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Miss Beirne
Mr Bell is one of the artistes in the Saturday night concert: the second tenor. He competes every year at the Feis Ceoil, an Irish music festival, but has only won one bronze medal in four years. He is a nervous man and jealous of other tenors. Although he is set to take the stage first, when Mrs Kearney stalls the concert over Kathleen’s contract, he gets increasingly anxious until Kathleen Kearney decides to ignore her mother and tell him to go on. He takes Mrs Kearney’s side in the disagreement between her, Mr Holohan, and Mr Fitzpatrick until she mocks Mr Holohan. Joyce’s descriptions of Mr Bell highlight how pitiful the talent is at the concert series.
Mr Bell Quotes in A Mother
The A Mother quotes below are all either spoken by Mr Bell or refer to Mr Bell. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
A Mother
Quotes
Mr Fitzpatrick held a few banknotes in his hand. He counted out four into Mrs Kearney's hand and said she would get the other half at the interval. Mrs Kearney said:
“This is four shillings short.”
But Kathleen gathered in her skirt and said: Now, Mr Bell, to the first item, who was shaking like an aspen. The singer and the accompanist went out together. The noise in the hall died away. There was a pause of a few seconds: and then the piano was heard.
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Mr Bell Quotes in A Mother
The A Mother quotes below are all either spoken by Mr Bell or refer to Mr Bell. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
A Mother
Quotes
Mr Fitzpatrick held a few banknotes in his hand. He counted out four into Mrs Kearney's hand and said she would get the other half at the interval. Mrs Kearney said:
“This is four shillings short.”
But Kathleen gathered in her skirt and said: Now, Mr Bell, to the first item, who was shaking like an aspen. The singer and the accompanist went out together. The noise in the hall died away. There was a pause of a few seconds: and then the piano was heard.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
