Sexuality and Double Standards

The book exposes the hypocrisy of a society that demands female virtue while encouraging male promiscuity, and Martin's encounters with women—from the ballet girl to his mistress—reveal the commodification of desire.

The mother's warning about women who lead young men to destruction highlights the era's double standards and the perceived dangers of sexuality.

Martin's question about living chastely and the subsequent encounter with Hulda highlight the tensions between idealized love and the reality of sexual encounters.

Martin's obsession with the streetwalker highlights the double standard of male desire and the societal condemnation of female sexuality.

Martin critiques the societal hypocrisy that separates love into pure and sensual, and the expectation that young men visit prostitutes while women preserve their virtue.