Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Mother, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Class, Ambition, and Corruption
Irish Nationalism, Colonization, and Failure
Paralysis and Decay
Gender and Power
Summary
Analysis
Mr Holohan is the assistant secretary of the Eire Abu Society. Because of his bad leg, his friends call him “Hoppy Holohan.” He has spent the past month trying to arrange a series of concerts in Dublin, and although he spends a lot of time advertising for the concerts, a woman named Mrs Kearney ends up pulling everything together.
Mr Holohan’s limp is the first sign of paralysis in “A Mother.” His physical disability mirrors the Irish Nationalist movement’s inability to effect change for Ireland in a lasting, meaningful way: both Mr Holohan and the Nationalist movement “limp” along without accomplishing much. And the detail that Mrs Kearney ends up pulling together most of the concert details underscores how ineffective Mr Holohan is as a spokesman for the Nationalist cause.
Themes
Mrs Kearney received an education from an upper-class convent, including instruction in music and French. At school, her stubbornness made it difficult for her to make friends. When she was of marrying age, she impressed many people with her manners and her piano playing, but despite her skills, none of the men she met seemed extraordinary enough to give her a “brilliant” life, and she dealt with her disappointment by secretly eating a lot of Turkish Delight. Once she was a bit old to still be unmarried, people started to gossip about her, so she married Mr Kearney, a boot manufacturer, “out of spite.”
Joyce’s description of Mrs Kearney’s past establishes the level of wealth she is accustomed to, complete with a high-class education. And her stubbornness foreshadows the conflict she will get into with the Eire Abu Society. However, the detail that she uses her piano-playing to attract a husband hints at how limited her choices in life are despite her wealth: as a woman, the only way she can actively determine her lifestyle is by choosing whom to marry. In this light, her stubbornness and her high expectations seem more sympathetic as she takes care in choosing what is really best for her. At the same time, when she marries Mr Kearney to silence the gossip about her, she chooses to keep up appearances instead of waiting for real love, revealing how highly she prioritizes her social status.
Themes
Mr Kearney is significantly older than Mrs Kearney, and he’s very serious. While Mrs Kearney has come to appreciate him and is a good wife, she has never completely abandoned her romantic ideals. Mr Kearney is “sober, thrifty, and pious,” has a brown beard, and takes Communion on the first Friday of every month with or without his wife.
The age gap between Mr and Mrs Kearney, combined with Joyce’s description of Mr Kearney’s brown beard, suggests that Mr Kearney represents an older, possibly even outdated version of Ireland. His piety and general aura of seriousness align with the problems that Joyce saw in Dublin: not enough people were willing to disrupt the status quo to revolutionize Irish culture. Mr Kearney’s brown beard marks him as a kind of relic of the Irish people, since Joyce uses the color brown to indicate decay throughout Dubliners.
Themes
The Kearneys are very attuned to one another’s needs and Mr Kearney is a good father, putting money into accounts for his two daughters to ensure that they will each have hundred-pound dowries when they turn 24. Mr Kearney sent his oldest daughter, Kathleen, to a convent like the one her mother attended, and he paid for her to study music at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He regularly takes his family to nice seaside resorts in Skerries, Howth, or Greystones during the summer.
The Kearneys’ marriage is a prime example of wealthy people making their marriages work in the interest of mutual social success: although Mrs Kearney has sacrificed romance to marry her husband, she receives an elevated social status and a comfortable lifestyle while securing the same for her daughters. However, the differences between Mrs Kearney’s life and Kathleen’s illuminate the shifting expectations of women from the time Mrs Kearney was young to the time in which “A Mother” takes place: unlike her mother, Kathleen is able to receive an advanced education in music, one that sets her up for a potential career and not just a marriage. This discrepancy causes a subtle tension in the story as Mrs Kearney sees her daughter living a life she might have lived had she only been born later. Finally, the fact that Mrs Kearney likes to talk about her vacations suggests that she is invested in shaping other people’s impressions of her as a happy, prosperous woman with a successful family.
Themes
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Once the Irish Revival became popular, Mrs Kearney decided to “take advantage of her daughter’s name,” Kathleen, and have her learn to speak and write to her friends in Irish. When Mr Kearney and his family attend Sunday mass at the pro-Cathedral, a temporary cathedral in Dublin, people wait for the Kearneys outside the church to gossip about music and Irish Nationalism. Kathleen Kearney is well-known in Dublin for being musically gifted, kind, and “a believer” in the revival of the Irish language.
