Themes

Desire the desire copied, along the thread that runs through the work, and the ball as poison in Part I - The Ball as Poison. Dream and Fantasy life of others lived by proxy in Part I - The Ball as Poison, the opera in Part II, chs. 9-15 - Mediocrity Exposed, and the imagined lover in Part III, chs. 1-6 - Romanticism Becomes Accounting. Money and Wealth the bill that comes due in money, in the thread that runs through the work, and debt as a silent narrator in Part III, chs. 1-6 - Romanticism Becomes Accounting and Part III, chs. 7-11 - The Triumph of Homais. Marriage the marriage to Charles in Part I - The Ball as Poison and adultery as a clandestine marriage in Part III, chs. 1-6 - Romanticism Becomes Accounting. Language and Narration the borrowed vocabulary of love and the agricultural show in Part II, chs. 1-8 - The Show and the Seduction, and free indirect style in Part I - The Ball as Poison. Religion faith as sensation in Part I - The Ball as Poison, the church that does not listen in Part II, chs. 1-8 - The Show and the Seduction, and the duel of quotations at the wake in Chapter 9 of Part III. Love disordered love, and love learned from books in Part I - The Ball as Poison.