"Clay" by James Joyce from Dubliners

It's been interesting that a lot of hits to my blog come from Google searches that relate to my literature papers, London by Blake and Frankenstein by Shelley.  So I present the next in my series.  This is an interpretation of the short story "Clay" by James Joyce which is part of the collection Dubliners.  So we get the usual themes of paralysis, epiphany, etc... so if you like, leave a comment, or any feedback that would improve my work.  Anyways hope you enjoy.

In “Clay,” by James Joyce, the first paragraph offers a simple detail, “These brambracks seemed uncut; but if you went closer you would see that they had been cut…” (Joyce, Dubliners 95).  This ordinary cake at the beginning offers the reader a guide on how to view the subsequent story, where things that may seem a certain way on the surface, can be revealed to be something different upon a closer look.  The protagonist Maria cut the cake, thus offering a connection between Maria’s action and the revealed nature of the cake.  Applying this metaphor for Maria’s life, the reader may unearth the possibility of another life, a secret life, that isn’t apparent on the surface, but changes upon acute inspection.

First consider Maria’s employment at Dublin by Lamplight, a Protestant run laundry facility, that takes in “fallen women.”  She likes working there, where she describes that it is filled with “very nice people,” “nice people to live with,” and which the matron is also a “nice person” (96).  Maria also has “lovely ferns,” which she likes to look after.  On the surface of things, Dublin by Lamplight seems like a great place for Maria.  But as we look closer, like the brambracks, the picture becomes richer.

What kind of institution was Dublin by Lamplight?  It has been noted that these institutional laundries were religious operations which “sought to rescue fallen women and drunkards” (278).  They were charities on the surface.  But the nature of them may be darker.  Joyce wrote to his brother Stanislaw Joyce in November, 1906: "The meaning of Dublin by Lamplight laundry? . . . It is run by a society of Protestant spinsters, widows and  childless women - I expect - as a Magdalen's home.   I like the phrase because it is a gentle way of putting it.” (Joyce, Letters 130).  Joyce’s comparison with the “Magdalen home,” specifically the Magdalen Asylums of Ireland, if they are to be taken into account, were practically prisons.  The documentary Sex in a Cold Climate, chronicles the history and women of the Magdalen asylums,  who were placed there by families and churches for such offenses such as kissing, flirting,  victims of rape, and even being “too pretty.” Most women worked 12-hour days with no pay, and many who entered the laundry asylums never left and usually would die within its walls. The women of Dublin by Lamplight were likely not just criminals and prostitutes, but the women of Ireland that society had thrown away, because they didn’t fit any traditional roles.

These details are not apparent at first glance in “Clay,” and must be unearthed by taking into account what a typical Dubliner would know by instinct.  Maria’s view of the people as “nice” becomes an irony that creates interesting questions about Maria.  Does she ignore the reality of the women she is surrounded by?  Does she recognize the hypocrisy of the laundry asylum?  Does she see part herself in the women at the laundry, so she is unable comment on their plights, because she would be revealing something about herself?  Like the brambracks, a closer view brings interesting possibilities.  On the surface Maria is free to go where she wants to go, but her role in society is confined by social constraints due to her lack of a husband.  Maria is in one sense the same as the women at Dublin by Lamplight, but looking more closely, she may be the more confined prisoner.

Joyce characterizes Maria as a witch-like, a “small figure” with a “very long nose and a very long chin” (Joyce, Dubliners 95).  The witch figure is usually an outcast living on the margins of society.  It is interesting that Maria, the archetypical witch works for the “official” outcasts of the laundry asylum.  If she is the outcast living outside the asylum, it becomes possible she holds a secret, unlike the women inside the asylum whose secrets are out in the open.

As the story moves along, Maria’s religious devotion is clearly important when she sets her alarm for mass.  She remembers how she dressed as a young girl, while she stands in front of a mirror.  In this self-reflection she finds her body “nice” (97).  This “nice” body, just like the “nice” people at the asylum, may hold darker secrets.  It also becomes an irony, because “nice” is not the word that usually describes a witch.  There is clearly a pull between two opposites in this story between the nice girl of Maria’s youth and the witch-crone of her older years.  Maybe this longing for the past subdues memories over guilt that motivates her current pious devotion.

