A Mother

By James Joys

Summary

As the assistant secretary to the Eire Abu, or “Ireland to Victory,” Society, Mr. Holohan
tries to organize a series of concerts showcasing local musicians. He finally visits Mrs.
Kearney, whose eldest daughter Kathleen has a reputation in Dublin as a talented
pianist and exemplary speaker of Irish. Kathleen studies the piano and French in a
convent school like Mrs. Kearney did, and she receives tutoring in Irish at the insistence
of her mother as well. Mrs. Kearney is not surprised when Mr. Holohan proposes that
Kathleen perform as an accompanist in the series, and she advises Mr. Holohan in
drawing up a contract to secure a payment of eight guineas for Kathleen’s performance
in the four concerts. Given Mr. Holohan’s inexperience in organizing such an event, she
also helps him to lay out the program and complete other duties.
After her efforts, Mrs. Kearney is disturbed when the concerts turn out to be sub-par for
her high standards. The first two concerts are poorly attended, the audience members
behave “indecorously,” and many of the artists are mediocre. Mrs. Kearney complains
to Mr. Holohan, but neither he nor the head secretary, Mr. Fitzpatrick, appear bothered
by the turnout. Nevertheless, the Society’s committee cancels the third concert in hopes
that doing so will boost attendance for the final one. This change in plans infuriates Mrs.
Kearney, who already has become aggravated by the men’s lax attitudes and what she
sees as loose manners. She approaches Mr. Holohan and insists that such a change
should not alter the contracted payment, but Mr. Holohan only refers her to Mr.
Fitzpatrick, who also dodges her inquiries.

On the night of the final concert, Mrs. Kearney, accompanied by her husband and
Kathleen, arrives early at the performance hall to meet the men, but neither Mr. Holohan
nor Mr. Fitzpatrick has arrived. As the musicians gather and await curtain call, Mrs.
Kearney paces in the dressing room until finally she finds Mr. Holohan and, following
him to a quiet hallway, pursues the issue of the contract. Again he insists that such
matters are not his “business” and that she must consult Mr. Fitzpatrick. Enraged, she
returns to the dressing room, where the musicians wait for Kathleen to join them so they
can start the performance, for which the audience loudly clamors. Mrs. Kearney detains
her daughter, and when Mr. Holohan arrives to query the delay in performance, she
announces that Kathleen will not perform unless paid in full. Mr. Holohan departs in
haste and returns with Mr. Fitzpatrick, who gives Mrs. Kearney half of the amount,
explaining that the remainder will come at the intermission, after Kathleen’s
performance. Kathleen plays, during which time the artists and committee members
criticize Mrs. Kearney’s aggressive conduct. At the intermission, Mr. Fitzpatrick and Mr.
Holohan inform Mrs. Kearney that they will pay her daughter the balance after the
committee meeting next week. But Mrs. Kearney angrily bickers with Mr. Holohan and
finally whisks away her daughter, leaving the concert hall.
Analysis
In “A Mother,” Mrs. Kearney’s practical but inflexible approach to life, while it gets her
what she wants most of the time, ultimately does nothing but increase her own anger.
Mrs. Kearney drives herself to accomplish whatever task, challenge, or need is at hand,
often without much show of emotion. She marries her husband just to be married, not
because of love. In her unyielding insistence that her daughter, Kathleen, receive full
payment for her performance, Mrs. Kearney pursues her interests to such a degree that
she undoes her own efforts to perfect the concert, and herself. When the organizers
provide only half of the fee, Mrs. Kearney embarrasses her daughter and ruins her
career by sweeping her out of the concert hall and irritating everyone. Mrs. Kearney is
not concerned with a trifling amount of money, she insists, but her rights and her
respect. The story leaves the reader guessing why Mrs. Kearney abandons her cause
and leaves the concert hall. Is she humiliated? Does she realize that no one shares or
sympathizes with her frustrations? Like “an angry stone,” Mrs. Kearney will not soften to
the circumstances and reconsider. Like other characters in Dubliners,she will continue to
live according to her own routine.
Through the fastidious character of Mrs. Kearney, “A Mother” subtly critiques shallow
concerns about social profile. Mrs. Kearney’s immense efforts to organize and perfect
are not motivated by an ambition to succeed, the story suggests, but by a concern with
status and appearance. She crafts an education for Kathleen of piano, French, and
Irish, which makes obvious the family’s interest in culture and nationalist efforts. The
concert provides Mrs. Kearney with an ideal opportunity to let Kathleen shine as a
darling of Irish culture, but her frustrations with the lax society members and her
complaints about the venue and selection of artists indicate that Mrs. Kearney obsesses
over details to ensure neither Kathleen’s happy career nor a successful concert, but her
own respected appearance. As more things sully her ideal vision, Mrs. Kearney makes
snide observations to herself and struggles to maintain her composure. When she
approaches Mr. Fitzpatrick about the contract, she inwardly ridicules his accent, which
she perceives to be lower class, but she resists making nasty comments about it, which
would “not be ladylike.” In the end, Mrs. Kearney’s attempt to boost her social
appearance results only in her tarnishing it dramatically.

