For Whom the Bell Tolls

by

Ernest Hemingway

Maria is a young woman and a member of the guerilla group Robert Jordan joins at the beginning of the novel. She has “golden tawny brown” eyes and skin, and hair that is the “golden brown of a grain field that has been burned dark in the sun,” cropped short by guards at a prison, where she landed after being run out of her hometown by the fascists. The same fascists raped Maria, and though this experience has clearly traumatized her—the guerillas, who rescued her from the wreckage of an exploded train, note that it took her a while to recover her ability to speak—she quickly falls for Robert Jordan, confessing her love for him the first time they sleep together. Hemingway is known for his less-than-nuanced portrayals of women, who are frequently reduced to stereotypes in his stories and novels, and Maria is no different: she is utterly subservient, innocent, and devoted to Jordan, an object of lust and a symbol of pure love and tenderness. In comparison to Pilar, who has depth as a character—expressing conflicting views, making mistakes, and demonstrating multiple personality traits—Maria is one-dimensional, and her main role in the novel is to help Robert Jordan to develop as a character, teaching him the significance of love; she herself does not change in any way.

Maria Quotes in For Whom the Bell Tolls

The For Whom the Bell Tolls quotes below are all either spoken by Maria or refer to Maria. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Love in War Theme Icon
).
Chapter 7 Quotes

Now as they lay all that before had been shielded was unshielded. Where there had been roughness of fabric all was smooth with a smoothness and firm rounded pressing and a long warm coolness, cool outside and warm within, long and light and closely holding, closely held, lonely, hollow-making with contours, happy-making, young and loving and now all warmly smooth with a hollowing, chest-aching, tight-held loneliness that was such that Robert Jordan felt he could not stand it and he said,

“Hast thou loved others?”

Related Characters: Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man (speaker), Maria
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Do you ever go to Segovia?

Que va. With this face? This is a face that is known. How would you like to be ugly, beautiful one?” [Pilar] said to Maria.

“Thou art not ugly.”

Vamos, I’m not ugly. I was born ugly. All my life I have been ugly. You, Ingles, who know nothing about women. Do you know how an ugly woman feels? Do you know what it is to be ugly all your life and inside to feel that you are beautiful? It is very rare […] I would have made a good man, but I am all woman and all ugly. Yet many men have loved me and I have loved many men. It is curious.”

Related Characters: Maria (speaker), Pilar / Pablo’s Wife (speaker), Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

For him [Robert Jordan] it was a dark passage which led to nowhere, then to nowhere, then again to nowhere, once again to nowhere, always and forever to nowhere, heavy on the elbows in the earth to nowhere, dark, never any end to nowhere, hung on all time always to unknowing nowhere, this time and again for always to nowhere, now not to be borne once again always and to nowhere, now beyond all bearing up, up, up and into nowhere, suddenly, scaldingly, holdingly all nowhere gone and time absolutely still and they were both there, time having stopped and he felt the earth move out and away from under them.

Related Characters: Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man, Maria
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:

But in the meantime all the life you have or ever will have is today, tonight, tomorrow, today, tonight, tomorrow, over and over again (I hope), he thought and so you had better take what time there is and be very thankful for it. If the bridge goes bad. It does not look too good just now. But Maria has been good. Has she not? Oh, has she not, he thought. Maybe that is what I am to get now from life. Maybe that is my life and instead of it being threescore years and ten it is forty-eight hours or just threescore hours and ten or twelve rather. Twenty-four hours in a day would be threescore and twelve for the three full days.

Related Characters: Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man (speaker), Maria
Related Symbols: The Bridge
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37 Quotes

If I die on this day it is a waste because I know a few things now. I wonder if you only learn them now because you are oversensitized because of the shortness of the time? There is no such thing as a shortness of time, though. You should have sense enough to know that too. I have been all my life in these hills since I have been here. Anselmo is my oldest friend. I know him better than I know Charles, than I know Chub, than I know Guy, than I know Mike, and I know them well. Agustin, with his vile mouth, is my brother, and I never had a brother. Maria is my true love and my wife. I never had a true love. I never had a wife. She is also my sister, and I never had a sister, and my daughter, and I never will have a daughter. I hate to leave a thing that is so good.