Mrs Kearney observes that Kathleen shares her name with a traditional Irish heroine, Kathleen ni Houlihan, and by branding her daughter as a Nationalist woman and artist, she takes advantage of the comparison between the two in order to establish a reputation for her daughter. Mrs Kearney’s proactive attitude towards her daughter’s career reveals her social ambitions for her family as well as her desire to give her daughter the life she couldn’t have. By micromanaging Kathleen’s abilities and successes, Mrs Kearney ends up being a part of her daughter’s musical career even though she could not have one of her own. However, her attitude towards Nationalism is not at all related to the actual aims of the movement. Irish Nationalism, the push for the Irish people to gain political and cultural freedom from their English colonizers, had a long history of failed rebellions by the time “A Mother” takes place. By participating in the Irish Revival, a renewed interest in Ireland’s unique Gaelic and Celtic precolonial cultures, the Kearneys take part in Nationalism in the least politically radical way possible. Moreover, they essentially use the Nationalist movement for personal gain, taking advantage of the political moment to try to gain higher status in Dublin.
Themes
Literary Devices
Mrs Kearney, pleased with Kathleen’s fame, is not surprised when Mr Holohan approaches her to ask if Kathleen would be the piano accompanist for a series of four concerts his Society will host in the Antient Concert Rooms, a public meeting-hall in Dublin. Mrs Kearney invites him into her drawing-room, offers him wine and “the silver biscuit barrel,” and works with him to set a contract for Kathleen so that she will receive eight guineas for her performance.
By offering Mr Holohan the silver biscuit barrel, Mrs Kearney asserts her class superiority over him. Ultimately, the eight-guinea contract she convinces Mr Holohan to sign benefits her much more than it benefits him, particularly since the guinea coin was out of circulation at the time the story takes place. Guineas thus became the primary monetary unit for wealthy people’s business transactions. Drawing up the contract in guineas makes Mrs Kearney appear more aristocratic than she is and gestures towards her sense of paralysis: she cannot let go of the outdated social systems of the past.
Themes
Because Mr Holohan is inexperienced in event planning, Mrs Kearney helps him write the bills for the concert and order the performers. With her “tact,” she decides which “artistes” should go in what order and how the bills advertise them, putting some performers’ names in “capitals” and others in “small type.” She balances comedic performers with serious singers and makes sure the audience will stay entertained by putting “doubtful” performers between sure audience favorites. Mr Holohan asks for her opinion nearly every day throughout the planning process, and she is always friendly and thoughtful—and keeps giving Mr Holohan plenty of wine.
The word “artistes”—a French word she would have learned at her upper-class school—appears in “A Mother” to signal that Mrs Kearney is much wealthier than the people around her and that her expectations of the concerts are much higher than their likely reality. However, it often turns out to be an ironic description, since the “artistes” themselves don’t measure up to Mrs Kearney’s expectations. Moreover, by speaking French throughout the story and not Irish (the language of the Irish Nationalist movement), Mrs Kearney reveals where her loyalties lie: with the wealthy Dubliners, not with those fighting for freedom. When she takes over concert planning, Mrs Kearney leverages what little power she has over Mr Holohan: by playing the hostess, she is able to use her femininity to influence him to do whatever she wants. However, Joyce will reveal how this influence only works to a certain extent.
Themes
Encouraged by how well the planning is going, Mrs Kearney goes out and buys lace dress trim from an expensive fabric shop in Dublin to add to Kathleen’s performing dress. Although she knows how expensive it is, she believes it is worth it. Then, she buys a dozen two-shilling tickets to give to friends who “could not be trusted to come otherwise.” She thinks of everything and, as a result, “everything that was to be done was done.”
The expense Mrs Kearney goes to in order to ensure the concerts’ success demonstrates how far she is willing to go to increase her family’s social status and give her daughter the career Mrs Kearney couldn’t have. However, her work is only for her family’s success, not the success of the Nationalist message or the performers in general, something that will pose problems for her going forward.
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Literary Devices
The four concerts are scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but when Mrs Kearney and Kathleen arrive at the venue on Wednesday night, Mrs Kearney is not impressed with what she sees. A few young, underdressed stewards idle in the vestibule, and when Mrs Kearney looks down the hall, she realizes why: not enough people have shown up. While at first Mrs Kearney wonders if she is too early, it is almost eight o’clock.
