Literature and Life
The most important relationship in I for Isobel is perhaps not between Isobel and another character, but between Isobel and her books. This relationship is dynamic, perhaps as dynamic and unpredictable as life itself, as Isobel moves from author to author and genre to genre without really circling back to any single volume as her prime interest. Literature also gives Isobel ways of coping with life: it is her escape from her mother's dismissive treatment on her birthday, and it leads her to the "special group" that sustains her as she adapts to being an independent young woman. Yet by the end of the book that bears her name, Isobel has found ways to make literature more than a source of solace or support. As a writer, she will transmute her life into literature itself.
The Problem of Social Acceptance
Isobel faces several opportunities to fit into stable communities, from the church- and parish-based community of her youth to the more informal community of Mrs Bowers' boarding house. However, after initial adaptations—the grace that Isobel experiences as a child, the goodwill that she at first earns from the other boarders—she soon finds that she is incapable of leaving behind her bookish, independent identity for the sake of social norms. In establishing Isobel as incapable of fitting in (or unwilling to fit in), I for Isobel presents a community that is tailor-made to Isobel's intellectual and literary aspirations, the "special group" of young people. Nonetheless, Isobel disappears from even this group, demonstrating once again that conformity may be too much of a burden for her to tolerate.
Family Discord
Among the most memorable and unpleasant aspects of the first three chapters of I for Isobel is the consistently tense, intermittently violent relationship between Isobel and her mother May. The contact between these two characters signals one of the more unsettling themes of the novel: the idea that family, rather than providing the refuge or solace that would be hoped for from the bonds of kinship and a shared home, can be a source of irresoluble conflict. This sense of family discord emerges early in the novel with the birthday disagreements between Isobel and her mother, and is only reinforced as other relationships enter the narrative. Margaret and May's differences over Twelfth Night, the violent scene between Isobel's parents, and May's deep-seated rancor towards Aunt Noelene are all further manifestations of the idea that family is at best a burden and at worst a source of tumult.
Romantic Disappointment
Although the young adult Isobel has the opportunity to pursue romantic relationships, she does not find a form of romantic or erotic contact that is genuinely satisfying. Her fizzled romance with Trevor becomes a source of unease; her contact with Michael, though sexual in nature, is so fleeting and antagonistic that it cannot really be classified as a relationship. Perhaps the ultimate sign of Isobel's disappointment with romance is her creation of a fantasy lover, Joseph, whom she contemplates even as an adult. Yet the problematic state of Isobel's love life is eventually contrasted with the flourishing of her intellectual and artistic life, a sign perhaps that Isobel (for all her romantic foibles) can still find a non-romantic outlet for strong emotion and intense feeling.
The Randomness of Death
The character deaths in I for Isobel are often announced quickly and unceremoniously: the circumstances behind how Isobel's father and mother died remain somewhat ambiguous, while Nick's death occurs suddenly and in a manner that may completely overturn a reader's expectations. After all, Nick's former lover Diana is the young character whose death seems most strongly foreshadowed; she, however, survives. These deaths are jarring, and with good reason. As an intensely realistic and psychological novel, I for Isobel is designed to capture the unpredictable turns in Isobel's maturation and in the society around her—and in real life, death can strike when least expected.
Christian Devotion
The theme of Christian devotion occurs prominently in I for Isobel at a few different stages of the narrative: first when Isobel experiences personal grace as a young girl, then when she takes one of Michael's books and finds that it contains passages of intense Christian theology. Neither Isobel's youthful grace nor her adult preoccupation with Michael's book lasts. She also leaves behind the parish community of her youth and doesn't appear to go to mass as an adult, and yet, for all these religious lapses, Isobel's exposure to Christian observance was by no means inconsequential. Such devotion primed her for the quite different form of devotion that comes to guide her life: a vocation in literature.
Communism and Capitalism
I for Isobel cannot be categorically classified as a "political novel," yet it does raise a few political themes in a pointed manner, particularly through Isobel's colleague Frank. Although Frank works for an import company, and is thus part of the profit-making mechanism of capitalist economics, he identifies as a Communist: as a follower of an ideology that (explained somewhat simply) favors egalitarian and collective ownership of resources instead of class divisions and the pursuit of profit. Frank cannot practice what he preaches, but his situation is also intriguing for what it suggests about Isobel, whose own interests have nothing to do with the capitalistic system of companies and offices that she has fit into. If Frank cannot pursue his Communist leanings without compromise, can Isobel pursue her literary interests unsullied by office drudgery or the mundane pursuit of money? On the basis of the optimistic final pages of Witting's novel, it is apparent that she can, even if Frank is caught in the cruel irony of acting against his principles simply to survive.
