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Illustrated portrait of Martha

A character in The Delicate Prey and Other Stories

Martha

The young woman placed at the center of Pastor Dowe’s final misunderstanding.

What they want

To have the community’s expectations recognized rather than dismissed as another misunderstanding the missionary can leave behind.

The book

Cover of The Delicate Prey and Other Stories by Paul Bowles
The Delicate Prey and Other StoriesPaul Bowles, 1950

Seventeen stories in which travelers, families, missionaries, and outsiders discover how quickly the world can stop behaving as they expected.

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At a glance

Story
Pastor Dowe at Tacaté
Collection
The Delicate Prey and Other Stories
Period
Mid-twentieth century

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Martha belongs to the village where Dowe runs his mission. The community expects a marriage between them even though Dowe has not understood that expectation developing.

The story gives more access to Dowe’s confusion than to Martha’s thoughts. The missionary who came to explain life to others remains least prepared to understand what others expect from him.

Her role brings the conflict out of abstract theology. Dowe can tolerate difference more easily than he can accept an obligation that would bind him permanently to the community.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • Place in the storyShe stands where family, marriage, and village expectations meet the mission.
  • How power worksDowe has more institutional freedom and can leave when the obligation becomes uncomfortable.
  • What Bowles showsHer quiet presence reveals more about his limits than a long argument would.
  • What remains uncertainThe narration does not give enough of her interior life to reduce her wishes to one simple statement.
What happens to MarthaHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Dowe refuses to marry Martha and abandons the mission, leaving her inside the community he had claimed to serve.

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