62 pages • 2 hours read
Nita ProseThe Maid
Fiction | Novel | AdultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 5-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5: "Friday"
Part 5, Chapter 26 Summary
Molly wakes to the sounds and smells of breakfast. She finds Juan Manuel scrambling eggs in the kitchen. Mr. Snow telephones. He apologizes for believing what the police told him about her. He hopes she will come back to work soon. Molly says she can’t come this minute because she is in the middle of breakfast. He tells her to take all the time she needs. She promises to come tomorrow, and he breathes a sigh of relief. Cheryl declared herself sick, and the other maids are worried about Molly.
Molly mentions to him that she realizes some of her coworkers think she is a “weirdo.” She asks whether he thinks that’s a problem. He replies that some of her colleagues need to grow up; Molly is unique in the best possible way and she’s the best maid the hotel has ever had.
Part 6, Chapter 27 Summary: "Several Months Later"
Several months later, Molly stops on her way into the hotel to ask Mr. Preston if he and Charlotte will be coming to dinner on Sunday as usual. Molly goes down to housekeeping to change into her uniform. Mr. Snow has demoted Cheryl and appointed Molly as head maid in her place, and Molly has made it clear to Cheryl that there will be no more stealing of tips.
Molly stocks the cleaning trolleys for the other maids—a job she loves. On special occasions, she leaves a gift like a small box of chocolates with a note saying, “Your work is sweet” (267). She assembles the maids at the beginning of each shift and gives equitable room assignments to make sure everyone gets a fair workload and distribution of tips. She plans to save money to enroll in hotel management courses.
Juan Manuel has moved in with Molly and insists on washing the dishes. On this night, they plan to go out after work and celebrate the end of the trial. They both testified against Rodney. Detective Stark managed to find Giselle in St. Tropez and asked her to testify, but Giselle refused; as long as it wasn’t Molly on the stand, she felt she wasted enough of her life on guilty men. She said that she was free for the first time.
For Molly, the hardest part of the trial was recounting her discovery of Mr. Black’s body. She repeated everything she could remember about the scene, then Charlotte asked her whether she saw anyone in or around the suite who might have taken the pillow that smothered Mr. Black. Molly thought to herself, “What’s right is right. What’s done is done” (271). She told the jury that when she looked into the mirror, she had seen someone behind her.
Charlotte asked her if the person she saw was in the courtroom. Molly answered that she wouldn’t like to say because she wasn’t sure what she’d seen. She said that she knows she’s different from most people; she has learned to doubt her perceptions, and she wasn’t sure it was real. But she knows that someone with a strong motive killed Mr. Black. She looked at Rodney across the courtroom. He looked back at her with a stunned expression as though he was seeing her as she is for the first time.
As the other maids are leaving for their shifts, Molly receives a text message from her bank. She opens it and learns that someone has sent her $10,000—someone named Sandy Cayman. Molly recognizes that Giselle must have landed on her feet and has money again.
Epilogue Summary
Gran always told Molly that the truth was subjective. Molly has come to understand that and take comfort in it; the world is better when it’s not merely black-and-white. Molly’s testimony on the stand was true; it just focused on the things that meant the most to Molly. She now reveals that, when she had seen someone in the mirror behind her clutching a pillow, It reminded her so much of herself and Gran that she fainted.
When she recovered, a middle-aged woman was bending over her. The woman had hair styled like Molly’s and wore a white blouse and black slacks much like Molly’s maid’s uniform. It was the first Mrs. Black. She brought Molly a glass of water and made sure she was all right before explaining that she came to convince her ex-husband to give his daughter Victoria a chance to prove that she could run the company. Mr. Black was drunk and taking pills. He ranted and muttered and finally fell on the bed exactly as he is now.
Mrs. Black asked Molly if she ever felt like the wicked are rewarded and the good people suffer. Molly answered that yes, she felt that way all the time, so Mrs. Black asked, “What if we took matters into our own hands and balanced the scales?” (282)
Molly and Mrs. Black both looked at the pillow lying on the floor, then Molly got to her feet. She asked Mrs. Black what she touched while she was in the room and, when she was gone, Molly cleaned the room, removing any possible fingerprints. She washed the glass that Mr. Black drank from and in which Mrs. Black had almost certainly put the pills. Then she put the pillow in her cart, where it would be taken to the laundry, cleaned, and returned to another room. Finally, she called reception and repeated her request for help.
Molly sleeps well at night now because she sleeps beside Juan Manuel and her conscience is clean. She learned that she has the power to clean away dirt, disinfect, and set things right.
Part 5-Epilogue Analysis
Mr. Snow tells Molly that some of her coworkers should grow up, but Mr. Snow has grown too. He recognized that his initial judgment of Molly was more accurate than that of the police and that he should have defended her rather than putting her in jeopardy by giving authority to dishonest people. From the archetypal naive father, he begins to mature into a competent ruler. By demoting Cheryl and instating Molly as head maid, he demonstrates better judgment and greater strength.
The state will punish Rodney, the predator, for the crimes he committed, but Molly exacts personal retribution, and it is merciless. When Rodney looks at Molly across the courtroom, he recognizes that she is implicating him in the murder as punishment for his betrayal of her.
Mrs. Black’s claim that Mr. Black accidentally overdosed on pills and alcohol is clearly false. The pills were Giselle’s–it is unlikely that Mr. Black ever used them. Mrs. Black never mentions the pillow, but the scene is too much like her grandmother’s death for Molly to miss the obvious. She indicates her understanding when she asks Mrs. Black what she has touched that might have her fingerprints on it.
Mrs. Black acts as the archetypal queen mother who will make any sacrifice for her children, including murder. She demonstrates her maternal nature by upholding her daughter’s right to run the Black company the way it should be run, not as it has been handled by its current corrupt ruler. She treats Giselle as a daughter as well, telling her she should leave her husband and that she deserves better. When Molly faints, Mrs. Black doesn’t remain behind only to convince Molly not to tell the police. She brings Molly water first and makes sure she is all right.
Once Molly has recovered, however, Mrs. Black treats her not as a child but as an equal. She asks Molly whether she sees justice in Mr. Black’s death. Molly already recognized that sometimes death is a mercy and a way of sparing other people pain. In this case, Mr. Black’s death is no great loss to the world and will spare several women suffering. Molly accepts the burden of covering up the evidence that would implicate Mrs. Black. Perhaps if Rodney hadn’t been arrested, Mrs. Black would have sacrificed herself to protect Molly, but Molly proved herself stronger than her enemies.
In the end, Molly assumes the role of queen and mother, guiding and watching over the other maids. As a queen caring for her subjects, she stocks their cleaning carts, distributes work fairly, and exhibits maternal love—demonstrated by her small gifts of appreciation on special occasions. She also shows the necessary ruthlessness of a ruler by putting Cheryl in her place. Her ambition to study hotel management suggests that she will someday take over the kingdom from Mr. Snow.
Giselle’s gift will enable Molly to take her hotel management classes sooner than if she had to save the money herself. Although the gift is an expression of love, it demonstrates that Giselle is living in the Cayman Islands with all the money she wants. This suggests that she has not matured from her childlike role. Giselle describes herself to Detective Stark as “free.” Freedom, while pleasant, may offer a life without meaning or personal growth and be ultimately unsatisfying. Molly has assumed the burdens of caring for other people and found a deeper, more satisfying life as a result.
