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"Ah, dear Master Drosselmeier," she said, turning to Nutcracker, "there is nothing that I will not do to save you, but this is very hard!" Nutcracker looked all the while so sorrowfully, that Maria, who felt as if she saw the Mouse-King open his seven mouths, to devour the unhappy youth, resolved to sacrifice them all.
When the Mouse King visits Maria and demands that she sacrifice her sweet treats to him, she experiences an internal conflict regarding the best course of action. She ultimately decides that none of her possessions are as important to her as the Nutcracker, and this choice to give up her gifts highlights her selfless nature. Her willingness to protect the Nutcracker also sets a precedent that eventually empowers her to break Lady Mouserings’ curse.
Maria was not allowed, then, to speak any more of her adventures, but the images of that wonderful fairy kingdom played about her in sweet, rustling tones. She could bring them all back again, whenever she fixed her thoughts steadfastly upon them, and hence it came, that, instead of playing, as she formerly did, she would sit silent and thoughtful, musing within herself, for which reason the rest would often scold her, and call her a little dreamer.
Maria undergoes a number of transformations throughout the story, but the change in behavior that she displays after traveling to the Puppet Kingdom is a rather dark one. As a result of the criticism she receives from her family about her stories, Maria turns inward and grows quiet. While this approach may allow her to connect with the Puppet Kingdom on her own terms, it has significant implications for her social and emotional well-being in the Stahlbaums’ reality. Hoffmann seems to suggest that the family’s refusal to acknowledge Maria’s beliefs turns her into a shell of her former, lively self.
