Woman Behind the Shop Counter Character Analysis in Clay

The young woman behind the shop counter is the person who rings up the plum cake that buys for and . When Maria takes a long time to pick out what she wants, it annoys the woman, who cruelly suggests that Maria might be buying a wedding cake. Maria likely finds this comment a harsh reminder that she is unmarried, but she doesn’t acknowledge this; instead, she simply “blush[es] and smile[s]” and moves on. The woman’s “stylish” appearance suggests that she is attractive to men and eligible for marriage, which draws further attention to Maria’s misfortune.

Woman Behind the Shop Counter Quotes in Clay

The Clay quotes below are all either spoken by Woman Behind the Shop Counter or refer to Woman Behind the Shop Counter. 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:

).

Here she was a long time in suiting herself and the stylish young lady behind the counter, who was evidently a little annoyed by her, asked her was it wedding-cake she wanted to buy. That made Maria blush and smile at the young lady; but the young lady took it all very seriously and finally cut a thick slice of plumcake […]

Related Characters: Maria, Woman Behind the Shop Counter

Related Literary Devices:

Irony

Motifs

Verbal Irony

Page Number and Citation: 98

Explanation and Analysis:

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