“After a period of intense undercover work by tabloid journalists, it emerged that she had been admitted to a private rehab clinic; she had been abusing both legal and illegal drugs, as well as drinking heavily.”

The Ambiguity Between Justice and Vengeance of both the characters and the world they inhabit is conveyed in the narrator’s recounting of Jasmin’s backstory. Her substance misuse is neither glamorized nor explicitly condemned—it is simply recounted as part of her characterization. This is in keeping with the story’s overall characterization of Jasmin: some of her behavior is problematic, even unethical, but in general she is neither monster nor saint. The diction “intense undercover work” juxtaposed with the detail of “tabloid” journalists creates an ironic contrast between the reporters’ disreputable mission and their hard work. This also highlights the moral gray zone the story operates within.

“Maud was confused and didn’t really know what to say. Automatically she reverted to her role of Very Old Lady.”

The unconventional capitalization of “Very Old Lady” indicates that Maud thinks of this as a character name—it is not her authentic self, but a persona she puts on when needed. Here, she ironically covers her temporary and real vulnerability with the pretense of being even more vulnerable. Maud’s understanding of how to manipulate others using their perceptions of the weaknesses of the elderly demonstrates The Mistake of Stereotyping the Elderly.

“That spoiled upper-class bitch wasn’t accustomed to not getting her own way.”

The limited third-person narration following Maud’s perspective often shares her thoughts, contributing to her characterization. Here, it is clear that whatever feeble, timid persona she is affecting in order to get her way, the truth is that Maud is a sharp thinker and critical person. She realizes quickly what Jasmin’s real agenda is, and diction like “spoiled” and “bitch” makes it clear how harshly she judges the other woman.

“She didn’t feel any sense of triumph, merely a calm serenity. […] At the same time, there was another feeling. It took a while before she managed to identify it. Emptiness. […] Well, I can live with that, Maud thought. She moved away from the window and into the darkness.”

Maud’s feelings after she murders Jasmin are another example of her The Ambiguity Between Justice and Vengeance: She does not feel happy about the murder, but she also does not feel any genuine sadness or remorse. This is emphasized by the story’s closing image, of Maud moving between the light and visibility of the window into the solitude and shadow of the darkness in her apartment. This image suggests that Maud “lives” in a place of isolation and moral darkness, but that there are aspects of her life that are public-facing and ethical in the way that others understand ethics.

“It was quite lonely traveling that way, but it didn’t bother her; it was the way she wanted it. No pointless chatter and no complaining. She made her own decisions.”

Maud’s solitary nature comes from her desire to be in control of her experiences and the irritation she feels when others’ ideas and emotions intrude. In “An Elderly Lady Has Accommodation Problems,” this same attitude is made clear, but Maud’s backstory is not provided, creating an unsympathetic portrait of her desire for isolation. Now, in “An Elderly Lady on Her Travels,” the reader is aware of how much of her life has been sacrificed to others’ ideas and emotions—making this attitude more understandable.

“Her laptop was indispensable. She had acquired it after the Silver Surfers IT course she had taken eight years prior.”

The truth is that Maud has stolen this laptop from a community-funded program designed to help senior citizens. The narrator speaks from Maud’s perspective, however, and so the diction “acquired” softens the immorality of what she has done. Maud’s way of thinking about the laptop incident reflects a broader pattern in her life: Maud—often relying on stereotypes about the elderly—exploits those around her for her own purposes, downplaying the selfishness of her own actions.

“Zazza Henrix was called Siv Hansson back in the days when Maud was her teacher, and even then Maud thought she was a full-fledged trollop.”

Maud’s judgmental attitude toward a schoolgirl in her charge demonstrates her characteristic lack of empathy and compassion. The old-fashioned attitude conveyed by the diction “trollop” is also characteristic of Maud, whose perspective on the world has not kept pace with social changes over her many decades of life.

“Maud had booked full board, so she made the most of the delicious food. That night she enjoyed a deep and dreamless sleep in a lovely bed.”

Maud’s love of creature comforts is clear in her reaction to her first spa visit. The treatments are wonderful, and she very much enjoys the food and comfortable bed. This moment is especially revealing of her priorities, as she is able to appreciate the food and bed—eating heartily and sleeping peacefully—despite the fact that she is about to end a human life. This characterization of Maud helps to support the theme of The Impact of Self-Centered Thinking.