When the concert is sparsely attended, Mrs Kearney gets the first hint that the concerts will not live up to her high expectations. Once again, the Nationalist movement seems unable to galvanize enough attention to make an impact, even with Mrs Kearney’s help and investment.
Themes
Backstage in the dressing-room, Mrs Kearney meets the secretary of the Eire Abu Society, Mr Fitzpatrick, a small man with a “white vacant face,” a brown hat perched “carelessly” on his head, and a “flat” Dublin accent. As he speaks to her, he gnaws on one of the ends of the concert program. Mr Holohan comes in every so often with reports from the box office, and Mr Fitzpatrick appears to “bear disappointments lightly.”
Mr Fitzpatrick’s brown hat, like Mr Kearney’s brown beard, signals the decay Joyce saw in Dublin. His brown hat and “vacant” face hint at his moral emptiness, his carelessness, and, finally, his apparent lack of investment in the Nationalist cause. Joyce’s description of Mr Fitzpatrick, particularly the brown detail, casts him as Mr Kearney’s opposite: Mr Kearney is too serious about the things that keep the Irish people subjugated like the Catholic Church, and Mr Fitzpatrick doesn’t care enough about the movement that could help set the Irish people free. Neither one is of much use to the cause.
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Literary Devices
As Mr Holohan pops in and out, reporting box office numbers to Mr Fitzpatrick, the “artistes” talk nervously amongst themselves. At almost half past eight, the few people waiting in the hall ask for the performance to begin, and in response, Mr Fitzpatrick smiles “vacantly” at the room and declares that he supposes they had better get started. Mrs Kearney again notes his accent’s flatness and glares at him before asking Kathleen if she is ready to perform.
The word “artistes” appears to remind the reader that the performers at the concert are of a much lower caliber than Mrs Kearney expected. Moreover, Mr Fitzpatrick’s delay in starting the concert gives the reader further hints into why the Nationalist movement is gaining cultural popularity but losing political traction: leaders like Mr Fitzpatrick are simply not that concerned about the movement’s success. The detail about Mr Fitzpatrick’s accent highlights the wealth difference between Fitzpatrick and Mrs Kearney: his “flat” Dublin accent is different from Mrs Kearney’s more upper-class Irish accent, and the fact that Mrs Kearney zeroes in on his accent suggests that she looks down on him.
Themes
When she has the opportunity, Mrs Kearney pulls Mr Holohan to the side and asks him why the turnout is so low. Mr Holohan replies that he isn’t sure, but he figures that the Committee must have made a mistake when they decided on four concerts, since four seem to be too many. Mrs Kearney tells Mr Holohan that the “artistes” performing are not good, and Mr Holohan agrees. He tells her that the Committee has decided to let the first three concerts be mediocre and save all the talent for the final Saturday night show.
Mr Holohan’s inexperience becomes even more evident as he tries to explain the situation to Mrs Kearney, and his explanation suggests that the entire Committee is similarly unprepared to organize four nights of concerts—and, by extension, are completely unprepared to organize “victory” for Ireland. In fact, when they cut their losses and plan on a better turnout for the final concert, they mimic what the Irish Nationalist rebellions had done for centuries: give up and leave it up to someone else to try. Mrs Kearney also actually speaks the word “artistes” out loud to Mr Holohan backstage, flaunting her status and making her stand out among the lower-class Irish Nationalists.
Themes
Once Mr Holohan finishes explaining, Mrs Kearney says nothing in reply and, after watching the disappointing concert go on—and the crowd thin out—she begins to regret spending so much money and making such an effort on the series. Something about the concert doesn’t seem right to her, and she particularly doesn’t care for Mr Fitzpatrick’s “vacant” smile. She holds her tongue until the end of the concert, and everyone goes home just before ten.
Mrs Kearney starts to realize how ineffective the Society is, but doesn’t cause a stir just yet since Mr Holohan continues making promises to her and since Kathleen is still supposed to be paid for her performances. By keeping mostly quiet about her concerns, she once again sacrifices her true feelings for possible personal gain.
Themes
Compared to the Wednesday concert, the Thursday concert is much better attended. However, when Mrs Kearney looks at the crowd, she can see that it is “filled with paper”—full of people who have been admitted to the theater for free. The audience behaves poorly throughout the evening. Nevertheless, Mr Fitzpatrick appears to be having a good time, talking and laughing with friends occasionally, completely unaware of Mrs Kearney glaring at him, irritated with his behavior.
