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<title> In Times of Crises </title>
The themes made evident in Mirandas diary entry of November 7th, are quite a few in a very little amount of text. In this essay I will discuss som of those themes I ascertained from the passage mentioned above. The three main themes I will deal will with are hypocrisy, alienation and consolation.
 
What follows through the text as a red thread is Mirandas' returning thoughts about the false roles people assume in order to become something they are not. This hypocrisy deeply disturbs her, which she makes clear several times in the text. The first time we learn that she hates hypocrites as well as hypocrisy is when she thinks back to her time at Ladymont:
I'll never go back to Ladymont. Because I couldn't stand that suffocating atmosphere of the 'done' thing and the 'right' people and the 'nice' behaviour (p. 206).
Later on she criticizes with the words of George Paston, the man who she holds above all other men and often refers to as simply G.P., the New People for "their stupid crawling of the bourgeoisie" (p. 208). I get the impression that she despises hypocrites and their false world, but further on in the text she gives a hint of criticism to herself, because she knows that one day she will fall into the same pit as the rest of the hypocrites; one day she will get married and all the ideals she holds at the moment will begin to deteriorate and the process will turn her into a "Little Woman" (p. 208). This yields a more specific theme: we are all hypocrites, whether we like it or not.

Alienation can also be seen as one of the themes in the text. Several times she thinks of herself and George Paston belonging to a group of people consisting of intellectuals, like doctors and teachers and artists who have to stand against the masses who bring the world down with their pettiness and ignorance and lack of education. She regards herself a martyr for her band; those who "have to carry it all" (p. 206). By holding her in captivity, Caliban amplifies her beliefs of "the few" being better than the big masses; their being the only ones who creates the good and beautiful things and contributes to society. To her Caliban represents the big masses, the burden of society who don't contribute with anything of importance or anything beneficial to the world. In a sense she regards the relationship between the two groups as a drawn-out struggle, but it is basically a figure of speech for the eternal struggle between good and evil.

A theme that is somewhat connected to the one recently discussed is man's need for consolation in times of crises. Apart from Miranda telling us in the beginning of the passage that her only consolation is G.P.'s drawing, I also draw the conclusion that her trying to convince herself being a martyr is a way of consoling herself; that what she is doing is a sacrifice for the cause of the struggle mentioned above and for those fighting by her side and. She tries to convince herself that her suffering is not in vain. Another consolation to Miranda is her ideals, which she of course exaggerates, but they make her cope a little better. Ideals are not easily removed, especially not if they have an emotional connection. Miranda's ideals are strongly connected with G.P., and they are strong enough for her to try to make Ferdinand realize that there's something wrong with him and that he needs help. 

To conclude this essay I would like to once more point out the main themes, as I see them, in this passage. The main theme is hypocrisy, or rather our thoughts about hypocrisy; it is easy to despise it, but sooner or later we will find ourselves being hypocrites. Rejecting the fact that we are all hypocrites, is hypocritical. Sooner or later we all find ourselves being hypocrites. Alienation is another main theme in the text. Miranda alienates from Ferdinand by convincing herself that she belongs to a group of people who know themselves to be better than the rest of society. And to console herself she thinks of her being in Ferdinand's captivity as an act of martyrdom for this group she represents. As well as her being a representative for the good people, Ferdinand is the representative of the destructive and the burdensome masses, and the struggle between the groups can be seen as the eternal struggle between good and evil. The third main theme is man's need for consolation, and Miranda's thoughts of her being a martyr and that her captivity is not in vain I see as an attempt on her behalf to console herself.
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