Dubliners - "A Mother" (Story 13 of 15)

[Chris OConnor]

Dubliners - "A Mother" (Story 13 of 15)

Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences.

[DWill]

Mrs. Kearney is a piece of work. Joyce apparently had such strong feelings against the Irish revival movement that he uses her to represent its bad features and therefore gives her not a single redeeming quality. Unless you can count her stubbornness and determination as somehow positive qualities. As in "Ivy Day," we might not be able to feel the issue at stake here. We can still admire the way Joyce orchestrates the action, though, through the motions of the characters themselves. It doesn't seem that Joyce had any intention of highlighting Mrs. Kearney's abilities as a mother in "A Mother."

[Saffron]

I think I totally misread this story. I read it as if Mrs. K was actually looking out for her daughter's best interest. Since it is indicated that the other performers had been paid prior to the performance and Mrs. K's daughter had not, I assumed her concern about her daughter not getting paid were legitimate. What did I miss?

[DWill]

I think I totally misread this story. I read it as if Mrs. K was actually looking out for her daughter's best interest. Since it is indicated that the other performers had been paid prior to the performance and Mrs. K's daughter had not, I assumed her concern about her daughter not getting paid were legitimate. What did I miss?

I'll look at it again, because it could be that something of what Mrs. K does is legitimate. But as I read the signs, she becomes interested in the Revivalist movement in order to advance her daughter (take advantage of her very Irish name) and to make some money when offered the chance for her to perform; and when she sees that the shows aren't going well and aren't going to bring in much money, she doubles down and still insists on getting paid the full contract. I didn't get the idea that all the other performers had been paid in full, leaving Kathleen K. the only one not to be. By the end, as well, Mrs. K. has apparently blown any chance that her daughter will be in much demand as a performer in Dublin.

So, what did I miss?

[geo]

The way I read it, there may have been some funny business going on with the music promoter. Maybe Mrs. K. was right to take issue at first, but then she took it waay too far. It became more about her than about her daughter. There came a point when she should have just let it go. But I do believe that's what this story is about regardless of whether the music promoter was a huckster.

This could have been a profile of one of those modern (usually) mothers who take their child on the beauty pageant circuit or to sports competitions. Parents who makes a career out of promoting their child's talent to the exclusion of all else. I've known plenty of Dads who do this on my son's baseball team. You would not believe how some of them act when they perceive their son is not getting a fair shake from the coach.

But I'll have to look at the story again too. I don't know if the other performers were paid or not.

[Saffron]

Here is the passage that made me think the other performers had been paid, but looks like maybe just the baritone:

Miss Kathleen Kearney's musical career was ended
in Dublin after that, he said. The baritone was asked what did he
think of Mrs. Kearney's conduct. He did not like to say anything.
He had been paid his money and wished to be at peace with men.
However, he said that Mrs. Kearney might have taken the artistes
into consideration.

I think this passage also supports Geo's idea that the main theme is that Mrs. K went too far in pushing her daughter's cause and in so doing ruined her chances - true irony.

[DWill]

Joyce seems in a mind to be satirical about the whole affair of the concert series for the benefit of Eire Abu Society. Mrs. Kearney takes advantage of the Irish language movement to climb socially, and for its own part, Eire Abu is a rather woebegone organization.

Mrs. K is calculating, of course, from the start, even in her earlier background. There's a possibility that she plies Mr. Holohan with her attention and liquor in order to achieve her objective of a nice payment for Kathleen. But Mr. Holohan is pretty hopeless as an impressario, so he's lucky, on the other hand, that Mrs. K. is around to make the concerts a reality at all. Maybe the picture is ambiguous after all, and maybe, too, Mrs. K. is going up against an old boys' network and has a good reason to suspect they'll give her the shaft. The good reason would seem to hinge on the matter of payment. Did "the committee" really pay the rest of the "artistes" up front while thinking it could pay Kathleen later, if at all? If this was the arrangement, it looks as though Mrs. K becomes concerned that the money won't be forthcoming when she sees the concerts might be a flop.

There were a few people in the story whose purpose never became quite clear to me, such as Mr. Hendrick, Mr. O'Madden Burke, and Miss Beirne.