Mrs. Kearney perceives herself as part of a struggle between men and women, noting
to herself when she begins to face difficulty with the contract that she would be treated
differently if she were a man. This concern briefly places Mrs. Kearney in a sympathetic
light and leads the reader to question Mrs. Kearney’s circumstances. Yet while Mr.
Fitzpatrick and Mr. Holohan appear lazy and uninterested in the concert proceedings,
nothing in their actions suggests that they take advantage of Mrs. Kearney. In fact, they
struggle to provide the demanded payment for Kathleen. Like Mrs. Mooney in “The
Boarding House,” a female protagonist challenges the reader to consider her plight in a
larger social context. Mrs. Kearney wants to ensure her adequate rights, but she also
must appear ladylike—for her, the combination is incompatible.
A Mother by James Joyce

In A Mother by James Joyce we have the theme of stubbornness, frustration, status, appearance
and paralysis. Taken from his Dubliners collection the story is narrated in the third person by an
unnamed narrator and it is after reading the story that the reader realizes that Joyce, through his
character description of Mrs. Kearney at the beginning of the story, may be exploring the theme
of paralysis. Through the narrator the reader learns that when Mrs Kearney was younger she was
‘unbending in manner’ and made very few friends when she was in school. This information is
important as it is at the end of the story that the reader realizes that nothing has changed for Mrs
Kearney (which would suggest paralysis). Through her stubbornness of wanting to get fully paid
for the concerts Mrs Kearney manages to isolate not only herself but Kathleen too, making very
few friends, if any.

Theme of status
The idea or theme of status is also explored in the story when the reader learns that every year
Mrs Kearney goes on holidays to either Howth, Greystones or Skerries. This is significant as for
the majority of people in Dublin at the time Dubliners was written, very few could have afforded
to go on holidays. Mrs Kearney is also part of the growing Irish Revival movement and many
would have believed it to have been a significant movement within Ireland. However there is a
strong possibility that Joyce may be ridiculing the movement in the story. The reader learns that
after Mass Mrs Kearney would talk or gossip with other members of the Revival movement on
Cathedral Street and after gossiping Mrs Kearney and the members of the Revival would say
goodbye to each other in Irish. This is significant as Joyce could be suggesting that for the
majority of people who were attached to the Irish Revival, most were more concerned with
gossiping than promoting the Irish language and culture. The fact that the concerts, which Mrs
Kearney had hoped would be better attended, are poorly attended may highlight to the reader the
lack of real interest among Irish people in the Irish Revival movement. As with the idea of status,
Joyce also focuses on the theme of appearance and its significance to Mrs Kearney. One of the
more obvious signs that appearance is important to Mrs Kearney is the way she organizes the
program for the concert. She makes sure not to place some of the artistes next to acts which she
considers would embarrass them. She also purchases a charm use for Kathleen. Again this
suggests the importance of appearance to Mrs Kearney. Then there is the fact that she buys a
dozen tickets for her friends. This would suggest that Mrs Kearney considers the concerts to be
important or at least appear to be important, particularly considering that they are organized by
the Irish Revival movement.

The fact that the concert proceeds without Kathleen is also significant as it highlights to the
reader that not only has Mrs Kearny succeeded in ostracizing her daughter but in turn she has
also ensured that neither she nor her daughter will advance within the Irish Revival movement.
This is important as again it suggests a paralysis not only for Kathleen but for Mrs Kearney too.
Despite her best efforts, Mrs Kearney’s stubbornness, anger and inability to control her
frustration have resulted in her social status remaining unchanged. And the reader is fully aware
of how important status is to Mrs Kearney.

Theme of appearance
In the story there is suggestion of the theme of appearance. When Mrs. Kearney arrives at the
hall, for the first concert, she is disappointed for the way ushers are dressed. Later the reader
finds that Mrs. Kearney doesn’t like the look of Mr. Fitzpatrick. Also she is disappointed by the
fact that on the first night of the concert there are very few people in the hall. The lack of
attendance is significant as Mrs. Kearney wishes to promote Kathleen, to the widest and most
influential audience possible. It is also certain that by promoting Kathleen, Mrs. Kearney also
believes that she will not only be promoting her daughter but also her own status among those
attached to the Irish Revival.

Theme of frustration
Mrs. Kearney’s frustration becomes very clear to the reader on the third night of the concert. She
wishes to be paid in advance and paid for all four concerts. This frustration is also interesting
because Mrs. Kearney has brought her husband along for support. She is aware, or at least feels
that, she is being badly treated because she is a woman. It is difficult to say whether or not
Holohan or Fitzpatrick’s treatment of Mrs. Kearney is because she is a woman, particularly when
the reader becomes aware that Miss Healy has been paid in full and that both Fitzpatrick and
Holohan have made efforts to get all the money for Mrs. Kearney. If anything Holohan considers
Mrs. Kearney to be unreasonable, regardless of her sex.

