The emotions of hopelessness and despair are central throughout Machinal. Helen rarely experiences anything beyond these feelings. Before George H. Jones proposes, she is stuck in a dull office job. When George asks her to marry him, she sees it as a chance to escape her dreary work life, only to discover she has entered a different kind of misery: a marriage without love. Succumbing to societal and maternal expectations, Helen marries and continues to endure a life filled with hopelessness and desperation. Her situation worsens as she moves from being a wife to a sexual partner and, eventually, a mother. A brief moment of joy occurs during her affair with Dick Roe, but she falls deeper into despair when he leaves her. Her final attempt to break free from her hopeless situation is through the murder of her husband. Her lover's written testimony further compounds her suffering, sealing her fate and leaving Helen in complete hopelessness and desperation. These emotions dominate Helen’s entire life, highlighting the central theme of her struggle to break free from societal roles.