Motherhood
The protagonist is excited to become a mother when she marries her husband. The relationship occurs in a particularly low point in her life, however, and she isn't prepared for the emotional trauma which her resulting pregnancy incurs. As soon as she starts thinking about the baby, she remembers the abortion she had as a teenager. She still loves the guy she was dating back them. When she learned that she was pregnant the first time, she panicked and got the abortion without talking to him about it. He was outraged over her selfishness and heartbroken over losing his child, so he left her. This most recent pregnancy stirs up all those old feelings from the first time, and the woman starts to suffer from extreme anxiety and depression. She believes that she'll be a horrible mother because she doesn't deserve to be one now. She cannot justify the abortion to herself these days. Since she refuses to open up to her husband, she suffers silently, and they drift further apart. She does in fact love her daughter when she's born, but she still cannot forgive herself. Unconsciously she punishes the child for existing, a constant reminder of her own past failures as a mom.
Guilt
The woman never really accepts the severity of her abortion all those years ago. She's never found piece about it all, so she's consumed by guilt. When she starts dating the man she later marries, she knows that she's still in love with her ex, but for all she knows he could be dead. She doesn't do the honest thing and tell her husband how she's feeling. Instead she bottles it all up inside and refuses to ever really try and be emotionally intimate with him. Knowing that that's what she's doing, she feels even more guilty. It's a cruel cycle, one which she never really escapes. She brings these powerful guilt motivators into her marriage and consequently parents her daughter with them.
Intimacy Issues
Intimacy issues are seen in all three of the relationships illustrated in this book. Firstly, the protagonist and her ex do not do their due diligence in communicating in their relationship. They allow each other to drift so far that she feels she can't explain to him how unprepared she feels to be a mother, and she gets an abortion without talking to him. For his part, the ex freaks out when she tells him. He says some things that no person would be ok hearing, and he leaves her forever. Another example is the downstairs couple. They have a tumultuous dating life before moving in together. Unable to successfully adapt to their more domestic lifestyle now, they push each other away constantly. Each is blaming the other for keeping them trapped in this apartment, so they fight all the time. They fight, but they don't communicate well because neither is willing to be really, painfully honest with the other. Finally, the protagonist and her husband do not have an emotionally healthy marriage either. She brings all her baggage into the relationship but is unwilling to address it with him. He marries her anyway because he loves her, but he starts resenting her silence pretty quickly.
Surveillance and Paranoia
Ware includes a running theme of paranoia of surveillance throughout the work. The most striking example is the sci-fi story "Touch Sensitive" in which scientists from the future analyze the energy of the apartment building to predict the potential end of the second-floor couple's relationship. What that has to do with the rest of the story is a mystery, but it's a nice touch. Pair that perspective with the landlady's nosiness, and you've got a recipe for paranoia. The tennants all feel like they must protect their privacy at all costs. The protagonist is particularly susceptible to these feelings of paranoia because of her tender mental state. Troubled by guilt and intense depression -- hopelessness, -- she feels as if the entire world is waiting for her to make a mistake. She brings this attitude into her marriage, too, refusing to be honest and open with her husband for fear of judgement.
