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The Third Wife


A riveting family drama with a dark mystery at its core.
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Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

Created: 06/21/15

Replies: 10

Posted Jun. 21, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 3442

Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?


Posted Jun. 22, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Miznanner's Gravatar
Miznanner

Join Date: 01/19/13

Posts: 20

RE: Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

I'll be honest- no. I felt sorry for her but also felt she was...well, not all that likable. Perhaps I am being harsh in my judgement, in fact I know I am! And I will be honest- ever since reading my first Lisa Jewell novel (The House We Grew Up In), I have judged characters in her other novels by the depth & feeling of those. That said, I really did not like any of the characters all that much and for me, Maya was possibly the most irritating!


Posted Jun. 22, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
juliaa

Join Date: 12/03/11

Posts: 280

RE: Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

Like Miznanner, I judge Lisa Jewell's work by the standard set in The House we Grew Up In. I know that's a tough standard, but Jewell set it herself. That said, I felt sorry for Maya, but I did not find her to be a sympathetic character. What was reported about her made her seem shallow and unlikable. She seemed to me a plot device rather than an actual character.


Posted Jun. 22, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Miznanner's Gravatar
Miznanner

Join Date: 01/19/13

Posts: 20

RE: Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

That describes my feelings perfectly! She never felt fully fleshed out. I kept wanting to shake her and say " Leave him! He is a jerk!"


Posted Jun. 22, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
alisonf

Join Date: 01/31/13

Posts: 110

RE: Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

Maya was sort of annoying. She really just wanted to be part of the "family" and not really a wife. I never saw what made her material to be the "Third Wife" and why she stayed with him despite the "warnings" she received.


Posted Jun. 22, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
dlpiano

Join Date: 08/14/11

Posts: 27

RE: Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

I think her complacency and willingness to just let herself settle and become background noise in a family made her annoying to me. She's supposedly this young, attractive girl and she lets her life become this 2nd rate act to other women and children that Adrian has collected along the way. I think the emails were meant to make us sympathetic towards her, but as I explained in another question, it just annoyed me further. I think it was a really cowardly, passive response to just delete the emails and never tell anybody about them. She had no backbone and never spoke up for herself, asserted her place in the family or Adrian's life, or had a "fight" to her. She just seemed like a weaker female character, which grated on me. I really wish she'd had a little more "oomph" to her. It would have made her character more likable, her death more unjust, and all the relationships have a little more beef to them. Instead, it all just seemed like it was muted and a fraction of what it could be, due to how mousey and small she let herself become.


Posted Jun. 23, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
donnac's Gravatar
donnac

Join Date: 03/26/14

Posts: 139

RE: Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

I felt that Maya was the least developed character in the novel. I never did quite understand her logic in keeping the emails a secret. What would be somebody's motivation to do that? I would have shared them immediately with Adrian, if for no other reason than to help explain why I still felt that the family didn't really accept me. Also, to engage him.


Posted Jun. 25, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
susanj

Join Date: 06/18/11

Posts: 25

RE: Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

I never understood why she would want to get involved with him, especially since he had two previous marriages and sets of children. Did she really want to be next in line? Why would she want to have a baby with him and be left someday? She was not a mature, secure woman. I did perhaps feel sorry for her because she was so naive. But I never understood why Adrian left Caroline and why he found Maya attractive.


Posted Jun. 28, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
joang

Join Date: 05/17/12

Posts: 101

RE: Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

For me she was....her age (in relation to his), her lack of experience with men (I am assuming) and absolutely no insight into the world she was entering. I think she was a victim of "everything is not as it seems". Adrian presents a wonderful view of his happy, harmonious extended family to her. It took her a while to realize the web she was entangled in and that she did not love Adrian needed to leave him. It took the emails, alone time babysitting his children, alcohol and conversation with a stranger to really push her to leave...
Adrian describes her as "lovely, soft, pliable Maya"....He goes further to say in response to what if she hadn't been killed..."He would would still have found a way to make her believe that it would all be ok". I did feel bad for her but that was her personality...agree that she kept withdrawing and did not "fight back"


Posted Jul. 02, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
candaceb

Join Date: 03/30/14

Posts: 59

RE: Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

I found her to be a sympathetic character through the start of the book, felt sorry for her for not feeling a part of the extended family and the butt of the terrible emails. As the story progressed, I felt less sympathy and started seeing her as someone who was fooling around with a married man and should have had the character to stay away from him from the get-go. When she became enamored with Luke, I felt disgusted at her lack of restraint and immaturity.


Posted Jul. 04, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Peggy H

Join Date: 06/13/11

Posts: 272

RE: Did you feel that Maya was a sympathetic character?

I did not find her sympathetic and felt that she helped to create her own role in the family. I don't remember enough about her background to determine if she could have been more assertive on her role as the current wife. I should certainly have told my husband about the emails but her not doing so was indicative of her feelings in relation to the family from the beginning. I wonder what she wanted from the marriage in the beginning.


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