Theme of stubbornness
Mrs Kearney’s behavior is crippling to others is noticeable when she stops Kathleen from
performing. If anything Mrs. Kearney brings a brief paralysis to the concert, only allowing
Kathleen perform when she has been paid half of the money she was promised. It is also
interesting that at the interval, everybody comments on the inappropriateness of Mrs Kearney’s
behavior. This is important as the reader is aware that Mrs Kearney’s original plan was to
promote Kathleen among those involved with the Irish Revival. If anything Kathleen is now
ostracized, with Mr O’Madden Burke even going as far as suggesting that Kathleen’s musical
career is over. This in turn would suggest a sense of paralysis (for Kathleen), of not going
anywhere.

Important line and explanation

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.

—“A Mother”

From “A Mother,” this quote reveals the thoughts of Mrs. Kearney toward the end of the final
concert in which her daughter, Kathleen, is scheduled to perform. When she agreed to let her
daughter participate, Mrs. Kearney arranged a contract in which the organizers agreed to pay
Kathleen for three performances. With the second performance cancelled and the third nearly
finished, Mrs. Kearney, in the passages before this one, has pursued the organizers of the
concert, reminding them that Kathleen must be paid in full despite the changes. Here she
expresses her determination in seeing the contract fulfilled—a determination that fixates on the
gendered context of the situation. All of the organizers, who have been dodging Mrs. Kearney’s
inquires, are men. As such, Mrs. Kearney sees her treatment as biased and manipulative. That
Mrs. Kearney wants to “show” the men their erred judgment of her fits with Mrs. Kearney’s
concerns with appearance and performance in the story. Following up with the agreement of the
contract isn’t enough—she must publicly point out their mistake.

The parallel construction of this quote illustrates on a formal level a confrontational, competitive
approach that both bolsters and weakens Mrs. Kearney’s quest. The first sentence begins with
“they,” followed by a sentence that begins with “but she.” This move from the critiqued party of
men to Mrs. Kearney, a move repeated in the third and fourth sentences, evokes Mrs. Kearney’s
defensive mindset. “They” may do this, “but she” will counter. Such antagonism acts as a
rallying cry for Mrs. Kearney, yet it also serves to undercut sympathy for her character. The
repeated call for revenge highlights Mrs. Kearney’s self-concern that overrides concern for
Kathleen. As the progression of the quote indicates, first Mrs. Kearney will valorize herself, and
then she will be sure that Kathleen gets paid. Nowhere, however, does the reader hear Kathleen’s
voice.

Characters list
Mrs. Kearney

As The Mother Superior

Well, everyone, here's the prime example of someone for whom everything starts out
very well and ends up so, so badly. Her well-educated, popular, and talented daughter
gets asked to play four concerts. That's great news, right? Then, a few short pages
later, "Kathleen's Kearney's musical career was ended in Dublin, and Mrs. Kearney's
conduct was condemned on all sides" (A Mother.61, 74.
Joyce actually says that things were set in motion long before that fateful day when
Hoppy Holohan limped over to the Kearney's house with a plan in mind. It all started
with Miss Devlin's (Mrs. Kearney) own childhood. She was "naturally pale and
unbending in manner" and had few friends (A Mother.2). This inclination not only led to
her choice to marry Mr. Kearney, it also seems to describe her behavior when it comes
to the four concerts. Especially the "unbending" part. Once she signs the contract for
her daughter to be paid, she's so obsessively tied to it that nothing else seems to
matter.

Dis-Concerted
First of all, Mrs. Kearney interrupts the whole concert to argue for her daughter's
"rights." It's almost exactly like a parent who interrupts a kids' soccer game to yell at the
referee. Not only is this painfully embarrassing for the kid, and it just makes a parent
look like an immature blob of uncontrollable favoritism.

At the end, Mrs. Kearney had some supporters in her fight to get her daughter's pay; by
the end, though, "Mrs Kearney's conduct was condemned on all hands" (A Mother.74).
She's so stuck to her ideal of what the concerts should be like and how her daughter
should be treated that she won't budge. That's kind of "unbending" nature that defines
paralysis.
 Of Marriage and Motion
Flashback to when Mrs Kearney was Miss Devlin, she married Mr Kearney to shut up
her friends, who had started saying that she was past her prime. There's a little bit of
foreshadowing here, in that Mrs Kearney's other "contract," her marriage, has an odd
motivation. Mr Kearney doesn't really make her happy. What really makes her happy is
to tell other people that, "My good man is packing us off to" a nice countryside vacation
(A Mother.6). She's, in a word, shallow.

And remember that the concert where she really displays the worst behavior is the one
that Mr Kearney comes to. In other words, it's almost like she's completely fed up with
having to act the way other people want her to act, and her hope of having his support
just ends up making her angrier. She's the one who shuts up Mr Kearney, who seems to
be trying (like everyone else) to reason with her. In the end, though, her "unbending"
nature is more important than whether she's living for herself or for others. When she
takes her daughter and husband away from the concert, and leaves with only half of the
money, she's her own worst enemy.
If she had just calmed down and been a little more reasonable, the last concert totally
would have been the best. The artists were at least a little better, and the crowd was
big, even though it was raining. Her daughter's career might have blossomed, and she
probably would have gotten paid eventually. Instead, in her impatience, Mrs Kearney
ruins her daughter's chances and probably her own reputation. She's a little bit like
Farrington in "Counterparts," in that the main thing remembered about Mrs Kearney is
that she gets angry quickly and can't control herself.

