ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Maria touches the saucer with a mound of wet clay on it, which in games of this sort represents early death.

Detailed explanation-2: -While playing traditional Irish Halloween games, a blindfolded Maria chooses clay rather than water, a ring, or a prayerbook, signifying (at least according to Irish superstition) that she will die soon.

Detailed explanation-3: -’Clay’: plot summary Maria works as a kitchen maid for a laundry run by Protestants and devoted to helping fallen women; the laundry is overseen by a woman known simply as ‘matron’. Maria secured the job after recommendations from Joe and Alphy Donnelly, two brothers whose family she worked for years ago.

Detailed explanation-4: -One of the objects in the game is a ring, standing for marriage, which Maria failed to get during a similar game (in which objects were baked into pieces of barmbrack) back at the laundry. At Joe’s, Maria once again misses the ring and instead chooses what is implied to be a lump of clay.

Detailed explanation-5: -Loneliness and Estrangement In “Clay, ” an unmarried middle-aged woman named Maria struggles to connect with others. Maria is surrounded by people at work, and she speaks with strangers when she is out in the city, but these interactions are mostly superficial.