Once again, Mrs Kearney imposes her upper-class expectations on the concert, looking down on the lower-class audience for not behaving as if they were wealthy theater-goers. And since Mr Fitzpatrick joins in, Mrs Kearney looks down on him even more. While the audience’s behavior shows that they do not seem to care about the cause of Irish freedom, Mr Fitzpatrick’s conduct makes the strongest case for the Nationalist movement’s stagnation: when he takes advantage of the concert’s rowdy environment, Joyce invites the reader to consider how he (and others like him) might take advantage of the Nationalist movement as well.
Themes
During the Thursday evening concert, Mrs Kearney learns that the Friday concert will be cancelled, and the Committee will do everything in its power to make Saturday’s show a full house. As soon as she learns about the Committee’s plans, she goes looking for Mr Holohan. She stops him while he is limping over to a young woman to bring her lemonade and asks him if it is true that the Friday concert will be cancelled. He tells her that it is true, and Mrs Kearney insists that the cancellation shouldn’t affect Kathleen’s contract. Mr Holohan, who seems to be in a hurry, tells Mrs Kearney that she ought to talk to Mr Fitzpatrick. Feeling increasingly worried, Mrs Kearney flags down Mr Fitzpatrick.
Mr Holohan’s limp reappears at the same time that Mrs Kearney learns that the Friday concert will be cancelled, emphasizing how hobbled the Nationalist movement is, particularly by its incompetent leaders like Mr Holohan and Fitzpatrick and by wealthy opportunists like Mrs Kearney. Mrs Kearney’s stubbornness (her form of “paralysis”) starts to come into play as she refuses to adjust her expectations to the changing circumstances, instead insisting that Kathleen still be paid in full despite the concerts’ box office failures. However, the reader can also see how Mrs Kearney’s wealth can only take her so far, as Mr Holohan continually evades her questions—suggesting she has less power in public than she has in her home.
Themes
Once Mrs Kearney gets Mr Fitzpatrick’s attention, she reminds him that Kathleen has signed a contract for four concerts and, “of course,” she ought to receive the full payment regardless of whether all four concerts happen. However, Mr Fitzpatrick does not seem to understand the problem or be able to solve it. He tells Mrs Kearney that he will present the issue to the Committee, and Mrs Kearney begins to flush with anger. She holds herself back from mocking Mr Fitzpatrick’s accent and asking who the “Cometty” is because it would not be “ladylike,” so she holds her tongue.
Like Mr Holohan, Mr Fitzpatrick is evasive and dismissive when Mrs Kearney comes to him with questions. His ignorance about the actual workings of her contract with the Committee exposes yet more problems with the Nationalist society’s organization and communication. Mrs Kearney’s desire to mock Mr Fitzpatrick’s accent is a classist reminder that she considers herself above him and the other Irish people. But the detail that Mrs Kearney attempts to stay “ladylike” in her public interactions with him invites the reader to question whether he would be as dismissive of a man’s concerns about a contract and reminds the reader that Mrs Kearney walks a fine line to maintain her reputation.
Themes
On Friday morning, groups of little boys are sent out to distribute handbills for the Saturday concert, and “puffs” advertising the concert appear in the evening paper. The advertising somewhat reassures Mrs Kearney, but she still tells her husband about her worries. Mr Kearney listens to her and says that he thinks it would be better if he went to the Saturday concert with her, and Mrs Kearney agrees. She respects him the same way she respects other “large, secure and fixed” things like “the General Post Office,” and although she knows that he does not possess many talents, she can appreciate “his abstract value as a male.”
When Mrs Kearney turns to her husband for help, she continues in her efforts to enhance her family’s reputation and brings in someone with more power than herself: a wealthy man. Her description of her husband confirms his status as an immovable relic of the past, and her dismissal of his actual abilities relative to his “abstract value” as a man in public highlights how, despite her many actual talents, she still cannot command the same respect in public that her husband does.
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Literary Devices
On the night of the Saturday concert, Mrs Kearney, Mr Kearney, and Kathleen arrive together 45 minutes before the beginning of the show. Unluckily, it is a rainy night. Once the Kearneys arrive, Mrs Kearney puts her husband in charge of Kathleen’s music and clothes and she goes to look for Mr Holohan or Mr Fitzpatrick. But when she can’t find either of them, she asks the stewards if they know where any of the Committee members are, and “after a great deal of trouble,” one of the stewards brings her “a little woman,” Miss Beirne.