I apologize to Mrs. Kearney if I've slandered her. She's a formidable person and perhaps I've been somewhat sexist in my view of her. Substitute a man in her role in the story?

[Saffron]

I apologize to Mrs. Kearney if I've slandered her. She's a formidable person and perhaps I've been somewhat sexist in my view of her. Substitute a man in her role in the story?

While reading the story I thought how different the story would have ended if Kathleen's father had been in the place of her mother. Here is another quote from the story that picks up this idea:

They thought they had only a girl to deal with and that, therefore, they could ride roughshod over her. But she would show them their mistake. They wouldn't have dared to have treated her like that if she had been a man. But she would see that her daughter got her rights: she wouldn't be fooled.

Reading this story I struggled with trying to figure out how Joyce felt about the Irish language/culture revival. I really wasn't sure if the story was really making any commentary about it. The one thing I did think that was on the more positive side is that at least Mrs. Kearney was trying to make a change for the better for her daughter.

[DWill]

I thought that in the description of Mrs. K's reasons for becoming involved in the Irish language revival, Joyce was satirizing the movement, at least gently:

"When the Irish Revival began to be appreciable Mrs. Kearney determined
to take advantage of her daughter's name and brought an Irish teacher to
the house. Kathleen and her sister sent Irish picture postcards to their
friends and these friends sent back other Irish picture postcards.
On special Sundays, when Mr. Kearney went with his family to the
pro-cathedral, a little crowd of people would assemble after mass at
the corner of Cathedral Street. They were all friends of the
Kearneys--musical friends or Nationalist friends; and, when they had
played every little counter of gossip, they shook hands with one
another all together, laughing at the crossing of so many hands, and said
good-bye to one another in Irish. Soon the name of Miss Kathleen Kearney
began to be heard often on people's lips. People said that she was
very clever at music and a very nice girl and, moreover, that she was
a believer in the language movement. Mrs. Kearney was well content at
this. Therefore she was not surprised when one day Mr. Holohan came to
her and proposed that her daughter should be the accompanist at a
series of four grand concerts."

The staff of the society don't inspire much confidence. The concert performers were a mixed bag, with Miss Glynn, the supposed star, being terrible. But it doesn't seem that Joyce is trying to make a point about the movement through the quality of the concerts. I think he was on record somewhere as not being in favor of it, but that might be something to put out of mind when reading this story.

[geo]

Reading this story I struggled with trying to figure out how Joyce felt about the Irish language/culture revival. I really wasn't sure if the story was really making any commentary about it. The one thing I did think that was on the more positive side is that at least Mrs. Kearney was trying to make a change for the better for her daughter.

Mrs. Kearney does seem more or less well intentioned, but she's also somewhat inflexible in her approach. Her exacting (highfalutin?) standards are at odds with the way things are done. Consider that Mr. Holohan had already signed up the other performers before going to Mrs. Kearney. Even so, it says in the very first paragraph that "it was Mrs. Kearney who arranged everything."

And later the narrator notes that Mrs. Kearney "entered heart and soul into the details of the enterprise, advised and dissuaded: and finally a contract was drawn up by which Kathleen was to receive eight guineas for her services as accompanist at the four grand concerts."

Mrs. Kearney sort of takes over at this point, even presumes to show Holohan the correct wording of the bills and how to create a program. I was wondering if Holohan had drawn up contracts for the other performers. Perhaps a contract was necessary only in Kathleen's case.

So Mrs. Kearney—who married Mr. Kearney "out of spite"—is so ruthless in her pursuit of superficial high society standards that she essentially dooms her daughter's chances of success.

Is Joyce commenting on gender roles in Dublin society or is he showing another avenue of Mrs. K's inflexibility? She is accused of not acting like a lady, but maybe it's only Mrs. Kearney's perception that the men would "ride roughshod" over her and so she overreacts? You do have to wonder about Mr. Kearney's lack of involvement. Though he's there at the final concert, he doesn't do anything in support of his wife's agenda, nor does he do anything to stop her.

But I also wonder if Joyce is saying something about Dublin mediocrity. Mrs. Kearney is the standard bearer for higher standards that are ultimately doomed in a place like Dublin that is so tainted in a dull brown color. And in the end, Mrs. Kearney walks out. She gives up.