“The girl gently led Maud to her locker and made sure she put on her bathrobe and slippers. Maud thanked the helpful young lady, who gave her a consoling pat on the cheek before returning to her duties.”

The moment when the young spa employee takes pity on Maud and tries to see to her comfort after Zazza’s death illustrates the extent to which Maud is able to use her age to manipulate others and is a clear example of The Mistake of Stereotyping the Elderly. There is morbid humor in the irony of the situation: Maud has just cold-bloodedly murdered a woman—and not only is she in no way suspected, people are “gently” helping her and “consoling” her, sure that she is too feeble to even remember to properly dress herself without their assistance.

“Maud had called out—or had she? She’d definitely tried to grab hold of her sister, hadn’t she?”

The aporia in this passage creates doubt about what Maud did or did not do when she saw that Charlotte was in danger of falling down the stairs. Each memory of trying to help Charlotte—calling out a warning, trying to grab Charlotte to steady her—is followed by a rhetorical question that makes it clear Maud’s memories may be unreliable. Although in her present life she does not hesitate to kill, the possibility that she may have pushed her own sister to her death is too horrible for Maud to accept.

“Maud thought his grin had something of a sneer about it. With considerable self-control, she nodded to indicate that she would like some slices of the ham behind the glass of the chill counter.”

Maud’s reaction is typical of the text’s careful balancing of her perspective against the ambiguity of the situations she finds herself in. Based only on the young man’s choice to wear earbuds at work and his casual mention of “old dudes,” Maud decides that he is outrageously disrespectful (83). The narrator does not give any indication that his grin is actually a sneering one—only that Maud perceives it this way based on her preconceptions about the young man. There is verbal irony in the narrative’s claim that Maud is exercising “considerable self-control,” because although Maud might see it this way, the truth is that she is about to deliberately stab the young clerk with a large safety pin, which is hardly an example of self-control.

“The Problem was in full swing. It seemed worse than ever. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t ignore it.”

At this point in the narrative, the reader does not know what “The Problem” is—only that it is some noise that has been periodically interrupting Maud’s peace. Today, the noise is “worse than ever,” and Maud’s usual strategy of just trying to ignore it fails her. Passages like this create the impression that the source of the noise might be something like loud music, children playing, or a dog barking—the usual kinds of noise people are mildly annoyed by in apartment living. When, later in the story, it is revealed that the noise is actually from a man violently abusing his wife and that this has been going on for a full year, Maud’s callousness seems shocking and reinforces the theme of The Impact of Self-Centered Thinking.

“She couldn’t pretend that she didn’t know about it, which was what she would have like to do: avoid getting involved in The Problem. All she wanted was peace and quiet.”

Maud is not entirely indifferent to the attorney’s wife’s suffering—but it does not move her enough to want to help the woman. What finally motivates her to intervene is her own desire to enjoy her apartment and its comforts in “peace and quiet,” which she values above nearly everything else in life.

“Maud could clearly see the eye that was swollen shut and the bruise like a purple half-moon over the cheekbone.”

The vivid descriptive details in the image of the attorney’s wife are concrete evidence of what is happening in the apartment above Maud. This creates sympathy for the wife and conveys clearly what a terrible man the attorney is, making it obvious that his death will represent a relief from serious suffering for at least one person. Since this is the collection’s third story, it is easy to anticipate that Maud will kill him, just as she has already killed Jasmin and Zazza in previous stories. Anticipating his death and considering the moral implications of murdering someone who is causing great suffering for his wife helps to develop the text’s examination of The Ambiguity Between Justice and Vengeance.

“Had something happened to the old lady? Well, I say ‘old,’ but she’s only a couple of years older than me, to be fair.”

Richard’s habit of thinking of Maud as “the old lady” instead of “Maud” reflects both Maud’s isolation from her neighbors and the othering of elderly women that Maud counts on in order to get away with her crimes. Despite having known Maud for nearly three decades, Richard sees her impersonally, as little more than a representative of the category “old lady.” His ability to forget his own corresponding status as an “elderly gentleman” is an amusing detail that supports his characterization as somewhat self-aggrandizing.

