Clay

“Maria was a very, very small person indeed but she had a very long nose and a very long chin.”

Joyce immediately calls attention both to Maria’s size and her facial peculiarities. Readers quickly learn that Maria is not being presented as a physically attractive woman, something which may contribute to her status as an unmarried woman in a city and time when marriage is considered an important status symbol. Her physical insignificance adds to Maria’s constant state of fading away into society as she ages out of perceived “usefulness.”

“She was always sent for when the women quarreled over their tubs and always succeeded in making peace. One day the matron said to her: ‘Maria, you are a veritable peace-maker!’”

The term “peace-maker” derives from Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God” (KJV). The matron is the manager of a Protestant laundry where religious tracts are displayed on the walls, something that bothers the Catholic Maria. While Maria seems proud of being called a peacemaker by the matron, it is also possible the matron said this in a condescending manner. Maria being taken with the potential compliment highlights a subtle need for self-importance that she doesn’t often address.

“What a nice evening they would all have! Only she hoped that Joe wouldn’t come in drunk. He was so different when he took any drink.”

Throughout the story, Joyce references alcohol consumption. This is the first hint that Joe might have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and it calls to mind Joyce’s relationship with his father, who had an alcohol addiction.