For Whom the Bell Tolls: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

After eating, Robert Jordan, Maria, and Pilar leave El Sordo’s. Pilar is beginning to sweat, and her face looks pallid, so Jordan insists that they rest; Pilar is determined to keep going but finally relents. Sitting under a pine tree, she apologizes to Maria for calling her a “whore” and says that Jordan can have Maria: she tells Jordan that she has never wanted Maria, though she is “very jealous” of him. Pilar tells Maria that she is “no tortillera,” since she is a “woman made for men,” but she cares deeply for Maria.

Pilar says that Robert Jordan can have his “rabbit,” saying that she heard him call Maria by that nickname this morning. Jordan, embarrassed, calls Pilar a “very hard woman.” Pilar says she is “so simple [she is] very complicated,” and Jordan says that he is neither “very complicated” nor “so simple.” Pilar says she is also “gross” but “very delicate,” and that she will leave Maria and Jordan alone; she is not jealous of Robert Jordan, but she was angry at Joaquin because she saw from his look how ugly she seemed to him. She is jealous of Maria’s youth, too. Pilar goes off to the camp by herself, leaving Jordan and Maria alone together. Jordan insists that they “go together,” but Maria tells him to let Pilar go.