Brown Symbol Analysis

In “A Mother,” Joyce uses the color brown to symbolize the dullness and decline of turn-of-the-20th-century Dublin, particularly the aspects of Dublin that have not changed in so long that they show signs of decay. The first time the color brown appears in “A Mother” is when Joyce describes Mr Kearney’s “great brown beard,” indicating that he is a part of the reason Dublin is so dull and stuck in time. Other textual details about Mr Kearney associate him with the things that Joyce felt kept Dublin suspended in time: he is wealthy, serious, pious, and a regular churchgoer, and he only gets involved in the Irish Nationalist movement when it becomes culturally fashionable for wealthy Dubliners to do so. By amassing wealth, strictly adhering to his religion, and only getting involved in political movements for personal gain, Mr Kearney displays the signs of Dublin’s decay that Joyce spoke out against.

The other character Joyce associates with brown is Mr Fitzpatrick, the secretary of the Eire Abu Society: he describes how Mr Fitzpatrick wears his “soft brown hat carelessly on the side of his head.” Like Mr Kearney, Mr Fitzpatrick is also self-serving. He doesn’t seem to care when the concerts go poorly, is difficult to get ahold of when things go wrong, and instead takes advantage of the concerts’ casual atmosphere to talk loudly with friends during the performance. The way he wears his brown hat reflects how careless he is in his dealings with other people, marking him as just another Dubliner who only looks out for himself, keeping the city stuck in its ways.