Clay

Irony is a literary device in which the significance of a character’s words and actions are clear to the reader but remain unknown to the character. As the story “Clay” unfolds, readers are limited to Maria’s interpretations and thought processes due to the limited third-person point of view. However, readers soon learn that Maria’s interpretations of her position in life are at odds with the reality of the situation. The reader can easily discern that working as a scullery worker in a laundry in Dublin and living alone in a small room without family would not result in her seemingly content nature. Although Maria admits to some disappointment in a few situations, she persists in the Self-Deception that she is a valued worker and beloved friend. Although the story is overtly Maria’s, the final irony in “Clay” is that she disappears from the text after singing her song, and the focus shifts entirely to Joe: “In the end he had to ask his wife to tell him where the corkscrew is” (102). By ending the story thusly, Joyce emphasizes Maria’s self-deception in imagining that things are going decently well, despite her insignificance in the lives of those around her.

Like the other stories in Dubliners, the capital of Ireland provides the setting for “Clay.” Joyce portrays Dublin as a religiously divided, crowded, rude, and discordant space. The laundry where the Catholic Maria works, for example, is a Protestant endeavor. The trams are crowded, and Maria has difficulty finding seating. The young people are generally portrayed as rude and dismissive. The young men refuse to meet her eye or give her a place to sit. The neighbor girls play an unpleasant trick on the blindfolded Maria when they offer a saucer of clay for her in the traditional Halloween game. All these plot points present Dublin as an undesirable place to live.

Dublin is also a place of discord. The women in the laundry quarrel, the shop assistant is annoyed with Maria’s indecision, and Joe is ill-tempered when he drinks. Indeed, when Maria broaches the subject of Joe’s brother Alphy, Joe’s behavior borders on violence. Throughout the story, alcohol is presented as a recurring issue in the eyes of Maria, representing alcoholism in Joyce’s Dublin, exacerbating societal issues that already plague the central character.

Literary Realism is a literary technique wherein the writer attempts to present in language the reality of every situation, using specific verbs and nouns. The writer does not gloss over the harsh realities of life, but rather describes them fully. Clearly, Joyce’s portraits of the characters and setting of “Clay” are realistic in this regard. Though closely related to Literary Realism, Literary Naturalism is a philosophical movement that seeks to explore the causes influencing a character’s behavior. A Naturalist writer constructs characters impacted by their social, cultural, and familial circumstances.

In “Clay,” Maria’s situation as an unmarried, Catholic, small, working-class woman limits her self-determination. She exhibits subservient behavior, allowing her employer, the laundry workers, shopkeepers, and Joe to dictate her actions and emotional responses. When the laundry workers annually tease her about receiving a ring on Halloween, her only response is to deflect their laughter with her own “disappointed shyness” (97).

Maria’s positive description of the matron, the trappings of her situation, and her reflection about the British gentleman on the tram also suggest both her subservient behavior as well as the value she places on middle-class status. She is a creature of her culture, unable to break out of a difficult existence. Through Realism and Naturalism, Joyce demonstrates how suffocating that culture is to someone like Maria.