The main theme of this play is exploitation; exploitation by the colonial British in their ever-widening Empire, and exploitation of those with physical afflictions who ended up in sideshows. On the face of it, Sarah would seem to be exploited; after all, she is "owned" rather than living freely and independently, and she is viewed as a physical freak first by Mother Showman, who wants her as a sideshow attraction, and subsequently by Baron Docteur, who wants her as a glorified science experiment. The play demonstrates the imperialist mentality that saw people as possessions and also as money-spinners rather than as individuals, and also the mentality that saw the colonials believe themselves to be superior to the native peoples of any nation they colonized.
However, there is also another school of thought that believes the play does the polar opposite of showing the colonials as the exploiters; some scholars believe that it is Sarah herself who exploits her situation for gain; she remains in the sideshow for far longer than she has to just because she likes the fame and notoriety, and the fact that people literally travel the continent to see her in person. She manages very quickly to see how her own particular affliction can be used to take her where she wants to go and she devises a plan to exploit the colonials whom she knows to be obsessed with sideshow and freak show entertainment.
Whilst this is undoubtedly a play about exploitation, it is not easy to delineate between the exploiter and the exploited; each of the characters is exploiting the other in a particular way.