Related Characters: Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man (speaker), Maria, Anselmo / The Older Man, Agustin, Chub
Related Symbols: The Hills and Mountains
Page Number: 381
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 43 Quotes

“There is no good-by, guapa, because we are not apart. That it should be good in the Gredos. Go now. Go good. Nay,” [Robert Jordan] spoke now still calmly and reasonably as Pilar walked the girl along. “Do not turn around. Put thy foot in. Yes. Thy foot in. Help her up,” he said to Pilar. “Get her in the saddle. Swing up now.” He turned his head, sweating, and looked down the slope, then back toward where the girl was in the saddle with Pilar by her and Pablo just behind. “Now go,” he said. “Go.”

Related Characters: Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man (speaker), Maria, Pilar / Pablo’s Wife, Pablo
Page Number: 464
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire For Whom the Bell Tolls LitChart as a printable PDF.
For Whom the Bell Tolls PDF

Maria Quotes in For Whom the Bell Tolls

The For Whom the Bell Tolls quotes below are all either spoken by Maria or refer to Maria. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Love in War Theme Icon
).
Chapter 7 Quotes

Now as they lay all that before had been shielded was unshielded. Where there had been roughness of fabric all was smooth with a smoothness and firm rounded pressing and a long warm coolness, cool outside and warm within, long and light and closely holding, closely held, lonely, hollow-making with contours, happy-making, young and loving and now all warmly smooth with a hollowing, chest-aching, tight-held loneliness that was such that Robert Jordan felt he could not stand it and he said,

“Hast thou loved others?”

Related Characters: Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man (speaker), Maria
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Do you ever go to Segovia?

Que va. With this face? This is a face that is known. How would you like to be ugly, beautiful one?” [Pilar] said to Maria.

“Thou art not ugly.”

Vamos, I’m not ugly. I was born ugly. All my life I have been ugly. You, Ingles, who know nothing about women. Do you know how an ugly woman feels? Do you know what it is to be ugly all your life and inside to feel that you are beautiful? It is very rare […] I would have made a good man, but I am all woman and all ugly. Yet many men have loved me and I have loved many men. It is curious.”

Related Characters: Maria (speaker), Pilar / Pablo’s Wife (speaker), Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

For him [Robert Jordan] it was a dark passage which led to nowhere, then to nowhere, then again to nowhere, once again to nowhere, always and forever to nowhere, heavy on the elbows in the earth to nowhere, dark, never any end to nowhere, hung on all time always to unknowing nowhere, this time and again for always to nowhere, now not to be borne once again always and to nowhere, now beyond all bearing up, up, up and into nowhere, suddenly, scaldingly, holdingly all nowhere gone and time absolutely still and they were both there, time having stopped and he felt the earth move out and away from under them.

Related Characters: Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man, Maria
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:

But in the meantime all the life you have or ever will have is today, tonight, tomorrow, today, tonight, tomorrow, over and over again (I hope), he thought and so you had better take what time there is and be very thankful for it. If the bridge goes bad. It does not look too good just now. But Maria has been good. Has she not? Oh, has she not, he thought. Maybe that is what I am to get now from life. Maybe that is my life and instead of it being threescore years and ten it is forty-eight hours or just threescore hours and ten or twelve rather. Twenty-four hours in a day would be threescore and twelve for the three full days.

Related Characters: Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man (speaker), Maria
Related Symbols: The Bridge
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37 Quotes

If I die on this day it is a waste because I know a few things now. I wonder if you only learn them now because you are oversensitized because of the shortness of the time? There is no such thing as a shortness of time, though. You should have sense enough to know that too. I have been all my life in these hills since I have been here. Anselmo is my oldest friend. I know him better than I know Charles, than I know Chub, than I know Guy, than I know Mike, and I know them well. Agustin, with his vile mouth, is my brother, and I never had a brother. Maria is my true love and my wife. I never had a true love. I never had a wife. She is also my sister, and I never had a sister, and my daughter, and I never will have a daughter. I hate to leave a thing that is so good.

Related Characters: Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man (speaker), Maria, Anselmo / The Older Man, Agustin, Chub
Related Symbols: The Hills and Mountains
Page Number: 381
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 43 Quotes

“There is no good-by, guapa, because we are not apart. That it should be good in the Gredos. Go now. Go good. Nay,” [Robert Jordan] spoke now still calmly and reasonably as Pilar walked the girl along. “Do not turn around. Put thy foot in. Yes. Thy foot in. Help her up,” he said to Pilar. “Get her in the saddle. Swing up now.” He turned his head, sweating, and looked down the slope, then back toward where the girl was in the saddle with Pilar by her and Pablo just behind. “Now go,” he said. “Go.”

Related Characters: Robert Jordan / Roberto / The Young Man (speaker), Maria, Pilar / Pablo’s Wife, Pablo
Page Number: 464
Explanation and Analysis: