, order and tradition.
If we compare the situation of men and women of the past to the men and women of today, we can say that people in the past exercise less freedom. In the novel, women are not free in a sense they cannot go out of their nut shells. Their duty is to be a wife to their husbands, mother to their children and knows how to keep a good home. They must be sexually innocent, they cannot exercise the freedom to file a divorce against their husbands because it will be a disgrace not only to their names but also to their family and not expected to have affairs with others. Two characters in the novel shows contrast to each other. May possesses all the above mentioned traits while Ellen tries to break the norm of the society that why in the novel she maybe characterized as free lady for she chooses to break some of the norms. Men also have restrictions. They are to work and thats it. A social status can be determined with the kind of job you have that will recognize you if you belong to the elite or the unsuccessful ones.
The code says, women should be faithful to their husbands and men can have affair with anybody. This discrimination amongst women is evidently unacceptable. Newland became unfaithful to May but she remains faithful to her husband at the end. The essence of the code speaks for the two characters. Example of a code is the code of ignorance. It is when May is already aware of his husbands unfaithfulness she pretended that she doesnt know anything because women should be innocent yet they are being ignorant.
There are a lot of values that were shown in the book. In loyalty, Newland was loyal to Mays family by defending them against the gossips of the two gentlemen because he felt it is part of his responsibility to protect them because he will later on be married to May. As a friend, Lawrence Lefferts asked Newland to cover him or lie so that he could have another affair. Loyal as a friend was shown. Duties are to be faced with full responsibilities. Like what Newland did, when he found out the May is pregnant, he didnt turned his back on his duty to be a father to his child and to be a husband to the soon-to-be-mother of his child even if he is in love with Ellen. Traditions are very important especially to strict families. Through the traditions, it is a way on passing on the family values from one generation to the next generation. Order is epitomized by the repetition of certain rituals.
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