Marriage
The main theme in the play is marriage, the major characters being either married or looking for a suitable partner with whom they want to spend the rest of their lives. For the female characters in the play, marriage is synonymous with financial security while for the male characters marriage is important because it gives them a higher social status in comparison with the other men. Fidelity and love have nothing to do with marriage and the characters make it clear they are not looking for love in their marriages but are more interested in finding financial safety. In fact, for the characters who are looking to marry out of love, the ending is not a positive one, the characters often suffering as a result.
The importance of honor
While a marriage was not supposed to be born out of love and while affairs were normal, what the spouses expected was honor. This meant that the person who cheated on the parter was expected to behave in such a way as to keep the affair under wraps and secret. The characters do not care is their spouses cheat on them as long as the outside world does not find out about it. It is because of this reason why Islayev becomes interested in his wife's actions only when he realizes that her affair will become public. Thus, in an attempt to hide the affair he sends away the men with whom Natalya had any connection and may put her honor under the question mark. For Islayev the most important thing was making sure his place in society remains the same and that his wife's indiscretions will not affect his reputation.
Growing up
Two of the main characters, Vera and Beliayev, are described in the beginning of the play as still being children. As the play progresses, the characters grow up to the point where at the end of the play they are seen as full-grown adults by those around them. The coming of age process is an extremely painful for the characters, the two being forced to come to terms with the deceit and the betrayal associated with the process of growing up. Consequently, at the end of the play, the ideal view the characters had about adulthood is all but destroyed and they are left feeling bitter and betrayed.
