What is the main theme in the novel, A Crime of Passion?

The plight of the "invisible servant" is the main theme in the novel, A Crime of Passion, although there are others. One minor theme is "the woman wronged," an old theme in literature in which a woman who has been mistreated seeks revenge against her oppressors or, instead, shows herself to be truly noble by rising above her suffering. Mark Twain's The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) has a fine example of a woman's revenge, whereas Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850; see separate entry) has perhaps the supreme example of a woman rising above her suffering and her tormentors. In the present case, Lillian believes herself wronged by society and takes her revenge by poisoning the men who do not appreciate her.