James Joyces Clay - Book Report/Review Example

Nuda Thamkongka James Joyce’s short story en d Clay that was first published in Dubliners in 1914 may be contrite but it left a large room for its reader to interpret his story. Taking the story literally, it may sound as a simple story of an old maid who felt bad of losing her cake. But reading the short story intently, we realize that there is more than the explicit rendering of Marie’s story that the story is in fact full of allegories that are subject to several interpretation. The allegory and symbolism in the story became obvious with the clay of which the short story was entitled where Marie mistakenly got hold of the clay instead of the ring of which she hoped for. The reader is left with the question that there were many objects in the story yet Joyce made the clay central to the story that it even became its title. This only suggests that the story should not only be read literally but also allegorically whose symbolisms should be accounted and interpreted to fully understand and appreciate the story. Literary experts interpret Joyce’s short story differently. These differences in their interpretation were perhaps borne of the story’s shortness and dearth of definite meanings that it leaves it readers to interpret it in several ways. It may have been intentional or unintentional but it is important to note that in a personal interview with James Joyce by Vanity Fair, he mentioned that readers should not take him too seriously. This may be another allegorical answer or perhaps the writer is too much a genius for what is mirth to him is considered a scholarly inquiry in the generations that succeded him to interpret what he really meant in his short story Clay. Of these authors that attempted to interpret the meanings of Joyce’s Clay, the paper will cite two authors, namely William Noon, S.J. who interpreted the short story under the lens of spirituality and religion where Marie was taken as a “saint” as well as a “woman” and Margot Norris who took the story as a strong expression of desire in human discourse and human lives. The variation of their interpretation may have been due to the different point of references they made in the novel. For Noon’s religious interpreation, this may have been due to the reference of Mrs. Donnely’s remark that Maria would enter a convent before the year was out becasue she had got the prayer-book. This remark might have explained why Maria had been single all those years. For Norris on the other hand, it may be the circumstance of Maria being an old maid who is childless and without husband and thus feeling the lack thereof which is a strong working desire in human desire and human lives. But before going to the opinion of these authors on how they interpret Joyce’s Clay it would be necessary for us to discuss nuances of Joyce’s short story. If one is very observant on the subtleties of the story, it can be observed that Marie’s stature of being single or spinster had been emphasized in the story more than any other element in the narrative. From the opening of the story, Marie is already teased by her coworkers that she is already over the marrying age and that she is beautiful in the inside. She was also described as amiable, likable, dignified and generous short of saying that Marie is not physically beautiful or attractive by the codified standard of society and men which is why she is still single despite her age. The remark in the cake shop may seemed incidental to the story but was in fact an emphasis or a derision to Marie’s being an old maid where she was asked if if it was the wedding cake she wanted to buy. Finally, in the concluding part of the story, Mrs. Donnely remarked that she is going to convent sealing Marie’s fate that she is not marrying because she was destined to be a nun after all which explains why she is single. But despite these derisions, Marie maintained her dignified politiness by not showing that she is slighted. Perhaps Noon derived his interpretation on this account of Maries religiosity and that she is going to convent which is why she was also interpreted as saintly, in addition to being a woman. Her being single despite way past the marrying age was not taken negative but rather as a precursor of her being saintly for no married woman can go to convent. The other side of interpretating Maries status as an old single woman could be the point of view of Norris who stated that the story is just a rendition of a powerful working desire in human discourse and human lives... [and that] the old maid: a figure who seems to lack everything and therefore emboies a total desire (206). In Norris account, Maria’s single status is not taken as saintly just because she could go to a convent but rather rather a desire of her perceived inadequacy of not having a family of her own. This interpretation of Norris is more realistic because Marie’s actuations in the story supports the idea or imaginary lack of significance despite the fact that she has everythign for life and the things she lacks (marriage, wealth, class, beauty) exist only in the signifcance they have for her (207). This was supported in many parts of the story particularly in the part where she admitted that she still had teh notions of a common woman which of course to have husband and children. In sum, Marie, by Norris interpretation is not religious nor saintly as endorsed by Noon but rather a woman who desired the imaginary things she lacked whose significance was imposed on her by society that despite all her pretensions not to want it, she is still predisposed to the common desire of a woman during her time – a husband and children. This was supported by scene in the tram where she met a gentleman whom Maria had mistaken for a British Colonel, a stature higher than his actual position in society. He is obviously not an officer being drank in a public place in broad daylight. He was just being nice to her and already, her head spinned. This sends the subliminal message of Maries desire to be with a man who would treat her right, who has a good place in society such as being a high ranking Colonel. Finally, in the game that was staged by the children to make her feel better on loosing her cakes, she was blindfolded and led up to the table hoping that she would get the ring in the saucers but got something that Mrs. Donnely told ehr to throwi it out at once because she instead got the clay and that she has to do it again to get teh prayer book. These two objects are intertwined and very signficant in the story. Both authors, Noon and Norris agreed that they symbolized marriage (for the ring) and death (for the clay, for we all return to it after we die). Interpreting this symbols, it would mean that Maria hoped for the marriage that the ring represented but instead got the clay. Meaning, that she cannot marry and to avoid dying as a spinster as represented by the clay, she has to do it again and subscribe to the premonition of Mrs. Donnely’s that she is going to the convent and become a nun. Read More