Who is She? A Virgin Mary or A Mother Mary?: Reading Colm Tóibínʼs The Testament of Mary

Abstract

This paper analyses The Testament of Mary in terms of the authorʼs intention to present Mary both as Virgin Mary and Mother Mary. Mary, who Tóibín imagines has a modern voice and thus triggers a question where one might wonder whether Virgin Mary is deified or diminished to Mother Mary. This paper attempts to prove that though the author uses the greater portion of the story to describe the human side of Mary, the undercurrent element revealed at the end of the book shows that he keeps the deified side of Mary to some degree, the very Mary Tóibínʼs Catholic side formed and has believed. Thus at the end of the story, Maryʼs title of Salve Regina and Stabat Mater becomes valid. By allowing both sides of Mary, this paper argues that Tóibín brings his human Mary to his Catholic community without divorcing her from the Catholic understanding of Virgin Mary.