Theme of Paralysis
Through James character description of Mrs. Kearney at the beginning of the story,
explores the theme of paralysis. Through the narrator the reader learns that when
Mrs Kearney was younger she was ‘unbending in manner’ and made very few
friends when she was in school.  Most of the time paralysis means being unable to
move, and sometimes, as with this character, it means being unable to stop oneself,
to break out of one’s bad habits. The character of Mrs. Kearney demonstrate
Newton's First Law of Motion, which states that, "Every object in a state of
uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is
applied to it." Up to a point, external forces were the only thing determining Mrs
Kearney's motion; once she decided to let loose, though, not even her husband
could find a force strong enough to keep her reputation from spinning out of
control.

Mr Holohan
Hoppy Holohan must have been a favorite character for James Joyce, because he also
shows up in Ulysses. Here, he doesn't come off in such a great light, as he's sort of an
assistant secretary. The fact that he had been "walking up and down Dublin for nearly a
month, with his hands and pockets full of dirty pieces of paper," kind of tells that he's not
a very organized or efficient businessman (A Mother.1). And it's a foreshadowing that
he and Mrs. Kearney might not get along so well. At first, however, his relationship with
Mrs. Kearney is very friendly and cooperative, even though it's pretty unequal. Hoppy
doesn't do contracts or details, but he's happy to let Mrs Kearney help out, as long as
he gets plenty of drinks from her decanter. As the shows get closer, they work out all
the arrangements, and there's no sign of a problem. he two have been on different
pages. The whole time, though. When the concerts start, Mr Holohan's first reaction to
the poor turnout isn't what Mrs Kearney wants to hear: "Mr Holohan did not know what it
meant." After all of their work, it's one of the most basic details that was the big mistake,
he says: "four was too many" concerts (A Mother.17). At this point, it's pretty easy to
see why Mrs Kearney would be frustrated. Hoppy dropped the [Link] Kearney "began
to regret that she had put herself to any expense for such a concert" (A Mother.19). Mr
Holohan is starting to seem like nothing but a fraud. As Mrs Kearney gets more and
more heated, though, Mr Holohan has two different responses. At first, he just tells Mrs
Kearney to talk to his boss, Mr Fitzpatrick. He tells her that her daughter's paycheck just
isn't his business. At the end of the story, Mr Holohan gets the last laugh. Emboldened a
little by everyone else's condemnation of Mrs Kearney, he has the guts to talk back a
little bit. When she threatens him, "I'm not done with you yet," he has the nerve to
respond, "But I'm done with you" (A Mother.77, 78). It's a lot like Farrington's reply to his
boss in "Counterparts" in that it's sort of unexpectedly witty and funny. You can imagine
everyone standing around giving the short and limping Hoppy Holohan a high five for
his final zinger. Plus, he also gets the last word on Mrs Kearney when he says in
complete sarcasm, "That's a nice lady!" (A Mother.80).

Minor Characters

Miss Kathleen Kearney

Kathleen is performing in the "four grand concerts", she only has one line of dialogue in
the whole story. And we never, ever get to hear her thoughts. Just like Old Jack in "Ivy
Day in the Committee Room," the fact that Miss Kathleen is overshadowed is probably
the most important thing. She seems like a pretty healthy and very interesting young
woman. Like her mother, she's talented musically. Unlike her mother, she's well-liked by
people: "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" (A Mother.6). That is, she's starting
to be the talk of the town, but just at the moment when we might imagine that she'll take
the spotlight and her character will become more important in the story, her mother
steals it away. Kathleen performs in the first three concerts without anyone ever
mentioning how well she did, or how she really felt about them. These are the first
concerts of her life, but the story is focused on Mrs Kearney's perceptions. And finally
when she speak, in the closing pages of the story, it's not her finest moment. She
sounds a little bit stuck up when she criticizes the poor old soprano, Madam Glynn: "I
wonder where did they dig her up … I'm sure I never heard of her" (A Mother.16). the
irony of this line is, that within a few minutes, after half of her fourth concert, the young
and aspiring Miss Kathleen will basically be in the same boat as Madam Glynn.
As Mr O'Madden Burke has it, owing to her mother's misbehavior, "Miss Kathleen
Kearney's musical career was ended in Dublin after that" (A Mother.61). If she ever
performs again, it'll be somewhere very far away.

Mr Kearney
Every other character in "A Mother" is minor, mainly because Mrs Kearney is so, well,
major. The only facts about Mr Kearney are that he's older than Mrs Kearney, and that
he's a very stable, if not a very romantic, husband. He treats his family well by saving for
his daughters' dowries and taking everyone on vacation, but he's portrayed as
otherwise sort of uninteresting. When he offers to go to the final concert in order to keep
an eye on things, Mrs Kearney gives the final word on his unimportance: "She
respected her husband in the same way she respected the General Post Office, as
something large, secure, and fixed; and though she knew the small number of his
talents she appreciated his abstract value as a male" (A Mother.25).

