# Maria — Dubliners character guide

> Maria in Dubliners by James Joyce.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Polly Mooney, Polly, Mary, Mooney

**First appearance:** 0009-clay

## Snapshot

A gentle, unmarried laundress whose Halloween visit to her former foster children reveals a life of small kindnesses and quiet loneliness.

## Who they are

Maria works at the Dublin by Lamplight laundry and is beloved for her peacemaking and her plumcake. She travels across town to Joe Donnelly's house, where she is welcomed but also gently mocked, and where a forgotten song stirs old grief. Her small rituals and her unspoken solitude make her one of the collection's most tender figures.

## Relationships

### [Kathleen Kearney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dubliners_se/characters/kathleen_kearney)

_social_

Acquaintances through the laundry and concert circle; they share a polite but distant connection.

### [Aunt Julia Morkan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dubliners_se/characters/aunt_julia_morkan)

_friendship_

Longtime friends and former colleagues; Maria is a devoted helper to the Morkan sisters.

### [Aunt Julia Morkan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dubliners_se/characters/aunt_julia_morkan)

_friendship_

Longtime friends and former colleagues; Maria is a devoted helper to the Morkan sisters.

### [Aunt Julia Morkan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dubliners_se/characters/aunt_julia_morkan)

_friendship_

Longtime friends and former colleagues; Maria is a devoted helper to the Morkan sisters.

### [Kathleen Kearney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dubliners_se/characters/kathleen_kearney)

_social_

Acquaintances through the laundry and concert circle; they share a polite but distant connection.

### [Kathleen Kearney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dubliners_se/characters/kathleen_kearney)

_social_

Acquaintances through the laundry and concert circle; they share a polite but distant connection.

## In the story

### [The Boarding House](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dubliners_se/chapters/the-boarding-house)

The daughter whose affair with Mr. Doran is used by her mother to secure a marriage.

### [Clay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dubliners_se/chapters/clay)

The protagonist, a small, unmarried woman who works in a laundry. She is kind, independent, and nostalgic, but also naive and subject to the condescension of others.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dubliners_se/characters/maria
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dubliners_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dubliners_se/characters