Betrayal
Ben, Oscar, and Regina are the devious Hubbard siblings. They exhibit an outward attitude of Southern gentility towards one another, but underneath their polished exteriors, they are always scheming, grabbing for anything that will raise their bank accounts. Oscar has married Birdie in order to claim her family's land. Ben, the oldest brother, is in charge of the decisions and ensures that he gets the highest gain regardless of who gets less, even cutting Regina out in the process. The play deals with characters betraying their families and deviating from common decency in order to procure more: more land, more money, more status.
Money
The force driving all of the betrayals and greed in the play is money. The main incident in the play is the fact that Ben, Oscar, and Regina are attempting to finalize a deal with a Chicago businessman to build a mill. They are all primarily motivated by money, the desire for it, the promise that it will bring them prosperity and happiness, and nothing can steer them away from their lust for wealth. In a horrifying revelation towards the end of the play, Regina tells her dying husband, Horace, that she had hoped he would make more money than he did, and that the only consolation is the fact that he will die soon. The play looks at the ways that money corrupts people's sense of goodness and turns them into grasping monsters.
The South after the Civil War
Lillian Hellman paints a vivid portrait of the American South after the Civil War. The South portrayed in the play is a wilted one, a region that was once prosperous and buoyed by slavery and mega-wealth, but that has now lost its luster. The Hubbards are seeking to get ahead in this economy by building a cotton mill, while characters like Birdie, an aristocratic Southerner who grew up on a prosperous plantation, looks back at the antebellum South with nostalgia. Throughout the play, we learn that the Hubbards have gotten rich by cheating black Southerners out of money and bleeding the resources from their own community. The economic precariousness of the South is a defining theme in the play.
Sensitivity
While the Hubbards are ruthless when it comes to business and personal relations, the meek Birdie and the kind-hearted Alexandra are two sensitive souls in a community of sharks. They play the piano and behave kindly towards one another. Birdie reminisces time and time again about how kind people were at Lionett, the plantation where she grew up, and she has been driven to drink by the cruelty of her husband and his ruthlessness. In contrast to the greed and betrayal acted out by the Hubbards is the sensitivity and gentleness of Birdie and Alexandra.
Corruption
The play is not only about greed and betrayal, but the ways that greed can corrupt the love shared between individuals. Regina's relationship with her husband and her daughter are both ruined by the fact that she is willing to do whatever it takes to secure a prosperous future for herself. She sacrifices the trust of those she loves for the pursuit of money, and this is a corrupting force, something that isolates her and tears her life apart.
Male Dominance
While Regina is no doubt a villainous and ruthless character, her greed is motivated by something entirely distinct from her brothers Ben and Oscar. As the only daughter of the Hubbard clan, she was not left any inheritance after her father's death. Additionally, while she is clearly a savvy businesswoman, she is completely financially dependent on her husband, and has no control over her fate or her future. She is hardly a sympathetic character, but when we consider her lack of autonomy and the ways that she has less control than the men around her, we can begin to understand what is fueling her ambition and greed.
Selfishness
The Hubbards' main sin is their selfishness, their conviction that they ought to think only of themselves and not of the people around them. This is true interpersonally, but it is also true on a socioeconomic level. As we learn, the Hubbards' various business ventures have done damage to the economy and the wellness of the town, but they are remorseless because they think only of themselves. In Act 2, Oscar says that "it is every man's duty to think of himself," and it is this individualism and self-serving attitude that makes the Hubbards such horrible villains in the play.