The weather matches the dour tone of the concertgoers and Society members, and as Mrs Kearney attempts to make contact with just one of the Committee members, the Society once again reveals how disorganized and ineffectual they are when none of the Society members seem to be in attendance until Miss Beirne shows up.
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Mrs Kearney explains to Miss Beirne that she wants to see one of the Committee secretaries, and Miss Beirne replies that she expects them to arrive at any minute and asks if she can do anything for her. Mrs Kearney looks closely at Miss Beirne’s “oldish face” which is “screwed into an expression of trustfulness and enthusiasm,” and Mrs Kearney tells her no.
Like Mr Holohan and Mr Fitzpatrick, Miss Beirne is not able to help Mrs Kearney get any answers. The detail that she must “screw” her face into looking trustworthy and enthusiastic suggests that Miss Beirne knows that her Society is not particularly legitimate or effective.
Themes
Miss Beirne hopes that they will have a good house for the Saturday concert. Looking out at the rain, however, the “melancholy of the wet street” erases all the “trustfulness and enthusiasm” from her “twisted” face. She sighs and says, “Ah, well! We did our best, the dear knows,” and Mrs Kearney has to report back to the dressing-room as the “artistes” begin to arrive at the theater.
Miss Beirne doesn’t seem particularly surprised that the concert is a failure, and the detail that the Society did their “best” suggests that they really aren’t capable of more than what they accomplished with the concert series—another partial explanation for the stagnation of the Irish Nationalist movement. As Mrs Kearney maneuvers backstage, the word “artistes” appears again, emphasizing the contrast between Mrs Kearney and her surroundings and deepening the irony around the concerts’ failure.
Themes
The bass, Mr Duggan, has already arrived backstage. He is a thin man with a “scattered” moustache who, despite only being a hall porter’s son, practiced his singing relentlessly “until he had become a first-rate artiste.” Once, he appeared as the king in the opera Maritana at the Queen’s Theatre when the original performer became sick. While he sang well and the audience loved him, he “marred” the impression he made by absentmindedly wiping his nose with his hand. He is a quiet, “unassuming” man who says “yous” so quietly that no one notices and drinks milk to preserve his voice.
The description of Mr Duggan demonstrates the difficulty people from lower classes than Mrs Kearney have in making names for themselves. Despite his real talent, his manners make him less appealing to wealthy audiences. His lower-class Dublin slang, “yous,” betrays his class background, and Joyce’s depiction of him makes him more sympathetic than many other characters in the story. However, the detail that he drinks milk to protect his voice makes him seem just as pathetic as the other performers since milk isn’t a helpful thing to drink for a singing voice.
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Literary Devices
The second tenor, Mr Bell, has also already arrived. He is a small, blond man who competes for prizes every year at the Feis Ceoil, an Irish music festival. In his fourth year of competition, he won a bronze medal. He is anxious-tempered and envious of other tenors, and when he meets Mr Duggan, he makes sure Mr Duggan knows how difficult concerts are for him before laughing and shaking his hand.
Mr Bell has high ambitions, but his actual talent does not match his aims. Joyce’s description of his pathetic attempts to gain success mirror Mrs Kearney’s efforts to get more money—only Mr Bell seems less charming. Joyce himself was a talented tenor who competed at the Feis Ceoil and disappointed himself when he only won a bronze medal, so Mr Bell’s character may be partly based on his own failure to impress.
Themes
Mrs Kearney passes by the bass and the tenor and peeks out into the audience from backstage. The seats are quickly filling up. Backtracking, she has a private conversation with Mr Kearney, which appears to be about Kathleen since they both keep looking at her while she speaks to Miss Healy, the contralto for the concert who is also their friend.
Mrs Kearney’s backstage machinations set the stage for the conflict between herself and the Committee to come to a head.
Themes
When a pale woman no one has ever seen before arrives, the other women watch her and note the old blue dress on her thin body. Someone says that she is the soprano, Madam Glynn, and Kathleen asks Miss Healy “where did they dig her up” since she has never heard of her. In response, Miss Healy smiles, and Mr Holohan enters the room. When Kathleen and Miss Healy ask Mr Holohan who the woman is, he tells them that she is from London. Madam Glynn stands by herself in the corner of the room, looking around nervously as the shadows conceal her shabby dress from view but “revengefully” highlight how thin she is.
