Clay

“She was always sent for when the women quarreled over their tubs and always succeeded in making peace. One day the matron said to her: ‘Maria, you are a veritable peace-maker!’”

The term “peace-maker” derives from Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God” (KJV). The matron is the manager of a Protestant laundry where religious tracts are displayed on the walls, something that bothers the Catholic Maria. While Maria seems proud of being called a peacemaker by the matron, it is also possible the matron said this in a condescending manner. Maria being taken with the potential compliment highlights a subtle need for self-importance that she doesn’t often address.

“What a nice evening they would all have! Only she hoped that Joe wouldn’t come in drunk. He was so different when he took any drink.”

Throughout the story, Joyce references alcohol consumption. This is the first hint that Joe might have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and it calls to mind Joyce’s relationship with his father, who had an alcohol addiction. Like Joyce’s father, it appears that Joe frequently arrives home drunk and that when he is drunk, he can fly into a rage easily.

“She used to have such a bad opinion of Protestants but now she thought they were very nice people.”

Ireland in general, and Dublin in particular, was a largely Catholic country. Nonetheless, the Protestant minority held the power of employment and capital in the city. Since Maria’s only source of income is working in the laundry, she has reconciled herself to working with Protestants.

“There was one thing she didn’t like and that was the tracts on the wall, but the matron was such a nice person to deal with, so genteel.”

Maria’s assessment of the matron suggests that she admires and aspires to gentility and niceness, both middle-class values. Her contentment with her role under the matron despite her poor life quality is one of the many indicators of The Disparity Between Desire and Reality in Maria’s life.

“Maria had to laugh and say she didn’t want any ring or man either; and when she laughed her grey-green eyes sparkled with disappointed shyness.”

When she is teased by the laundry women about getting a ring in the Hallow Eve’s traditional party game, Maria laughs with them, although it is clear that they tease her in this way every year and that she finds it uncomfortable. The source of her disappointment is not readily apparent—she may either be disappointed that she lacks a spouse or prospects or that the women choose to tease her in this hurtful way repeatedly.

“The tram was full and she had to sit on the little stool at the end of the car, facing all the people, with her toes barely touching the floor.”

The full tram and later the crowds on the street show Dublin as a busy and crowded city. That no one will give Maria, a tiny old woman, a seat also speaks to her near invisibility. Likewise, being forced to sit on a stool where her feet do not touch the floor makes her seem more vulnerable and childlike. She is clearly embarrassed to have to face the passengers in this way, but like other times, she is powerless to fix her situation.

“[T]he stylish young lady behind the counter, who was evidently a little annoyed by her, asked her was it a wedding-cake she wanted to buy.”

The shop assistant is rude to Maria, demonstrating the general lack of regard Maria encounters in her daily life. The assistant’s sarcastic question about the wedding cake again hurts Maria because it is obvious that she would have no reason to be buying a wedding cake, nor that she could afford to buy such a cake.

“He was a stout gentleman and he wore a brown hard hat; he had a square red face and greyish mustache. Maria thought he was a colonel-looking gentleman.”

A middle-class older man, possibly a retired army officer, offers Maria a seat on the crowded tram and attempts to engage her in conversation. Maria admires him in much the same way she admires the matron, as being genteel. She considers him a gentleman, despite the fact that he has been drinking.

“Maria, remembering how confused the gentleman with the greyish moustache had made her, coloured with shame and vexation and disappointment. At the thought of the failure of her little surprise and of the two and fourpence she had thrown away for nothing she nearly cried outright.”

Maria discovers she has left the plum cake she bought for Joe and his wife on the tram. She is equally distraught over her own failure and disappointment and over the waste of half the money she owns. It is the first time readers see Maria upset and close to tears over her situation, and it is the moment in the text where readers have complete clarity on Maria’s discontentedness despite the façade she creates.

“Maria said she would rather they didn’t ask her to take anything: but Joe insisted.”

After getting cross over not finding the nutcracker, Joe asks Maria to take a bottle of stout, and Mrs. Donnelly suggests she have some wine. Maria wants no alcohol but gives in when Joe insists. In this scene, Maria shows herself to acquiesce when confronted with people she considers to be of higher social status. This exchange also shows that the others do not value Maria’s opinion.

“Maria laughed and laughed again till the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin.”

When she is forced to join in on the Halloween games with the neighbor girls, Maria deflects her discomfort with laughter, just as she did in the laundry kitchen. The detail of her nose touching her chin was offered earlier in the story, and in both cases, it serves to obscure Maria’s mouth, symbolizing her inability to protest or vocalize her discomfort.

“She felt a soft wet substance with her fingers and was surprised that nobody spoke or took off her bandage.”

The neighbor girls have played a cruel trick on Maria under the guise of forcing her to play the traditional Halloween games. They have placed a pile of clay, supposedly symbolizing death, on a saucer and have guided the blindfolded Maria to put her hand in it. This is the clay of the title and it symbolizes Maria’s powerlessness to act on her own behalf.

“Maria, blushing very much, began to sing in a tiny quavering voice.”

At the insistence of Joe and his wife, Maria sings an old song, “I Dreamt that I Dwelt.” That she is much embarrassed by her singing is evidenced by her blushing and by the waver in her voice. The lyrics of the song assert that love is more important than riches, and stand at odds with Maria’s poor social status and the illusion of love around her. Love is not enough to fix her situation, and the “love” she has in those closest to her at the party is as much of a façade as is her happiness. There is irony and tragedy in her being forced to sing a song of things she’ll never have, and of the possibility of love overcoming poor social standing.