What are the motifs in A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick?

The dangers of isolation is a recurring idea. The characters experience several sorts of isolation in the narrative, each with either active or perceived negative effects. The placement of much of the action in an isolated community in an isolating climate of a cold and hard winter places steadily increasing pressure on the characters. It drives them inward, leading them to question and confront their troubling inner selves. It's interesting to note however, that the physical isolation of the setting is also a metaphor, an externalization of various forms of inner isolation. This is true not just of emotional loneliness but also moral loneliness exemplified by Truitt's isolation by his passionate sexual desires and Catherine's isolation because of her need for security and her determination to kill.