The theme of female emancipation is again of concern here but does not fare well. The only female who ends very happily is the one who completely submerges herself in motherhood and the dominance of her sexually powerful husband. It is the end rung on the ladder of descent for females begun in The Return to Peyton Place (1959). The few women who do achieve a measure of freedom do so at a great cost both to themselves and to their families, and they become unpleasant persons in the process. Clearly the way to happiness is subjugation.
The past takes on increasing importance since one's past, in this case an alien one, determines one's present.
The grip of the past is an iron one, however, and the structure of the novel is dominated by.....
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