The modern woman
The main theme of the story is a modern woman and her destiny. The author depicts the strong and independent woman who has a tough life: her parents are dead, she moves to the big city and she needs money to live on. She works really hard, cares about her younger brother and there is no one to care about her. The man she loves and wants to live the whole life with is marrying another woman, her best friend dies and she stays completely alone. She is miserable, and all that is left for her is work. But she will get through it, because she is a personality, she has her goals and she will achieve them. Her fortune is not easy, but it was not supposed to be easy, all troubles just make her stronger, she can’t be with her lover but she knows that he loves her, and that is enough for her.
Unfortunate love
Mary Erne has an experience in the question of unfortunate love. The first time she fell in love was when she was 19: “He was young, he was poor, there were difficulties of every sort to content with, and finally there was a parting, one warm, windy night in November”. It was really hard time for the young girl, but she got over it. Then Mr. Hemming appeared, the old friend of her father, good looking, with old-fashioned manners, and extremely charming, but, for the irony of life, there also were a parting, and unlike her first lover, Vincent came back. But they couldn’t be together, because he was engaged with another woman. Mary was betrayed, but soon she will get over it too, because she “lives for herself”.
Woman self-realization
Mary works as a journalist in a newspaper. She has to work hard to have the job, her editor says: “If you take my advice, Miss Erle, and cultivate your talents in a right way, you will be able to make a comfortable income”. She is talented, she writes the book, but she can’t publish it because the editor says that the society won’t understand some of her ideas. It’s ridiculous; she can’t realize her great potential because people don’t want to read about the life as it is. In fact, Mary has no choice but to obey because she doesn’t want to lose her job.
