[1] Like the other novels set in Europe, The Heidenmauer is intent on showing the darker side of European institutions in favor of an American perspective.

[2] Central to the themes of the book is internal class struggle for power within the Early Modern society in Germany.

Each of the classes, including the Church, the Aristocracy and the rising bourgeoisie, have characters which epitomize the individual group and represent this tension.

[3] The aforementioned class struggle is part of a larger attempt by Cooper to inspect European society and compare it to the American ideals, trying to un-romanticize Europe's cultural institutions.

"[2] Along with his deliberate presentation of themes and characters that represent the European institutions' problems, the narrator too becomes involved, pointing out the corruption of the society to the reader.