“Clay” is set in Dublin, Ireland in the early 20th century. The short story collection in which “Clay” appears is called Dubliners, implying that the setting is extremely important to the collection as a whole and to each individual story, which are all set somewhere in the city. Many of the stories—“Clay” included—feature alienated and lonely protagonists who are trapped by poverty and unable to achieve what they want to in life. Through his stories, Joyce was making a statement about the state of Ireland as a whole at the start of the 20th century. The country was under England’s colonial control at the time and Joyce considered the widespread poverty, alienation, and religious conflict in Ireland to be a direct result of colonization.
This story is specifically set on Hallow Eve, a historically Irish pagan holiday (Samhain) that the Catholic Church reappropriated as “All Saints Day” or “All Hallows,” today referred to as “Halloween.” The story captures specific Irish Hallow Eve traditions, such as the one described in the following passage:
The next-door girls put some saucers on the table and then led the children up to the table, blindfold. One got the prayer-book and the other three got the water; and [...] one of the next-door girls got the ring[.]
The game that the children play here was popular in southeast Ireland and featured setting up several saucers with different items in each one—water, a ring, a prayer book, and clay. The children would then take turns wearing the blindfold and intuitively pick a saucer. Each item in the saucers represents something different—water signified traveling across the sea, a ring meant marriage, the prayer book signaled the chooser possibly joining a convent, and clay foretold the chooser would die within the year.
While all of the people who play this game in "Clay" know that the game is just a game, it is notable that they shuffle the saucers around when Maria picks clay and do not speak of it. This is because, given her age, it is a much more likely outcome for her. That Maria refuses to acknowledge that she picked the clay—and agrees to quickly pick again—demonstrates her reluctance to face the truth of her lonely and stagnant life.
