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-Maria is a middle aged lady. Her being unmarried makes her live according to two facets, a
psychological facet and another which is social. Actually, Maria is living two opposite
personalities. Maria has a certain psychological wound. There is a wish that is not fulfilled
which is to get the ring, symbolically speaking, to be married. Maria cannot get what she
wanted. During the game of blur folding at Joe’s house, Maria had in mind the ring, the
symbol of marriage.
-Marriage for her is fundamental so that she could gain a social position. She eagerly wants to
have a marital life to experience motherhood, but she failed. As a matter of fact, the causes of
the failure are four, in the first place there is this shyness of Maria, secondly there is the
dream throughout the whole life. Thirdly, Maria suffers from a certain arrested development
for she still feels like a young lady. Finally, there is that sense of Maria deceiving herself.
Maria appears to be leading a happy life. She is somehow successful in her social life. She is a
peace maker. She is always sent for to settle peace. She wants to appear to society as a normal
lady. Joe is said to be her son, but actually she is just acting as his mother. In the story, Maria
becomes the symbol of love, everything that is good. Indeed her good behavior is a kind of
compensation. To sum up, we can say that Maria is deceiving herself by living two realities.
Although she tries to appear and behave like the others, there is always that psychological
problem from which she suffers.
-General Summary:
-In Clay, James Joyce introduces us to the protagonist Maria as a queer character. He invites
us to analyse Maria’s personality to realize that what she shows is not what she is in reality.
Therefore; Clay can be discussed through two perspectives, the social and the psychological
one. Socially speaking, Maria seems to be leading a successful life. By way of illustration, she
is called “a peace maker” since she is loved by everybody at the laundry because whenever
there is a quarrel between women, Maria is called for to settle it down. Moreover, Maria
appears to be a good mother. In other words, she appears to be well assuming the role of a
surrogate mother. This idea of course is reinforced by her buying a present and visiting Joe’s
family. All those elements clearly show us that Maria is a sociable person. However, her
behavior does not reveal the real Maria.
-Although she appears to behave in a well tempered manner, Maria actually suffers from a
deep psychological wound. Her suffering is due to her basic failure to get the ring.
Psychologically speaking, Maria’s conduct reveals her self deception in different situations.
Firstly, when the idea of marriage is raised at the tea party, Maria pretends to laugh. But her
reaction appears to be artificial for her eyes, full of disappointment betray her. Secondly,
when the shop assistant inquires whether the cake she wants is for a wedding feast, she reacts
in the same preceding manner. Furthermore, the game is considered as the most important
factor that reinforces Maria’s self deception. The fact of accepting the game connected with
the choice of clay, justifies her mistake. After all, the game is designed only for the young.
Above all, throughout the story, Maria is a failure. Although she appears to be socially
successful, her psychological problem hinders her from achieving her wishes.