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“[Maria] was always sent for when the women quarrelled over their tubs and always succeeded in making peace. One day the matron had said to her: ‘Maria, you are a veritable peace-maker!’”
This quote is essential for Maria’s characterization because it establishes that she is a kind soul who everyone knows that they can depend on. One gets the sense that the matron and the submatrons at the charity lean heavily on Maria. This aspect of Maria’s personality is solidified a few paragraphs later when the narrator reveals that Maria used to take care of Joe and Alphy. As the text progresses, readers can determine that Maria is such a “veritable peace-maker” because she exerts all of her energy into taking care of others instead of ever prioritizing herself.
“Somebody said something about the garden, and at last Mrs Donnelly said something very cross to one of the next-door girls and told her to throw it out at once: that was no play. Maria understood that it was wrong that time and so she had to do it over again: and this time she got the prayer-book.”
In this tragic moment, a blindfolded Maria does not even realize that everyone is uncomfortable because she drew a death omen. Instead, she assumes that she is the one who made a mistake even though the blame really falls on the older girls who allowed the clay to be drawn in the first place. This is another example that highlights Maria’s disconnect from the world around her—she is the only person who is literally and figuratively left in the dark.