Mr Fitzpatrick
As the official secretary of Eire Abu, you might think this is a powerful figure. But he's
really pretty lazy and has what Mrs Kearney calls a "vacant smile." He's not really there.
His major role is to avoid Mrs Kearney's questions about her daughter's paycheck as
long as he can just like Mr Holohan, to make fun of the bad "artistes" at the concert, and
finally to pay Mrs Kearney a little bit of money so she'll agree to let the concert begin.
All in all, though, it's what Mr Fitzpatrick doesn't do which is act like a leader, or a
responsible employer, or at least a decisive figure that really frustrates Mrs Kearney and
makes him a target of her anger.

Artistes (Miss Healy, Mr Bell, Mr Duggan, Madam Glynn)

Anytime an "artiste" shows up in Dubliners, you can be pretty sure this uppity French
word is being used with a healthy dose of sarcasm. The musicians who perform
alongside Miss Kathleen Kearney in the "four grand concerts" aren't that good. But to be
fair, that's the opinion of a pretty inartistic man, Mr Holohan.

Still, we should take our word from Joyce, and when he describes them, he tells us that
Mr Duggan is just a hometown boy who never really made it, that Mr Bell has an
inferiority complex, and that Madam Glynn is washed up. Except for Miss Healy, the
artists whom Joyce doesn't criticize are unnamed. They're just identified by their parts,
like "first baritone" and "first tenor." What Joyce really emphasizes with the artistes is
how Dublin society's idea of a good performance is relatively "mediocre" (A Mother.19).

The paragraph describing the first interval of the fourth concert gives us a glimpse into
the performances, and even though it says the concert "was very successful," we can
hear a note of irony in the newspaper-like description. Joyce doesn't say that "the first
tenor and the contralto" are good, only that they "brought down the house" (A
Mother.60). If we remember that this is the same crowd that whistled when it got
impatient for the start of the concert, and that many of them came because messenger
boys passed out flyers, we recognize that maybe they aren't the best or most sensitive
audience to artistic excellence. Besides, when it's halfway over, it's not like anyone is
breathless: "when it was ended, the men went out for the interval, content" (A
Mother.60).
A side note here: James Joyce's idea of the purpose of art is a pretty significant contrast
to these concerts. The last lines of Joyce's novella A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man describe the making of real art as something that happens inside oneself, not in a
shabby concert hall. And it's not just something that can be scheduled like a concert
series.

Here's how the main character of Portrait puts it: "I go to encounter for the millionth time
the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience
of my race." Making art isn't about getting paid eight guineas; it's about the kind of
intense work of creating something under great heat and pressure, like a smithy, or
blacksmith's fire. That's not something any of these artistes demonstrate, and as a
result, the whole atmosphere gives us the feeling of being in a really bad low-budget
movie.

Mr Hendrick (The  Freeman  man)

Now here's a classy man, right? A newspaper reporter with "a plausible voice and
careful manners," Mr Hendrick has a lot on his plate (A Mother.40). He doesn't have
time to stay for the concert because, as he tells everyone, he has to get the scoop on
an American priest who is giving a lecture.
He brags about this a little bit, and his whole appearance at the concert—just to tell
everyone he can't stay—seems pretty narcissistic, which is confirmed when he sticks
around a few minutes longer to receive the enthusiastic attention of Miss Healy. Even
though he knows she just wants a good review of her performance, Mr Hendrick "was
pleasantly conscious that the bosom which he saw rise and fall slowly beneath him rose
and fell at that moment for him, that the laughter and fragrance and willful glances were
his tribute" (A Mother.44).

On the one hand, it's the story's only moment of possible romance and it's a nice respite
from the constant attention to Mrs Kearney's craziness, but on the other hand it's a little
bit creepy that this older man enjoys her attention so much. If Joyce is creating an
atmosphere of Dublin, even this relatively respectable newspaper reporter is part of the
smog.

Mr O'Madden Burke
A man about town who comes to the concerts and pronounces the final verdict on the
story—that Mrs Kearney's behaviors have ruined her daughter's reputation in Dublin. He
is "a suave elderly man" who lets his name, which sounds very Irish, cover up the fact
that he doesn't have a lot of money (A Mother.48).

Theme Analysis
Class, Ambition, and Corruption/ Cultural Domination

In “A Mother,” Joyce describes Mrs Kearney as an upper-class, educated woman.

