Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions and references to abuse and coercive control, accident, and death.

The theme of the negative effects of societal expectations is central to this story,  as it is clear throughout that both Mr. and Mrs. Foster have been shaped by traditional gender roles during their marriage. The story places the couple’s societal expectations of marriage in the early 1920s while setting the story in the 1950s. The story therefore examines the societal expectations of two generations (See: Background).

The narrator, when establishing Mrs. Foster’s character, uses condescending language to trivialize how “she would flutter and fidget” (47) with “foolishness” (47) about being late. It is implied that her behavior is both childlike and perhaps characteristic of women, as it is stated that though she is “not a particularly nervous woman” (47), she is also nearly driven “nearly into hysterics” by her husband intentionally triggering her anxieties by making her late. This is juxtaposed with Mr. Foster’s air of condescension and superiority. He is traditionally masculine in his calm, “cool” (47), and “bland” (47) manner as he purposely perpetuates his wife’s stress. At this point, it is unclear whether the narrator is describing Mrs.