Additionally, as the novel closes, Ross's finances are in poor shape and he and Demelza have had to sell off a number of important family and farm items, including livestock.

Demelza and the preceding novel in the series (Ross Poldark) have been analyzed by scholars who say that as the most popular fictional representations of Cornwall, they helped define a Cornish national identity.

This is said to be the case because: Some scholars have argued that Demelza and the Poldark series in general have contributed to the "Disneyfication" of Cornwall, partially leading to a surge of tourists expecting to experience Cornwall as it is portrayed in Poldark: "Mass tourism and commodified heritage dominate the scene, if not the economy, and thousands of new residents have been drawn there by this imagery.

Nineteenth‐century narratives of industry, technical achievement and diaspora clash with romantic images of antiquity, Celtic myth and superstition, backwardness, rustication, changelessness and insularity.

Images of golden beaches, semi‐tropical gardens and picturesque fishing ports take precedence over those of industrial decline and economic despair.