She attended school at a “high-class” convent, learned skills that made her an
attractive prospective wife, and married her husband for financial security rather
than romance. But despite her comfortable lifestyle, including regular vacations
and good educations and dowries for her daughters, she still feels compelled to
climb the social and economic ladder and will take advantage of the people around
her to do so. By depicting how Mrs Kearney takes advantage of the Irish
Nationalist cause to secure fame for her daughter and attempts to use her position
and wine to take advantage of the concert promoter, Mr Holohan,

Joyce suggests that ambitious upper-class Irish people tend to be corrupt,

attempting to manipulate people, as well as social and political causes, for their
own personal gain. Joyce’s descriptions of Mrs Kearney’s upper-class upbringing
suggest that growing up wealthy taught her to view her abilities and her
relationships with other people as opportunities for personal gain. Mrs Kearney
was educated at a convent, an option that was only available to wealthy Catholic
women. Her “naturally” stubborn ways made it hard for her to make friends at
school or make compromises when looking for a husband. While she learned piano
at school, her musical talents were only useful for impressing potential suitors,
which was the only way she could make a name for herself. By describing her
stubbornness as “natural,” Joyce invites the reader to consider whether it is truly a
result of an innate personal quality or a characteristic to be expected of wealthy
people. And since Mrs Kearney could only find social and economic success via
marriage, and people started to gossip about her when she remained unmarried for
an unusually long time, she married Mr Kearney for money rather than love. She
sacrifices romance for a life of comfort, vacations, and financial stability this
suggests that personal happiness is less important to her than her social status.

Having established this pattern of self-promotion, Mrs Kearney even uses her
marriage and her daughter’s accomplishments to promote her family’s status.
While Mr and Mrs Kearney learn to respect and live with each other, Mrs Kearney
never stops seeking to climb the social ladder. With her husband’s money, she has
more resources to do so: she gives her daughter, Kathleen, even more advantages
than she had by sending her to the Royal Irish Academy of Music and getting her
involved in the Nationalist movement, through which she could gain influence for
the whole family. Mrs Kearney’s wealth makes it easy for her to provide Mr
Holohan with all the wine it takes to convince him to sign a contract with her
for eight guineas. The guinea was out of circulation during the time of “A
Mother,” and it was only used in wealthy people’s business transactions. Thus, its
appearance is a sure sign that Mrs Kearney draws up her contract to make herself
appear aristocratic.
Rather than take part in social life in earnest, Mrs Kearney always does so with an
eye to personal gain. Mrs Kearney has Kathleen learn Irish and becomes a fixture
in the Nationalist movement only when it becomes popular and fashionable.
Moreover, she never actually speaks any Irish in “A Mother,” instead speaking the
French she learned with her upper-class convent education. It’s clear, then, that
Mrs Kearney regards the Nationalist movement primarily as a means of social
climbing, not as a political commitment for its own sake. Likewise, Mrs Kearney’s
interest in the Eire Abu Society’s concert series is less about celebrating Irish
culture than it is about securing fame for her daughter and money for herself. Even
while attending the concert series, she looks down on the Society members, the
performers, and even the audience for not being up to her upper-class standards,
again showing that she isn’t interested in Society participation for its own sake.
Since she can’t look past the concert’s appearances or shift her focus from the
eight guineas Kathleen was promised, Mrs Kearney ends up making a scene and
causing her own social downfall. Ironically, then, Mrs Kearney’s fixation on
personal gain finally undermines the status she’s spent her life fighting to maintain.
Irish Nationalism, Colonization, and Failure

“A Mother” takes place during the time of the late-19th- and early-20th-century
Irish Revival, a movement to uplift Ireland’s precolonial Gaelic and Celtic
language and culture. While the Irish Nationalist movement was intended to help
the Irish people to resist their English oppressors and celebrate their own culture,
the Kearney’s’ only take part in the Irish Nationalist movement to benefit
themselves, since the movement is both fashionable and lucrative for them. In
addition to the movement’s self-interested members, its leaders lack vision and
competence. Joyce demonstrates these qualities with the fictional Eire
Abu Society, which catastrophically fails to organize a successful four-night
concert series celebrating Ireland’s culture—and its leaders don’t seem to be that
disappointed by their failure. In this way, “A Mother” critiques the Irish
Nationalist movement of Joyce’s time for its disorganization, apathy, inexperience,
and corruption.

While the Irish Nationalist movement is a political centerpiece of “A Mother,”

rather than reflect the actual politics of Irish Nationalism, it appears to be a social
outlet for the Kearneys. The Kearneys only get involved in Irish Nationalism when
the Irish Revival becomes “appreciable.” Once Mrs Kearney notices the Irish
Revival becoming more popular, she has Kathleen learn Irish, not because she
actually seems invested in the Irish language and Irish independence, but because
she sees an opportunity for Kathleen to make a name for herself: Kathleen shares a
name with a traditional Irish figure, Kathleen in Houlihan, which would help boost
her notoriety. Furthermore, rather than discuss anything about Irish political
independence from England, the Kearneys mostly exchange gossip with their
Nationalist friends. Their opportunistic and shallow involvement in Nationalism
demonstrates that for them (and perhaps for many upper-class Nationalists), the
movement is only appealing as a means of social advancement.

