At the beginning of Book 2, Maurice writes:
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I sometimes wonder whether anything that I am putting down here is true.
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We are dealing here with a man who feels inferior to Sarah, because she is both beautiful and intelligent. He tells us this near the beginning of the book:
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I have always found it hard to feel sexual desire without some sense of superiority, mental or physical.
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His own deep inadequacy leads him to abuse and ill-treat the woman he professes to love. She in turn does not believe herself to be worthy of love - it's the perfect recipe for domestic violence.
Then comes the struggle with belief after the seeming miracle of Maurice's survival. It doesn't matter whether we believe in miracles or not: what matters is how Sarah struggled with the need to keep the vow that she made when she prayed for him to survive.
ETA: Sorry
gmw, this crossed with your post, and wasn't meant to be a response to it!