In “Clay,” an unmarried middle-aged woman named Maria struggles to connect with others. Maria is surrounded by people at work, and she speaks with strangers when she is out in the city, but these interactions are mostly superficial. Furthermore, Maria feels distance even with her closest friend, Joe Donnelly, a man whom she took care of when he was young, who still treats her like part of his family. Throughout the story, Maria faces teasing about being single, she struggles to support herself with low wages, and she often seems bewildered in the presence of others, making her an easy target for manipulation and cruelty. By depicting a day in Maria’s life, Joyce shows the difficulty of aging as a single woman, suggesting that no matter how kind Maria is, she (and other women like her) will struggle to fit in.
While Maria never says outright how lonely she is, the story is riddled with signs of her unhappiness. This is perhaps clearest when she is teased for being single. Near the beginning of the story, a woman named Lizzie Fleming jokes that Maria will “get the ring” (a reference to an Irish game in which a blindfolded person selects an object that represents their future). Maria pretends to be lighthearted, saying she wants neither a ring nor a husband, but her laughter is forced and her eyes reflect “disappointed shyness.” It is clear that this has hurt Maria, and that she does wish that she were married.
Maria’s loneliness stems from more than being single; her relationships with friends and acquaintances seem shallow. In her job at a laundry that serves at-risk women, for example, Maria is known as the “peace-maker,” skilled at diffusing arguments and putting the women at ease. While this indicates that Maria is socially adept, her pleasantness seems to only earn superficial praise. The others toast to her health and compliment her work ethic, but Joyce never shows her having a deeper interaction at work—in fact, she mostly seems uncomfortable and eager for the time to pass.
Maria’s best chance at genuine connection is with Joe Donnelly, a man who regards her as something of a second mother and invites her to celebrate Hallow Eve with his family. Even with him, though, Maria struggles to connect. His drinking makes her uncomfortable, he will not take her advice to reconcile with his brother, and, Maria reveals early in the story, she once refused his offer to live with him because she felt she would be “in the way.” As much as she wants to feel part of his family, then, it seems that she knows she is not.
Despite Maria’s desire—and efforts—to connect with others, Joyce implies that Maria will be alone forever. One indication that Maria will remain lonely is the failure of her attempts to connect with the Donnelly family. She buys them an expensive slice of plum cake, for example, as a way to repay their kindness in inviting her to their party, but then she accidentally leaves the cake on the bus. This “failure of her little surprise” leads optimistic Maria to become, for the only time in the story, outwardly distressed: she feels “shame and vexation and disappointment” that almost make her cry. To bring a piece of cake to a party is an uncomplicated gesture; that even this simple attempt to connect with others fails suggests that Maria’s future, like this moment, will continue to be lonely and painful.
Joyce’s clearest indication that Maria will be lonely forever comes during a Hallow Eve game in which she is blindfolded and chooses an object to represent her future. Maria first selects a lump of clay, which symbolizes impending death. The Donnellys encourage her to try again, and she chooses a bible, which signifies entering a convent (notably, a life in which women never marry). Ironically, Maria only decided to play this game to feel closer to the Donnellys, but this attempt at connection backfires, since the symbolism of the game only reaffirms that she will remain alone.
Joyce cements the impression that Maria’s loneliness will be lasting at the story’s end when she agrees to sing an aria. As she sings, Maria accidentally repeats the first verse—about dreaming of wealth—rather than moving onto the second verse, which is explicitly about dreaming of love. That Maria omits the verse about love suggests her inability to imagine a future in which she is not alone. Furthermore, the fact that nobody at the party points out her mistake suggests that they, too, understand that she will never marry and that her loneliness will never get better. Maria’s superficial interactions, coupled with her inability to connect with others even when she tries, suggest that her loneliness is irresolvable. Ultimately, Joyce uses Maria’s loneliness to depict the plight of middle-aged unmarried women; not only is Maria’s loneliness hopeless, but everyone around Maria (including the women at the laundry and the Donnellys) understands this hopelessness and finds it too sad to explain it to her. In “Clay,” then, Joyce offers a glimpse of the isolation and sadness of growing older as a single woman.
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Loneliness and Estrangement Quotes in Clay
Maria was a very, very small person indeed but she had a very long nose and a very long chin. She talked a little through her nose, always soothingly: Yes, my dear, and No, my dear. She was always sent for when the women quarreled over their tubs and always succeeded in making peace. One day the matron had said to her:
—Maria, you are a veritable peace-maker!