Even the members of the Eire Abu Society, a fictional Irish Nationalist group

whose name translates to “Ireland to Victory,” don’t take much care in planning
the concerts or ensuring their success, suggesting that they’re actually not all that
invested in the issues surrounding Ireland’s colonial subjugation, either. Mr
Holohan seems completely inexperienced in event-planning, to the point that he
relies on Mrs Kearney’s advice on nearly everything, and when the first concert
goes awry, he is nonchalant about letting the first three concerts fail without
intervention. When the first concert seems bound to fail, the Committee
Secretary, Mr Fitzpatrick, doesn’t seem to be that disappointed—or surprised—
and he takes advantage of the rowdy atmosphere at the second concert to talk
loudly with his friends during the performances, suggesting he’s indifferent to the
concerts’ success. Miss Beirne, a Society Committee member, can’t seem to get
ahold of any of the other Committee members, and seems fairly resigned to the fact
that the Society did their “best” in planning the concerts. When she gets together
with all the Committee members at the fourth concert, they seem disorganized as a
group and caught off guard by Mrs Kearney’s demands. And although the
Committee invites reporters from a Nationalist newspaper to report on the
concerts, even the reporters, Mr Hendrick and Mr O’Madden Burke, don’t seem
interested in the performances or in the politics of Irish Nationalism in general.
From Joyce’s descriptions, the Eire Abu Society seems ironically named: they are
completely unprepared to bring Ireland to victory in any sense, and by implication,
their disorganization and apathy illuminate part of the reason why Ireland’s
Nationalist movements have yet to secure freedom for the Irish people.

Like Mrs Kearney, the Committee members and other Nationalists seem to take
advantage of the concerts for their own personal gain. But, unlike Mrs Kearney,
they don’t take its failures personally. Mr Fitzpatrick, Mr Holohan, Mr Hendrick,
and Mr O’Madden Burke each use the concerts they attend to drink, socialize, and
flirt, and none of them even seem to pay attention to the performances that are
supposed to celebrate Ireland’s culture. The concerts’ publicity failures seem to
strike the reporters and committee members as commonplace, as well as their
hesitancy to pay Kathleen, given the low numbers at the box office. Indeed, what
they find “scandalous” is Mrs Kearney’s reaction to their disorganization and
apathy which is suggesting that they don’t see the cause as worth getting worked
up about. Overall, Joyce suggests that the Committee members’ failure reflects the
overall history of failed Irish Nationalist rebellions and the stagnation of the
movement after it was co-opted by the wealthy and by people more interested in
their own success than in Irish independence.
Paralysis and Decay

James Joyce believed that the decades of conflict in Ireland, whether between
the Irish and their English colonizers, or between Catholics and Protestants,
had left the Irish people in a state of “paralysis”: cultural, economic, and
political stagnation that led to the decline of Irish society. Many of the
characters in “A Mother” seem to be afflicted with some sort of paralysis: Mr
Holohan, the inexperienced concert promoter for the Irish Nationalist Eire
Abu Society, has a bad leg; Mrs Kearney fixates on her daughter’s eight-
guinea payment; and Kathleen Kearney seems to sit idly by for much of the
story and allow her mother to make all her decisions for her. As the final night
of Eire Abu’s concert series stalls because of the devolving dispute between
Mrs Kearney and the Society Committee over Kathleen’s pay, Joyce draws
parallels between their relatively inconsequential disagreement and the larger
conflicts plaguing turn-of-the-20th-century Ireland to highlight the roots of
Ireland’s paralysis.

Mr Holohan’s bad leg is the first sign of Ireland’s paralysis in “A Mother,”

suggesting that organizations like the Eire Abu Society aren’t a very effective
means of promoting Irish Nationalism. When Joyce dedicates the first
paragraph of “A Mother” to describing Mr Holohan, Holohan’s most prominent
feature is his “game leg” that makes him walk with a limp and leads to his
friends calling him “Hoppy Holohan.” Since Mr Holohan is the face of the Eire
Abu Society when advertising for the concert, his leg simultaneously
foreshadows the limping start that the concert series will have before gaining
an audience and suggests the “limp” and hobbled state of the Irish Nationalist
movement at the time. Towards the end of “A Mother,” when Mrs Kearney
watches Mr Holohan like a predator as he limps around backstage, Joyce
hints at one reason for the Nationalist movement’s troubles: wealthy Dubliners
taking advantage of the movement’s opportunities for social gain. Overall, his
bad leg is an omen for the overall ineffectiveness of the Eire Abu Society:
none of the Society members seem qualified for their position—or seem to
understand what their position is—and all of them have a difficult time acting
when problems arise.

By overshadowing the final concert’s Nationalist aims with her personal

fixation on getting her daughter’s eight guineas, Mrs Kearney contributes to
the Eire Abu Society’s disorganization and failure, revealing how individuals’
limitations and paralyses can bring down an entire movement. By describing
how Mrs Kearney uses Nationalism to make a name for her daughter and
enhance her family’s reputation, Joyce establishes that she is not actually
invested in the Irish Nationalist cause. Thus, when she takes pains to help Mr
Holohan order the performers, make the bills, and sell tickets, the reader
knows that she does so not to advance the Nationalist cause in Ireland but to
co-opt its popularity for her own gain, keeping her stuck in her self-serving
ways and, in turn, contributing to the stagnation of the Nationalist cause. Her
concern with the concerts’ failure is also not about the Nationalist message
failing to get out, but about her daughter’s money—the concerts have already
faced enough challenges, and Mrs Kearney’s decision to keep Kathleen from
playing until she is paid represents just another petty obstacle to Nationalist
success in Ireland.

