The theme of fake relationship.

Marriage and family are given primacy in the play, as the title suggests. Ngugi has a more traditional view of marriage than other late 20th century writers. The focus is on the home and on a solid marriage rooted in companionship and the ability to care for one another. He excoriates the Western conception of marriage, which Njooki characterizes as property marrying property. His depictions of the two marriages (Gĩcaamba and Njooki's, and the Christian one proposed by Kĩoi for Wangeci and Kĩgũũnda) elevate the former and criticize the latter. He also seems ambivalent about having a too-emotional, laissez-faire attitude about the institution, as seen in Gathoni's viewpoint. The play begins and ends in the home, with traditional Kenyan views on family and marriage taken prominence.