Joyce’s writing style in “A Mother” is defined by his use of free indirect discourse, a writing technique that features a third-person narrator who remains so close to a specific character’s perspective that they almost seem to merge with them. In “A Mother,” the narrator primarily stays close to Mrs. Kearney’s perspective, sometimes describing her thinking in a more distanced manner but at other times channeling her thinking directly, as seen in the following passage (when Mrs. Kearney is deeply upset about the Committee refusing to pay her the eight guineas for her daughter Kathleen’s performance):
They thought they had only a girl to deal with and that, therefore, they could ride roughshod over her. But she would show them their mistake. They wouldn’t have dared to have treated her like that if she had been a man.
Rather than writing, “Mrs. Kearney believed that the Committee members thought they had only a girl to deal with and that, therefore, they could ride roughshod over her,” or, “She thought to herself that they wouldn’t have dared to have treated her like that if she had been a man,” the narrator states these claims directly. This stylistic choice brings readers closer into Mrs. Kearney’s mind, helping them understand in a more direct way how upset she is about being treated in a sexist manner.
Joyce also intentionally switches perspectives at a few points in the story. For example, when introducing the Nationalist reporter Mr. Hendricks, the narrator moves into his mind for a paragraph, sharing the following insights into Mr. Hendricks’s perspective:
He had not intended to stay a moment because concerts and artistes bored him considerably but he remained leaning against the mantelpiece. Miss Healy stood in front of him, talking and laughing […] The warmth, fragrance and colour of her body appealed to his senses. He was pleasantly conscious that the bosom which he saw rise and fall slowly beneath him rose and fell at that moment for him, that the laughter and fragrance and wilful glances were his tribute.
Here, Joyce switches the perspective in order to offer readers insight into the sexism of one of the male characters in order to validate Mrs. Kearney’s concern that she is being treated as inferior because of her gender. Though Mr. Hendricks is not being outwardly harmful in this scene, he is sexualizing a woman he has just met, believing that every move she makes is “for him” as a sort of “tribute.” In addition to showing his patriarchal tendencies, the look into Mr. Hendricks’s mind here also shows how morally corrupt the leaders of the Nationalist movement are in this story—he does not actually care about his assignment (“concerts and artistes bored him considerably”) and would rather spend time objectifying women.