Madam Glynn, the English presence amidst a festival celebrating Irish culture, seems to intrude upon the Nationalist society’s concert and immediately stands out. Her corpselike appearance reminds the reader of the decay that comes from colonization, the same colonization that the Society can’t seem to effectively work against, especially since they book an English singer.
Themes
When the much classier first tenor and baritone arrive, Mrs Kearney brings Kathleen over to them and tries to be friendly. But as she talks, she keeps an eye on Mr Holohan limping around backstage. As soon as she can, she asks to talk to him. In private, she asks him when Kathleen will be paid her eight guineas, but he keeps dodging her questions and telling her that he doesn’t know and that she should speak to Mr Fitzpatrick. Mrs Kearney insists that he fulfill the contract and leaves, returning to the dressing-room angry and flushed.
Mrs Kearney setting Kathleen up with the higher-class baritone and first tenor emphasizes how her status-seeking behavior extends to her daughter’s personal life. And as she watches Mr Holohan like a predator, her gaze makes him appear relatively helpless. However, once she gets ahold of him, he continues to evade her questions, continuing the Committee’s ineffectiveness in the face of challenges. Mrs Kearney’s mounting anger threatens to make her break out of her “ladylike” politeness and reveal how she actually feels.
Themes
In the dressing room, a reporter from the Freeman (a Nationalist newspaper) and Mr O’Madden Burke are talking with Miss Healy and the baritone. The reporter, Mr Hendrick, says that he can’t wait around for the concert to start because he has to report on a lecture from an American priest. But he never really intended to stay because he doesn’t like concerts. Since Miss Healy obviously has a crush on him, he regrets that he has to leave, but he tells Mr Holohan that Burke will write the report and he will ensure it is published. Holohan invites him for a drink before he goes. They walk into a faraway room to drink, and in the room, they find Burke, a charismatic and well-respected older man, already drinking.
Joyce’s descriptions of the reporters reveal that even more people who are supposed to care about Nationalism don’t really seem to—yet more apathy that keeps the movement from taking hold more effectively in Ireland. Moreover, Mr Holohan drinking with the reporters reveals the corruption within the Society: although the audience and the performers don’t enjoy the experience, the Committee members seem to be enjoying behind-the-scenes perks.
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Literary Devices
Back in the dressing-room, Mrs Kearney speaks so intensely to Mr Kearney that he asks her to lower her voice, and although Mr Bell is ready to perform, Kathleen has not given him the signal to go on. While the audience gets rowdy waiting for the concert to start, the Kearneys all speak together and Mr Bell grows increasingly nervous that everyone will think he is late. Mr Holohan and Mr O’Madden Burke enter and Holohan and Mrs Kearney argue about payment. Mrs Kearney stops Kathleen from playing until she gets her eight guineas. Mr Holohan tries to appeal to her and Kathleen to think of the audience, but Kathleen keeps quiet and stares at her new shoes because the conflict is “not her fault.”
As Mrs Kearney continues her quest for payment and social advancement, she ends up halting the concert in its tracks, turning her individual stubbornness into total paralysis for the audience, performers, and Committee members. Kathleen remains passive, staring at her shoes to avoid getting embroiled in the conflict, taking a backseat in it as much as she does in everything else in the story so far.
Themes
Mr Holohan rushes out, and in the tense silence, Miss Healy asks the baritone if he has seen Pat Campbell, a famous actress who is in town this week. The performers all wait uncomfortably, occasionally looking at Mrs Kearney. Mr Holohan returns with Mr Fitzpatrick, who hands Mrs Kearney some money and tells her that she will get the other half at intermission. But Mrs Kearney tells him that he is four shillings short. Despite this, Kathleen tells Mr Bell to start, and they walk out together to begin the concert.
When Miss Healy asks the baritone if he has seen Pat Campbell, the detail signals to the reader that the poor turnout is in part because someone particularly famous is in town—yet more poor planning on the part of the Committee. As Mrs Kearney gets part of the money she wants from Mr Fitzpatrick, she still does not relent since he does not give her half of her payment. However, his miscount makes more sense in light of the fact that since the guinea was out of circulation, the value of the guinea in other banknotes—namely, shillings and pounds—fluctuated for quite some time before settling down. When Kathleen tells Mr Bell to start the first number despite the fact that she hasn’t been paid completely, though, she breaks free from her paralysis. Ignoring her mother’s demands suggests that she and a younger generation of Dubliners might be able to forge their own path out of stagnation. But since Joyce does not provide the reader with any insight into Kathleen’s thoughts, her reasoning behind her defiance remains a mystery.
