Unusually for lesbian fiction, The Price of Salt has a relatively happy ending; nobody emerges unscathed from the events that unfold in the novel, but there is a hint that the two main characters, Therese and Carol, might ultimately get to walk off into the sunset, together, hand in hand. One of the main reasons for this is the way in which their relationship is presented in the narrative; many works of lesbian fiction written around the same time as this one seem to suggest that it is the responsibility of the homosexual couple to fit in with the rest of the world, and suffer a doomed and loveless existence because of it. This novel, however, shows a basic, human love between two lonely, damaged people, who manage to remain in love, and build a future together in spite of the circumstances and the people around them.
The narrative uses Harge to represent society and its view of lesbian women. Upon learning that his wife is a lesbian, Harge has a private detective tail her, and intends to use any evidence of homosexuality as proof that she is a bad mother. Being the man that he is, Harge would probably also have put a private detective on Carol's tail if he had suspected her of having an affair with another man; the main difference between the two scenarios is that he would use the affair with another as evidence that she was a bad wife. This small element in the story is extremely important because it shows that despite there being many sections of society who were not anti-gay, many also saw homosexuality as a corrupting influence on children, and as something that was in some ways too far from the perception of normal. As a cheating wife having a heterosexual affair, Carol might have come away from her marriage financially worse off, and with a significantly bruised spirit, but she would probably still have custody of her daughter. As a cheating wife having a homosexual affair she is seen as someone who could contribute to the moral delinquency of a minor and is therefore treated differently than she would have been had she been straight.
The novel also takes a long look at relationships in general and the emotional state of those involved in them. All of the main characters in the book are flawed in some way, Therese and Harge the most obvious examples of this. Therese was abandoned by her father when he died and abandoned by her mother after his death. At a time when she was at her most vulnerable, this feeling of abandonment embedded itself in her and was never something she was able to shake off. Her constant need to be the only significant relationship in Carol's life also shows up a flaw in Harge's argument that her relationship with Therese made her an unfit mother; when required to choose between her lover and her daughter, Carol ended her relationship with Therese and chose her daughter. This is doubly ironic because in choosing to be with Carol at the end of the novel, Therese is drawn to a mother who refuses to abandon her child, something that she has been searching for since childhood.