And the sub-matron and two of the Board ladies had heard the compliment. And Ginger Mooney was always saying what she wouldn’t do to the dummy who had charge of the irons if it wasn’t for Maria. Everyone was so fond of Maria.
What a nice evening they would have, all the children singing! Only she hoped that Joe wouldn’t come in drunk. He was so different when he took any drink.
Often he had wanted her to go and live with them; but she would have felt herself in the way (though Joe’s wife was ever so nice with her) and she had become accustomed to the life of the laundry. Joe was a good fellow. She had nursed him and Alphy too; and Joe used often say:
—Mamma is mamma but Maria is my proper mother.
There was a great deal of laughing and joking during the meal. Lizzie Fleming said Maria was sure to get the ring and, though Fleming had said that for so many Hallow Eves, Maria had to laugh and say she didn’t want any ring or man either; and when she laughed her grey-green eyes sparkled with disappointed shyness and the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin. Then Ginger Mooney lifted up her mug of tea and proposed Maria’s health while all the other women clattered with their mugs on the table, and she said she was sorry she hadn’t a sup of porter to drink it in. And Maria laughed again till the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin and till her minute body nearly shook itself asunder because she knew that Mooney meant well though, of course, she had the notions of a common woman.
She arranged in her mind all she was going to do and thought how much better it was to be independent and to have your own money in your pocket. She hoped they would have a nice evening. She was sure they would but she could not help thinking what a pity it was Alphy and Joe were not speaking. They were always falling out now but when they were boys together they used to be the best of friends: but such was life.
Here she was a long time in suiting herself and the stylish young lady behind the counter, who was evidently a little annoyed by her, asked her was it wedding-cake she wanted to buy. That made Maria blush and smile at the young lady; but the young lady took it all very seriously and finally cut a thick slice of plumcake […]
Maria, remembering how confused the gentleman with the greyish moustache had made her, coloured with shame and vexation and disappointment. At the thought of the failure of her little surprise and of the two and fourpence she had thrown away for nothing she nearly cried outright.
He was very nice with her. He told her all that went on in his office, repeating for her a smart answer which he had made to the manager. Maria did not understand why Joe laughed so much over the answer he had made but said that the manager must have been a very overbearing person to deal with.
[…] Maria thought she would put in a good word for Alphy. But Joe cried that God might strike him stone dead if ever he spoke a word to his brother again and Maria said she was sorry she had mentioned the matter. Mrs Donnelly told her husband it was a great shame for him to speak that way of his own flesh and blood but Joe said that Alphy was no brother of his and there was nearly being a row on the head of it. But Joe said he would not lose his temper on account of the night it was and asked his wife to open some more stout.
The two next-door girls had arranged some Hallow Eve game and soon everything was merry again […] The next-door girls put some saucers on the table and then led the children up to the table, blindfold […] when one of the next-door girls got the ring Mrs Donnelly shook her finger at the blushing girl so much as to say: O, I know all about it! They insisted then on blindfolding Maria and leading her up to the table to see what she would get; and, while they were putting on the bandage, Maria laughed and laughed again till the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin.
They led her up to the table amid laughing and joking and she put her hand out in the air as she was told to do. She moved her hand about here and there in the air and descended on one of the saucers. She felt a soft wet substance with her fingers and was surprised that nobody spoke or took off her bandage. There was a pause for a few seconds; and then a great deal of scuffling and whispering […] Maria understood that it was wrong that time and so she had to do it over again: and this time she got the prayer-book.
[…] Maria, blushing very much, began to sing in a tiny quavering voice. She sang I Dreamt that I Dwelt, and when she came to the second verse she sang again:
I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls
With vassals and serfs at my side
And of all who assembled within those walls
That I was the hope and the pride.
I had riches too great to count, could boast
Of a high ancestral name,
But I also dreamt, which pleased me most,
That you loved me still the same.
But no one tried to show her her mistake; and when she had ended her song Joe was very much moved. He said that there was no time like the long ago and no music for him like poor old Balfe, whatever other people might say; and his eyes filled up so much with tears that he could not find what he was looking for and in the end he had to ask his wife to tell him where the corkscrew was.
