The most significant theme of the play addresses the power of literature and language. In this play, literature is so powerful it can inspire unfaithfulness and ruin marriages, and it can drive men to murder. Literature can teach and encourage growth, but it can also frighten and lead to destruction. For example, Cheché blames his unhappiness on the lector who “read[s] the same story every day” (58), believing that the language on the page has power to lead women away from their husbands. As well, Juan Julian discusses his responsibilities as a reader, explaining that the “language of cigar smoke the Indians used to communicate to the gods,” (52) is language he can access as a lector, “a distant relative” of the Chief Indian who could translate words from gods. Marela and Conchita also admit that they are both influenced directly by the book Anna Karenina, and the playwright incorporates passages directly from the book that impact individuals in the play and change their lives forever, both positively and negatively. Literature and language are a force that demands respect, a source of education, self-esteem and identity, the inspiration behind love and dreams, and the reason women have cause to think above their station and to feel passion and to act on their feelings.

The interactions between Santiago and Ofelia, Conchita and Palomo, and Conchita and Juan Julian all illustrate the mutability of gender roles in the play. The Santiago the audience first meets is a lazy gambler and an irresponsible head of household. He changes into a loving and reliable husband who can meet his wife, Ofelia, as an equal once he quits gambling and gets a hold of his dignity.

The dynamic character of Conchita also goes through significant changes, from an unhappy and helpless wife of a cheating husband to a woman who seizes control of her own happiness and takes a lover herself. Juan Julian’s role in Conchita’s transformation is significant, but he feels that his role as a lover is to “[h]elp her to recognize herself as a woman all over again” (68), much like Vronsky’s role in the novel Anna Karenina. His role as nurturer and emotional support is also a reversal of typical gender stereotypes, one that teaches Conchita’s husband Palomo that it is actually very manly after all to be supportive and sensitive to the needs of one’s own wife.

The playwright’s note at the start of the play warns the audience of the end of significant traditions two years after the time during which the play is meant to take place. Signs of the impending end are scattered throughout the play. Examples of these foreboding omens including Cheché’s desire to get rid of Juan Julian, the lector, whose usefulness will evaporate should Cheché succeed in his insistence that the factory employ machines rather than traditional Cuban cigar rollers who listen to the lectors. Ofelia and Santiago both resist modernization by rejecting Cheché’s machines, and they cling to the old ways that give them pride and a strong sense of Cuban identity in America; however, the audience knows, thanks to the playwright’s note, that their idealism is fleeting. Juan Julian also speaks frankly about the impact of modern times on the cigar industry: “[t]he truth is that machines, cars, are keeping us from taking walks and sitting on park benches, smoking a cigar slowly and calmly” (53). Though he is correct in his assertion that modernity is the enemy, there is nothing to be done about the unstoppable wave of progress soon to eradicate these valuable old traditions.