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 I think there are many themes permeating the novel and I do not see one as superior to the others. I have simply chosen one of them. One that concerns the characters of David and Harriet, namely: You have no choice but to let your surroundings - environmental and social - effect your way of life, there is no use trying to isolate yourself. You cannot build happiness on that principle. This naivety is described and exemplified below.
David and Harriet strive for happiness, as if it is something you accomplish after having followed a set of rules, thinking it will come to them when they have created a big family together. David thinks that once you have established your "happiness" you have to defend it from the outside world - isolate yourself - in order to maintain it: "[David] saw his future as something he must aim for and protect. His wife must be like him in this: that she knew were happiness lay and how to keep it." (p.13)

Harriet... had always known what she wanted. She... went to an arts college where she became a graphic designer, which seemed an agreeable way of spending her time until she married... Her mother was a contented woman who had everything she could reasonably want; so it appeared to her and to her daughters. Harriet's parents had taken it for granted that family life was the basis for a happy one. (pp.11-12)

In this quote it says that Harriet's mother, Dorothy, had everything she needed to be happy. I wonder if this is not a cleverly disguised naive view of Harriet's, though, because later in the novel this is contradicted:

She [Dorothy] had not found it easy bringing up three girls. Her husband had been an industrial chemist, not badly paid, but there never had been much money. She knew the cost, in every way, of a family, even a small one. (p.21)

At first the newly wedded couple's plan is for Harriet to work for two years before starting to conceive babies, but already on their first visit to their newly bought house - a house they actually cannot afford, which leads to them having to ask David's wealthy father for help, who agrees paying the mortgage - Harriet become pregnant. Shortly after the baby is born another grows in her belly. They say they have been careful, but obviously not enough. They have more children than they can either afford or care for. Dorothy try to reason with the couple, asking them to let go of their plans to have so many children, or that they at least should wait a couple of years. The Lovatt's listen but dismiss it rather easily, as when, later on, other relatives criticize their decissions.
Hariet's widowed mother moves in with them and is worn out by her efforts in taking care of both the children and Harriet when she has pregnant sickness. After Jane, their third child is born, David and Harriet consider themselves happy. They view the present situation as a result of their stubbornly held beliefs and feel content with it (pp.26-27). They have isolated themselves from the outside world, concentrating on living the life of a happy family within the walls of their home:

The young Lovatts' [David and Harriet] made themselves read the papers, and watch the News on the television, though their instinct was to do neither. At least they ought to know what went on outside their fortress, their kingdom, in which three precious children were nurtured... (p.30)
While many people in the sexually liberated 60s and 70s "tried out" several partners before they chose one to spend the rest of their lives with, David (going on 30) has had one previous relationship and Harriet (24) is a virgin when they find each other. I do not say this as naive, it is just another example of how they differ from their contemporaries and also a good example of how stubborn they are in the views they have. A strong view can often be a naive one if the view is held to desperately show that you are different from everyone else, which I think is the case with the naive views of the Lovatts' mentioned above.
Ben's entry into the family can be interpreted as a retribution for the couple's naive beliefs of what makes a happy life. In this context and for the purpose of the theme I have chosen, I view Ben as a concentrated form of all evil outside the haven of the Lovatts' residence. All the bad things which they have not dealt with during their isolation manifest in this baby, their fifth child.
The geographical setting of the book is strongely connected with the theme as you can see above. David and Harriet isolates themselves not only geographically, but also from the average person of their time when it comes to sexual relations and family views. They have a naive way of looking on happiness and would benefit from taking advice from relatives.
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