The Maidens

At the end of the novel, it becomes clear that Mariana has been inhabiting a myth of her own making regarding her relationships with Sebastian and Zoe. She portrays her marriage as happy and loving and herself and Sebastian as surrogate parents to her orphaned niece. As readers only have access to Mariana's account of the marriage, they have no way to determine conclusively whether her portrayal is accurate.

One of the subtler hints that Mariana’s version of her life may not fully reflect its realities lies in the novel’s abundant and varied intertextual references. These self-consciously position The Maidens within both a larger web of stories and the act of story-making generally. They also reflect a feature of Mariana’s characterization: Early in the novel, the narrator describes her as an avid reader who sought refuge from her childhood isolation in books. The many references to art, literature, mythology, philosophy, and more imply that she might never quite have emerged from these stories to confront her real life. Mariana has been hiding in stories, and stories have hidden the truth from her and from readers.

At the same time, these stories do provide important insights into the narrative’s action and meaning.