Wealth and Financial status
The question of wealth and economical conditions makes up the bulk of the most prominent theme in the novel. The whole story, in fact, is closely linked and conditioned by the financial situation and monetary ambitions of the characters, who are divided, in these respects, into three categories. The first category includes Jasper Milvain and Amy Reardon among others, and consists of characters to whom money and opulence are a goal and a must. The second is made of characters, who are indifferent to money and its effects, like Edwin Reardon and Harold Biffen. The third category includes such characters as Alfred Yule; namely people who know and appreciate the value of money just to struggle with the bitterness of not possessing it.
Death
The book features a number of deep questions and existential themes such as death. Death is a recurrent subject matter which takes many and different shapes throughout the story. For some characters, it is salvation. Amy Reardon, for instance, had come to her inheritance through the death of her uncle, and was later on freed from a conflicted marriage by the death of her husband. For other characters, however, death means evasion and escape. The latter faction is the one thoroughly studied through the novel. Biffen, for one, had ended his life because he did not seem to find any other alternative or motivation to go on living. And yet, his case seems a little nobler than that of Reardon, who had repeatedly wished for death or fantasized about suicide just because he was not capable of facing the hardships in his own life.
Failure and Existential Conflicts
Gissing’s masterpiece is loaded with examples of existential conflicts arising from failure and the individual’s inability to accept it. The most prominent among these, in all likelihood, is the case of Edwin Reardon whose mortification, following his literary decline, had led him toward a crisis he could never recover from. Thus, the novel emphasizes such concepts as epiphany and existential awakenings, with a subtle warning that these are necessary components for self-affirmation, yet very dangerous threats when not dealt with the right way.
Social status
Social ostracism is another eminent theme in the novel. The first instance of such discrimination comes with the literary decline of Edwin Reardon. This event had dragged him gradually down the abyss of financial destitution, where his name and former fame were lost and forgotten for good. Another example is that of Harold Biffen who was ignored and quarantined by society for the sole reason of not having had a noble birth. These two characters, and the treatment they have received at the hands of their community, emphasize the attitude of the late 19th century English society towards the poor, which consisted mainly of separation and isolation. The late-Victorian aristocracy willingly chose to look the other way when it was a question of the poor and lower classes, their conditions, and dreadful fate. Accordingly, social ascendency had become a crucial matter for characters like Jasper Milvain and Amy Reardon who understood clearly the importance of belonging to the upper classes one way or another.