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While the first part of the concert is successful, Madam Glynn sings Killarney, an Irish standard, “in a bodiless gasping voice,” and the audience in the cheap seats makes fun of her old-fashioned singing intonation that she thinks makes her singing more elegant. Kathleen plays well, but backstage, a group of people, including Miss Beirne, Mr Holohan, and Mr Fitzpatrick, all gossip about the “scandalous” nature of Mrs Kearney’s insistence upon payment, and Mr O’Madden Burke states that Kathleen’s musical career is finished in Dublin. Altogether, the stewards and secretaries decide that she should receive no more payment.
Madam Glynn, the Englishwoman, continues to appear corpselike while trying to sing an Irish song, evoking colonization’s impact on Ireland through her performance. She, too, attempts to seem high-class. But her operatic intonations only sound ridiculous to the crowd, who subtly resist the English influence in Ireland by laughing at her. As the factions argue backstage and O’Madden Burke declares Kathleen’s career over based on her mother’s actions, Joyce emphasizes how Mrs Kearney’s actions have negatively affected her daughter—ultimately, men still get to make the final pronouncement on artists in Dublin.
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In a different backstage corner, Mrs Kearney, Mr Kearney, and a small crowd all gossip about how the Committee has treated her after she spent so much money and effort on the concert series. She thinks that the Committee has misjudged her and wouldn’t dare to treat her like this if she were a man. She determines that she will “make Dublin ring” if her daughter doesn’t receive full pay. Though she will feel bad for the “artistes,” it is the only thing to do. She tries to appeal to the second tenor and Miss Healy, and they both agree with her—although Miss Healy really is not on her side and just doesn’t want to make things awkward since she is friends with the Kearneys.
As the Kearneys talk in their own corner, Mrs Kearney once again blends her privilege as a wealthy person with her disadvantages as a woman. However, Joyce sways the reader against her by interjecting the word “artistes” into Mrs Kearney’s conversation and describing how Mrs Kearney leverages her social power over the younger Mrs Healy to take her side.
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During intermission, Mr Fitzpatrick and Mr Holohan tell Mrs Kearney that they will pay her after the Committee meeting on Tuesday, but if Kathleen doesn’t play the second half of the concert, they will consider the contract broken and pay nothing. Mrs Kearney and Mr Holohan both can’t believe how the other has treated them, and Mrs Kearney gets so angry she looks like she might hit someone. She makes fun of Mr Holohan, mimicking his voice, and Mr Holohan tells her that he thought she was a lady and walks away.
Mrs Kearney and the Committee members reach a stalemate in their efforts to take advantage of one another, once again letting the Irish Nationalist cause take a backseat to money and interpersonal conflict. But when Mrs Kearney mocks Mr Holohan and he pronounces her unladylike, his word is final. Ultimately, he leverages his power as a man over her in public, humiliating her for a relatively tame infraction and ruining her reputation.
Themes
After her outburst, everyone disapproves of Mrs Kearney’s behavior and sides with the Committee’s choice. As she argues with Kathleen and Mr Kearney, waiting for the secretaries to talk to her again, Mrs Healy agrees to play the accompaniments for the second half of the concert. When the baritone and his accompanist pass by Mrs Kearney to take the stage, she gets even angrier. Once the music starts to play, she grabs her daughter and orders her husband to call a cab.
Her social ambitions ruined, Mrs Kearney keeps fighting with her family over the disrespect, but Joyce does not give the reader insight into their discussion. As they argue, Mr Holohan sets about finding a replacement for Kathleen, revealing how expendable the Kearneys were to him all along.
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Mr Kearney exits and Mrs Kearney escorts Kathleen out. On her way out the door, Mrs Kearney looks at Mr Holohan and tells him that she isn’t done with him. But he responds that he is done with her. Kathleen “meekly” follows her mother out, and Mr Holohan angrily paces, sarcastically saying, “O, she’s a nice lady!” and Mr O’Madden Burke tells him he did the right thing.
Still not having learned her lesson about arguing in public or gotten the respect she wants, Mrs Kearney tries to keep fighting even as she exits with her family, but Mr Holohan stops her. As he does so, Joyce implies that there is nothing she can do to rehabilitate her reputation, and no one ends up looking good by the end of the argument. Neither upper-class Irish culture nor Irish Nationalism, it appears, is in a healthy state.
Themes
