Reality versus Unreality

What is real and what isn't is a very important theme in this novel as Mara struggles with hallucinations. At the conclusion of the novel, it appears that not all of the things that Mara had been blaming on her emotional disorder were actually the result of this disorder. Knowing that Jude is, indeed, alive puts an entire different slant to many of the things that have happened to Mara. One of the main things that she points out at the end of the novel is the way that the knowledge that Jude is alive might change her opinion of what happened the night that she was burned. Mara had believed that she had dropped her earrings into the tub of hot water. If Jude was really in the house with her, it is not a stretch to believe that she might actually have done so...