“To my eternal gratitude, I was also given a mask to cover my mouth, although when I reached the doorway I realized it wasn’t much help.”

Details such as Richard’s reaction to the smell of decomposition and his clear unfamiliarity with what the mask will and will not filter contribute to his characterization. He has portrayed himself as a reasonably experienced investigator, familiar with homicide crime scenes and undisturbed by their gruesome details—but his reactions to the sight and smell of the antique dealer’s corpse show that he has greatly exaggerated his experience. That his own self-aggrandizement has landed him in such a disgusting situation is part of the text’s morbid humor.

“It was like walking into a time capsule, a gentleman’s room from a hundred years ago.”

Richard’s analogy comparing Maud’s father’s room to a time capsule conveys how trapped in the past Maud remains. Other details in his descriptions of her apartment reinforce this same sense: he refers, for instance, to “a kitchen where time had apparently stood still” since 1918 (104).

“I might have…maybe I went in there and opened the…It was hot and stuffy when I arrived back from Croatia…But he can’t have been lying there then, can he? I mean, surely I would have noticed? I don’t remember if I went in and opened the window.”

Ellipses are used to indicate the way Maud repeatedly pauses and lets ideas trail off, as if she is so distressed and confused she cannot martial coherent thoughts. Her confusion is reinforced by the rhetorical questions that follow—as if she is not looking for answers from Richard or Huss but rather looking for answers within herself. This creates dramatic irony, as the reader is better informed about Maud’s real capacities than is either Richard or Huss.

“No one has come up with a credible explanation, apart from Nils Thorén and me, but we can’t prove anything. And what police officer would listen to a theory cooked up by two old men?”

Richard’s closing remarks humorously demonstrate The Mistake of Stereotyping the Elderly. Not only has an elderly person committed the murder, but two other elderly people are actually the only ones who seem to have deduced the truth. Yet, because of preconceptions about older people, the younger detectives on the case seem nowhere near solving the case, and Richard is aware that his age will be a barrier to their belief in his solution.

“She had never even considered making any changes to the gentleman’s room […] Sometimes when she stepped inside she thought she could detect a faint scent of cigar smoke still lingering in the air.”

Maud’s state of mind when she is in her father’s old room explicitly ties her reluctance to make changes in the apartment to her love for her father. He has been dead for seventy years, and it is not possible that there is literally “cigar smoke still lingering in the air”—but figuratively, this olfactory image conjures the sense of her father as a lingering ghost that still haunts her present.

“Five-star hotels. An exclusive lodge in the Kruger National Park […] And she was also scheduling outings to vineyards, fantastic dinners at the best restaurants […] It would be twenty-four days in total and luxury all the way.”

Maud’s plans for her South Africa trip emphasize how important creature comforts and aesthetic pleasure are to her. She has already been to South Africa twice before, but she is determined to go again, and this time she will really spoil herself. When she thinks of her advancing age and what will happen to her money and possessions after she is gone, she decides that the best use of the family silver is to provide herself with even more pleasure and comfort than she has already experienced—it is evidence of The Impact of Self-Centered Thinking that she does not even consider how her money might be used to help others without her privileges.

“That little goblet had aroused his greed. Good, she thought. It’s going to cost you.”

Because “An Elderly Lady Is Faced with a Difficult Dilemma” is a paired story, the reader is already aware of a fact that Maud is not—that Frazzén will end up dead as a result of his greed. This creates a moment of dramatic irony and helps create the story’s morbidly comic tone.

“There was an unpleasant crunch as he hit the floor, and a pool of blood immediately began to form. Oddly enough, the wound Maud had inflicted wasn’t bleeding nearly enough to explain the quantity appearing under Frazzén’s head.”

The narrator’s dispassionate diction and observations reflect Maud’s state of mind. To her, the sound of Frazzén’s body hitting the floor is not “sickening” but merely “unpleasant.” Phrases like “oddly enough” create a tone of mild curiosity that contrasts with the horror of what is actually happening. The narrator notes details and draws conclusions as a scientist would observe an experiment, without any excess of emotion. This clinical narrative voice is used throughout the text to convey Maud’s almost complete lack of empathy for others.