The Night of the Iguana

Described as “a stout, swarthy woman in her middle forties—affable and rapaciously lusty” (329), Maxine is the owner and proprietor of the Costa Verde hotel. She has been recently widowed by the sudden death of her husband, Fred, and relates that information to Shannon with seeming callousness. She is brash and tough, and living at her hotel in the middle of the rain forest has allowed her the freedom to ignore the prim rules of social propriety. Maxine is part of the local landscape; she speaks Spanish and has sex with the young Mexican men who work for her. She is unapologetic about the fact that these affairs began while Fred was still alive. When Shannon arrives, she greets him with her shirt unbuttoned after a quick sexual tryst in the bushes, and Shannon scolds her for her indiscretion in front of his Baptist tourists. However, Maxine is unapologetically herself within her own space, refusing to allow anyone, even Shannon, to shame her into behaving with greater propriety. Instead, she draws her visitors into the intoxication of life in the tropics. Although Maxine puts up a coarse and unyielding façade, she has a soft spot for Shannon and an empathetic streak that she tries to keep hidden.