Finally, one of the most paralyzed characters in “A Mother” is Kathleen

Kearney—but she also shows the surest signs that she might be able to break
out of her paralysis. Throughout “A Mother,” Kathleen is talked about far more
often than she talks; Joyce never gives the reader insight into her thoughts,
and although the concert is supposed to be Kathleen’s career opportunity, Mrs
Kearney ends up micromanaging the whole thing and taking center stage.
Even while Mrs Kearney and Mr Holohan’s argument gets most heated,
Kathleen only stares at her shoes and keeps quiet, following her mother’s
directions without question. However, Kathleen is only performing at the
concert because it is a good opportunity for her to gain exposure and have a
career of her own. While Mrs Kearney and Mr Holohan remain locked in their
dispute, Kathleen manages to overcome her paralysis before her mother’s
demands and start the Saturday night concert without full payment,
suggesting that, whatever her views about Ireland’s broader problems, she is
less set in her ways than the older characters in the story. Kathleen’s quiet
breakthrough hints that there’s hope for the younger generation to carry on
the cause in a more proactive and effective way.

Gender and Power

n “A Mother,” Mrs Kearney is an ambitious, upper-class, educated woman
who mistreats the people of the Eire Abu Society whom she deems beneath
her. While she ends up ruining her family’s reputation and her daughter’s
music career with her efforts to climb the social ladder, Joyce also includes
details about Mrs Kearney that invite the reader to pity her: as a woman, her
piano-playing was only seen as useful for its ability to charm a husband, while
her daughter’s musical talent could secure her a career of her own.
Furthermore, since Mrs Kearney could not marry for love, she had to marry for
improved social status and financial gain. And rather than exercise her power
directly or command the kind of respect her husband does, she can only turn
circumstances to her advantage by convincing more powerful men to do what
she says. The details Joyce includes about Mrs Kearney’s upbringing, her
views of her husband, and her final argument with Mr Holohan reveal how
her abilities to gain respect and power in society are colored by her gender,
making her a more sympathetic character.

While Joyce’s descriptions of Mrs Kearney’s wealth emphasize the privileges

she has in life, they also point out how limited her power is in shaping her own
life. Although Mrs Kearney attended an upper-class school, her talents were
only cultivated in order to attract a husband—and her choosiness in doing so
only made her the subject of negative gossip. Unlike Kathleen, Mrs Kearney
did not appear to have the option of channeling her musical talents into a
career. Instead, she had to rely on marriage to shape her financial and social
future, meaning she ultimately married for wealth instead of love. Ultimately,
although her life is comfortable and she and Mr Kearney respect one another,
Mrs Kearney appears to be dissatisfied with her position and to live vicariously
through her daughter’s successes.

Mrs Kearney’s views of the men around her bring to light the gendered power
imbalances at the turn of the 20th century in Dublin. Mr and Mrs Kearney’s
marriage is a social and financial transaction more than a decision made for
love: Mrs Kearney seems invested in appearing like a happy, prosperous
family when she describes her vacations to her friends, but her relationship
with her husband seems distant. When she thinks of her husband, she views
him as “secure and fixed” like the post office. And, although she does not find
him particularly personally impressive, she recognizes his “abstract value as a
male,” suggesting that her view of her husband is largely pragmatic: he is a
means to an end.

When she encounters Mr Holohan, Mrs Kearney appears to view him as a

means to an end, too. To convince him to agree to her desired contract terms,
Mrs Kearney must play the hostess, keeping him supplied with plenty of food
and wine to gain his favor. In this way, she leverages a traditionally feminine
role to influence the hapless man who actually holds power. Finally, when Mrs
Kearney’s argument with the Committee members approaches its peak, she
immediately thinks that they would have taken her more seriously if she were
a man. In particular, the moment she decides to make sure that Kathleen gets
her “rights” suggests that the conflict is about more than just the eight
guineas Mr Holohan promised her: it is about how she is treated—and how
Kathleen will be treated—as a woman mostly doing business with men.
Mr Holohan’s remark to Mrs Kearney after she mocks him confirms her
suspicion that he is using her gender to his advantage: he accuses Mrs
Kearney of not being a “lady,” which implies that she is both a lower-class
(thus, lower-quality) person and a particularly lower-quality woman. When Mr
Holohan makes this comment, he takes advantage of the fact that the only
power Mrs Kearney has is social: the power of her reputation and of her ability
to influence other people. By humiliating her in front of everyone, therefore, he
undermines what power she has. And since Mrs Kearney does indeed fall
short of societal expectations of a “lady,” all the onlookers agree with Mr
Holohan. They are primed to be biased: patriarchal expectations mean that
they see Mr Holohan’s anger as justified and Mrs Kearney’s as excessive. But
because her outburst is fairly tame, the reader can see just how thin a line Mrs
Kearney must walk to maintain her reputation, the source of her power. In this
respect, Joyce subtly criticizes the patriarchal expectations of his day and
prompts readers’ sympathy for the position of women like Mrs Kearney.