Despite the seemingly joyful holiday setting of the story, the overall mood is bleak and depressing. This is because, while Maria may be in denial about her suffering, readers are not. They can feel her discomfort as various characters mock her for being an unmarried older woman, as she is harassed by a drunk man on the tram, and as she feels forced to sing a sad song in front of everyone at the Donnellys’ Hallow Eve party.
The only time that Maria allows herself to face the underlying suffering in her life is when she realizes that she left the plum-cake she bought for the Donnellys on the tram, as seen in the following passage:
Everybody had a solution for the mystery and Mrs. Donnelly said it was plain that Maria had left it behind her in the tram. Maria, remembering how confused the gentleman with the greyish moustache had made her, coloured with shame and vexation and disappointment. At the thought of the failure of her little surprise and of the two and fourpence she had thrown away for nothing she nearly cried outright.
While Maria laughs off the other troubles that befall her in the story, here she actually feels the challenging emotions of “shame and vexation and disappointment,” leading her to “nearly [cry] outright.” Though this is a devastating moment, it is also vindicating for readers who have been waiting for Maria to acknowledge the challenges in her life. Here, then, the mood of the story and Maria’s mood finally match in a satisfying way.
Of course, this is only for a moment before Maria gets swept back up into the festivities of the party. It is notable that the story again ends with earnest emotion, but this time on the part of Joe, who cries while listening to Maria sing for the group. In this moment, Joe is a stand-in for readers who witness Maria’s pain even when she can’t acknowledge it.
