Patriarchy
The imagery of patriarchy defines Effi's life. In this case, it isn't just an oppressive force that conquers and dominates—rather, Effi actually longs for it. To her, patriarchy seems like a kind of safety net of authority and order that will take the emotional pressure off of herself. She comes into marriage hoping that her husband will provide an emotional stability to her life that she doesn't provide herself. He isn't very emotionally intrigued by her moods, and their marriage turns out to be cold and sterile. From that position, she sees the other side of patriarchal imagery; she feels trapped in a giant house that intimidates her with her husband's focus always occupied by business and money.
Isolation and ghosts
Seeing as she struggles with feelings of abandonment and emotional rejection in her own marriage, Effi claims to see ghosts. Baron Geert says she is only feigning insanity for attention, or else she really is insane. In reality, the ironic truth is that she is emotionally in need of comfort and attention that should be hers in any healthy marriage. When her husband proves that he will not be emotional companion to her, she begins seeking companionship in other ways. When Crampas gives her attention, she decides she is willing to trade sex for that attention.
Forbidden love and salvation
To Effi, she felt she was dying until she took a bite of forbidden fruit. By having an affair, she experiences joy and excitement in her desert of emotional famine and death (remember she feels literally haunted by the dead). This gift of life corresponds to the birth of a daughter which is Geert's, she thinks, but might also be Crampas's. This forbidden love has the makings of paradise, but it leads to death, because it doesn't have the stability that would protect it. Geert discovers the affair and slays Crampas. He takes the daughter away from Effi and leaves Effi to die of shame.
Doom and death
The final imagery of the novel is the slow decline of Effi's mental health toward death. She fails so drastically that her own parents, having long abandoned her, readopt her into their home, recognizing that she is no longer emotionally or mentally fit to live alone. She experiences a doom unto death, like the ghosts from her isolation are finally winning. She declines into emotions from childhood, apologizing and hoping to be accepted (even by a terrible husband), falling into spells of deep untethered emotion (like an infant), and then being un-born from life by dying.
