The Misunderstanding

Alone in his room, Jan frets about Maria. When Martha enters to bring towels and water, Jan tries to joke with her about the strict conversational boundaries she’s established. Martha criticizes this attempt as another example of Jan’s inability to converse normally.

Wavering in her resolve to murder Jan, Martha highlights the room’s inconveniences in an attempt to get him to leave the inn. Jan intuits she’s trying to get rid of him but doesn’t understand why. She admits she must decide whether she and her mother will that day abandon their old line of work and move to the seaside. Since Jan hopes to stay for at least a couple days, Martha agrees to reconsider their departure.

Martha asks Jan to describe the North African country in which he lives. His descriptions of untouched beaches, sublime evenings, and luxuriant, riotous springs enrapture her. She bemoans Europe’s paltry springs but sneers that its heartless inhabitants deserve them. Gazing at Martha, Jan suggests that if only she were patient, she would see the people around her bloom like the flowers of Africa. Suddenly aware that Jan thinks they’re connecting, Martha retorts that she’ll never find happiness in Europe and will do anything to escape it.