This brings a question to mind, what happened in Maria’s life that brought her to the reader in “Clay?”  Surely, no one ends up like her without a story to tell, but unfortunately, she is inhibited, and will not let us know.  It seems that Maria’s inner life may hold a secret the Joyce doesn’t care to reveal.  The brambrack cake could symbolize this possibility.  The brambrack was a cake that usually held a ring or coin as a surprise.  At the laundry, Lizzie Fleming tells Maria that she is “sure to get the ring” (97).  To which Maria laughs, and says she doesn’t want the “ring or a man,” and her “eyes sparkle with disappointed shyness” (97).  It’s apparent that Maria is shy, but why should she be disappointed when she clearly says she doesn’t need the surprise?  Could her disappointment be because of a love in her past? What is interesting is that the brambrack ring is never mentioned as found by anyone else at the laundry gathering, possibly symbolizing the secret within Maria that will not be revealed to the reader.

At the end of the story, Maria sings the song “I Dream that I Dwelt.” When Maria sings the first stanza “blushing,” “in a tiny quavering voice,” it illustrates that Maria is embarrassed to sing a love song, and in so doing repeats the first stanza, with the narrator commenting “no one tried to show her her mistake” (102).  This may also signal the reader that “mistake” could be a double entendre, that Maria’s past holds a experience that she has buried.

The fact that Maria doesn’t sing the second stanza could be a conscious choice to avoid her past.  The stanza is described as that “which intensifies the heroine’s commitment of a love that she hopes will remain true in any social circumstance” (281).  Also the title of the song is interesting in that it is both present tense and past tense. She dreams in the present, but she wishes she “dwelt” in a past that is gone.  Close examination strengthens the argument that she holds buried secrets.

When we look at another story of secrets, we find similarities, as in “The Dead.”   Gretta remembers a lost love in the past, when she hears the song “The Lass of Aughrim.”     In the narration of the story it is never made explicit that Gretta is remembering her lost love, until she actually confesses to Gabriel her memory.  This stylistic device keeps the secret hidden from the reader until Gretta confesses.  Maria in “Clay” never confesses anything, but it doesn’t preclude that she holds secrets from the reader, and the narrator even encourages it, with the abundance of details that prompt questions.

Also, the reader needs to consider the title “Clay.”  The obvious relation to the story is the “soft, wet substance” that the blindfolded Maria chooses in the Halloween game (101).  Clay often infers death for the participant, but the game is played again for Maria’s sake and she chooses the prayer-book instead.   The substance of clay itself is a material that when wet is malleable, but will harden as it dries.  It is also a substance that is found in the ground usually beneath the topsoil.  The use of clay in the story could have several symbolic meanings.  Maria as a young girl was malleable and impressionable, but has hardened with age, invoking a type of paralysis.  Also the clay represents secrets buried beneath the apparent surfaces of things, beneath the viewable topsoil of her life.

Like the cut up brambrack cake that changes on closer inspection, Maria’s life is also cut up as we approach the details of her present circumstances.  In the end the reader may experience the epiphany about the nature of her character.  Unfortunately, Maria doesn’t gain understanding of herself, because she has buried it in the clay.

Works Cited:

Joyce, James. Dubliners. Introduction and Notes by Terence Brown.  Penguin: New York. 1993.

Joyce, James.  The Selected Letters of James Joyce.  Edited by Richard Ellman.  Viking Press: New York.  1975.

Sex in a Cold Climate.  dir. Steve Humphries.  Testimony Films, 1998.

Comments

[maria habib]

i think the independence in young age play a great role to make her a vulture

[waqar azeem]

i think caly can be considerd as a symbol of life, too. for a human being, his life is raw, shapeless and unpatterned,likely to be moulded into an form withe the progression of time. when Maria's hand approache clay, with her eyes blinfolded, she offers a striking comparison with the a sitution all of us ncessarily and continuously pass through:all of us are blindfolded when we come to think of our life in futuristic terms, and all of us find the shape of our futur life and accompanying circumstances as undefined as the shape of a mould of clay may be.

