Orpheus Descending Themes

This Study Guide consists of approximately 68 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Orpheus Descending.

Orpheus Descending Themes

This Study Guide consists of approximately 68 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Orpheus Descending.
This section contains 1,012 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Orpheus Descending Study Guide

Loneliness

The main characters—Val, Lady, and Carol—are lonely, isolated figures. They do not fit into the environment in which they find themselves, are unable to communicate their deepest feelings and passions to others, or feel cut off. The uniqueness of their being is unable to find an outlet, or a fellow spirit, in a harsh world that continually frustrates human desires. Val sums up this theme when he says to Lady, "Nobody ever gets to know no body! We're all of us sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life!" Val himself is a free, unconventional, artistic spirit who is bound to be misunderstood and isolated wherever he goes in a narrow, repressive society. Lady is trapped in a loveless marriage, in which her passionate nature has no opportunity to express itself, except through hate and resentment over the past. She echoes the...

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This section contains 1,012 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Orpheus Descending Study Guide
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Gale
Orpheus Descending from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.