Essay: On sub-themes in literature

I have observed that, just as authors have pet themes that appear in more than one of their books, they also have sub-themes that recur across books. These are mostly inconspicuous, insignificant things but may provide a greater insight into the author and I feel they are a reflection of the author's personal experience or their wishes and fears that make their way into the author's works. Here are the authors with whom I have noticed this:

Jhumpa Lahiri - She is the one who made me notice this tendency first. In two books, she has an instance where the protagonist loses interest in their lover after a parent's death. It happens to Gogol in The Namesake and to Ruma in Unaccustomed Earth(if my memory is right!). Two times is not much but it is a strange thing to happen in the first place, the connection that is drawn between the death of a parent and the breaking up of a relationship. The fact that it appeared in another book made me wonder if she has seen this happen or thinks that it should happen!
Update: I think I understand what this is about. In both cases, the protagonist is a first generation NRI child with an identity crisis who has chosen the American culture over the Indian one. Both their partners are Americans and they find their parents a little backward. But the deaths of the parents makes them take the trouble to understand their parents and the parent's cultural roots, and appreciate both. The break-up with the American signifies that they accept their Indian heritage and themselves for who they are. Whew! Now that I think about it, this was very obviously implied in The Namesake.

Charles Dickens - I am pretty sure Dickens had an OCD of some sort because many of his characters do!Traddles' habit of drawing skeletons whenever he was nervous, Mr. Jaggers' repetitive washing of hands with soap, Sydney Carton dipping his head into a towel before getting to work, Dr. Manette's compulsive need to work on shoes when his trauma returns, Mr. Dick and the declaration or something that he used to copy out constantly: many of them had these compulsive habits. So, I wonder if Dickens had one too :) Another thing that has appeared in more than one book is marriage between a young woman and a much older man. This happens in David Copperfield(Dr. Strong and Anne), The Cricket on the Hearth and Hard Times. In the first two books, the woman is suspected of being attached to another man but it is proved false and the marriage takes place successfully. I know that Dickens, after being separated from his first wife, fell in love with a young actress. I'm not sure if this could explain the above situations though, as these books were most likely written earlier. But, it is all very interesting :D

Charlotte Bronte - Three recurring characteristics of her protagonists are they are orphans facing loneliness, they are plain-looking and the person they fall in love with is also plain-looking. Examples are Jane and Mr. Rochester, Lucy and M. Paul Emanuel, Shirley and Louis Moore(though in this case, Shirley is not plain) . Since, I've read Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bronte, I know that Bronte had strong feelings about beauty and plainness. She considered herself ugly and it affected her a lot mentally. I think this has reflected in her books and she wants to dispel the notion that beauty is essential for two people to love each other. Considering that beauty is given a lot of importance in romantic stories, she may have wanted to write about love between plain people for a change! I respect her for making the hero plain-looking too. It would have been hypocritical to have the plain heroine end up with a very handsome man :D Bronte's mother passed away when she was a small child and this may explain why her characters are without a family in more than one case. She writes about the pain of such a situation and the need for loved ones with great feeling in her books, especially in Jane Eyre.

Jane Austen - In her case, a situation where the heroine of the story has fallen for a dashing, young man only to find out that he was quite an idiot and the sulky fellow was Mr. Right after all, has occurred more than once :D Elizabeth Bennet is deceived by George Wickham's charms, Emma by Frank Churchill's attentions and Marianne by John Willoughby's. Maybe Jane Austen herself encountered such a young man. That is all, can't think of anything else on Jane Austen.

I may be making a mountain of a molehill here or I may have only touched the surface and left out many other authors and instances. Also, my knowledge of these authors is coloured by only those books I have read so it could be very incomplete. For instance, based on the short stories of Tolstoy that I've read, I would say he has a soft spot for cobblers because the protagonists are cobblers in the two stories I like best :D I also think Oscar Wilde has a tendency to play around with identities a lot: mistaken identities in The Importance of Being Earnest, hidden identity in Lady Windermere's Fan and manipulated identity in The Picture of Dorian Gray.There some authors, such as Wodehouse and Douglas Adams, whom I have read more than once without getting any idea about the author because I have only read the humorous stories written by them. Then there are authors such as JK Rowling and Louisa May Alcott whose books(that I've read) have been a series and I haven't really been able to see what they are like in different books. It's all very interesting though and if you have anything to add to it, you are most welcome!