[Steven]

The use of blindness again in "clay" can be connected to the various other stories in Dubliners. Joyce's own vision had faded at a young age and he would be sensitive to the distortion of vision. Maria's reaching for the unmoulded clay with a blind hand has striking signifigance as to the fact that clay can be moulded as can people's perceptions of events.
Maria's green eyes also connect back to the idea that the Dubliners is an anthology of the moral history of Dublin through the eyes of Joyce. She shares these green eyes with many of the more disturbing characters in the entire series. these include the "queer old josser" from "An Encounter" and Polly Mooney in "the Boarding House". These two characters can help to define the secret life behind the hardened clay exterior of Maria.
The "josser" is a shocking image of the perverse nature of the institution of sexuality in Dublin and Polly is a perverse little "Madonna". These two characters who share her eye color may also reveal more about her past than it first appears.

[Al Hall]

Maria is a spirit, visiting on Halloween night. She declines the offer of nuts and drink but, Joe insists that she drink. Otherwise, she would haunt the household for the rest of the year.

The neighbor girls put the clay in the saucer to remind Maria where she came from = out of the ground.

[james]

i think "clay" by james joyce is considered as situation can be happened for everyone in this contemporary era

[alisha]

I think you're insight into maria in 'Clay' is excellent and has given me some pointers for the essay i must write. thanks!

[Dave]

You can view an animated, narrated version of the Boarding House here:
http://www.adamsmithacademy.org/The_Boarding_House.html

There are more animated classics at:
http://www.adamsmithacademy.org

[Dave]

You can view an animated, narrated version of the Boarding House here:
http://www.adamsmithacademy.org/The_Boarding_House.html

There are more animated classics at:
http://www.adamsmithacademy.org

[Jonathan Michelsohn]

The clay is a part of the numerous symbols of sterility in the story.You can not grow anything in clay, though it has the look and feel of earth.

[Jonathan Michelsohn]

That "sterility is evil" is the major theme of the story.
Moral,artistic, biologic,and emotional sterility.
Maria as the witch represents evil.Also one of the seven deadly sins, pride is represented in the story. The other six can be found individually in other stories(lust in "the boarding House", anger in "Counterparts", envy in "A little Cloud").I'll leave it to you to find the others.
Sterility is represented by her name(think virgin birth) plants(ferns reproduce by spores only). the opening words"The matron", Hallows eve(what if Eve were hollow?).
The above posts are from notes taken when analyzing this story in a college course and I believe them to be true.Final word of the story..."corkscrew" a twisted and possibly non-functional phallic symbol.There is much Freud in Joyce....note Maria's "Freudian slip" as she leaves out a verse of "I dreamnt I dwelt"

[deborah Pow]

Maria is called a peace maker, but that can be read as piece maker. She divides brambrack and families. (fight between the Donnellys was started by her as was the irritation of the children who had been accused of stealing. Joe had to ask where the cork screw was probably because Mrs Donnelly hid it to stop him from drinking too much.

[hira]

i will surely post my comments on this short story.But now i really appreciate your interpretation of this story...it's really appreciable n substantial.

[hira]

i will surely post my comments on this short story but this time i have to appreciate your interpretation of this short story.It's really appreciable and substantial

[madeeha hassan]

hey i like the ideas and thoughts presented by diffrent readers of the story.these are really appreciable and comprehensible.it depicts different school of thoughts with different interpretations abt the story

[Joel]

Sorry, but this little error annoys me for some reason like someone chewing gum too loud: "Clay often infers death for the participant," you mean "implies," don't you?

Otherwise, beautiful essay and extremely illuminating; I never would have imagined about the significance of the cake (but were most contemporary readers Irish people who would have known what the cake was?).

[Larissa]

nice essay, really helpful...but I thought the aria Maria is singing is called "I dreamt that I dwelled" instead of I dream...so there's no mixture of present and past ..