Mary Kissane: From Convict to Merrow – Character Analysis in The Sirens

Overview

Mary Kissane is a central historical figure in Emilia Hart’s The Sirens, an Irish woman transported to Australia in 1800 as a convict aboard the Naiad. She is one of the twin daughters of a mysterious merrow mother and a mortal father. Throughout the novel, Mary evolves from a frightened, guarded girl into a powerful, self‑possessed merrow who chooses to live in the sea and vows to protect the women who come after her. Her story is interwoven with those of her sister Eliza and the modern‑day descendants Lucy and Jess. The transformation scene during the Naiad’s shipwreck is the novel’s turning point, where Mary sheds her human limitations and fully accepts her amphibious nature.

Plot Role

Mary appears primarily in the historical narrative that mirrors the contemporary mystery. Her journey begins as a convict on the prison ship, enduring starvation, abuse, and the death of her friend Aoife. When the Naiad wrecks on rocks off the Australian coast, Mary and Eliza lead the women to safety by guiding them onto a makeshift raft, then choose to remain in the ocean themselves. The epilogue reveals that Mary (under the name Mare) later lives in a cave near Comber Bay, where she has a secret affair with Robert Wilson (later Mike Martin) and kills local men she deems predatory. She gives birth to a child – Jess’s mother – whom Robert rescues, setting in motion the family secrets that Lucy and Jess unravel in the present day. Mary’s promise to protect future women directly echoes the novel’s central theme of sisterhood and vengeance.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Mary’s primary motivation is survival—first physical, then emotional and spiritual. On the Naiad, she endures the squalor of the prison deck by focusing on small routines and the comfort of Eliza’s presence. Her fierce protectiveness emerges when she helps Eliza sing to calm the women, and when she tends to Aoife’s dead body with ritual respect. She is initially resistant to her mother’s legacy: she locked away memories of the merrow world and felt anger toward her mother for drowning. However, as the ship founders and her own body begins to change—scales appear on her hands, gills open on her neck—she finally accepts the transformation. The text shows her entering the water with a sense of “rightness” she had never known. This acceptance is a choice, not a passive fate; she decides to become a merrow rather than cling to human form. Later, she vows to mother all the girls who need protection, indicating a shift from self‑preservation to altruistic guardianship.

Chronological Arc

• Childhood in Ard na Caithne, County Kerry: Mary and Eliza are born by the sea. Their mother takes them into the water and tells them stories of the merrow world. When Mary is five, her mother drowns (or leaves the human world). Mary locks away the memories and grows angry.
• Relocation to Armagh: Her father moves the family north to work in the linen trade. Mary dreams of a conventional future—love, marriage, children—while Eliza retains a longing for the sea. The local rent‑collector Byrne begins to target Mary.
• Convict transport on the Naiad: Mary and Eliza are arrested and transported. On board, they form bonds with other women (Bridie, Sarah, Annie, Aoife). Mary suffers the burning pain of the bilge water, which her body reacts to with developing scales. She has nightmares of her mother’s transformed face.
• The shipwreck and transformation: The Naiad hits rocks. As water floods the hold, Mary and Eliza embrace their merrow natures. Mary feels her spine burst into fins, webs form between her fingers, and gills open on her neck. She remembers her mother’s promise of a life in the sea.
• Life as a merrow in Australia: After guiding the other women to safety, Mary and Eliza choose to stay in the ocean. Mary later adopts the name Mare and lives in a cave near Comber Bay. She has a secret affair with Robert Wilson and gives birth to a child. She kills local men she considers dangerous.
• Epilogue (37 years before main events): Robert finds the baby with webbed fingers and shimmering skin and raises her as his own. Mary’s vow to protect women continues through her descendants.

Relationships

• Eliza (twin sister): Mary’s deepest bond. They share a psychic connection, often finishing each other’s thoughts. Eliza pushes Mary to remember their mother and the sea. They sing together, save each other during the shipwreck, and choose the merrow life as a pair.
• Mother (unnamed merrow): Mary’s relationship is fraught with anger and grief. She saw her mother as a figure who abandoned them. Only during the transformation does she realise her mother loved them and did not choose to leave.
• Father: Mary loves her father but resents his anger toward the sea. She worries about him dying alone after their transportation.
• Aoife, Bridie, Sarah, Annie: Fellow convicts. Mary shows compassion by helping wash Aoife’s body and by ensuring the younger women survive the wreck.
• Robert Wilson (Mike Martin): In the epilogue, Mary (Mare) has a consensual affair with him. She kills other men but spares him. The relationship produces a child.
• Byrne: The rent‑collector who sexually threatens Mary. He represents the patriarchal oppression she escapes by leaving the human world.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Theme and Symbol Connections

• Sisterhood and Family Bonds: Mary’s evolution is inseparable from Eliza. Their twinship represents the idea that women can find strength in each other. Mary’s vow to protect “all the girls who came to this place” expands sisterhood beyond blood relations. (See sisterhood and family bonds).
• Identity and Self‑Discovery: Mary spends much of her life denying her merrow nature. The shipwreck forces a confrontation. Her transformation is an act of self‑acceptance; she finally sees herself as “blooming into herself, at last.” (Explore identity and self‑discovery).
• Trauma and Memory: Mary represses the trauma of her mother’s disappearance and the assault by Byrne. Her scars (both physical and emotional) are released only when she allows the water to change her. The novel suggests that ancestral trauma can be transformed, not erased. (Read more about trauma and memory).
• Colonization and Oppression: Mary is a victim of British colonization—transported for a crime likely tied to poverty. She also suffers under patriarchal control (Byrne, the captain). Her choice to become a merrow can be read as a rejection of both colonial and patriarchal systems. (See colonization and oppression).
• Transformation and Monstrosity: Mary’s body is initially monstrous to her (scales, gills). But the story redefines monstrosity as power. The merrow state is not a curse but a gift that allows her to protect others. For more on this, visit transformation and monstrosity.

5 Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Mary resist her mother’s merrow legacy for so long?
   Mary associates the merrow world with abandonment. After her mother drowned (or left), she felt angry and betrayed. She locked away the memories because they were too painful, and she preferred to imagine a normal human future. The text shows that she only re‑accepts this part of herself when survival demands it.

2. What triggers Mary’s physical transformation on the Naiad?
   The immediate trigger is the shipwreck and the seawater flooding the hold. Mary’s body had been responding to the bilge water for weeks—her skin burned and thickened. The full transformation occurs when she stops fighting the water and lets it “wrap itself around” her, remembering her mother’s promise of a life in the sea.

3. How does Mary’s relationship with Eliza differ from her relationship with her mother?
   Mary and Eliza are equals; they share a twin bond that is supportive and often joyful. With her mother, there is a power imbalance and unresolved grief. Mary views her mother as a distant, almost mythical figure until she herself becomes a merrow and understands the choice her mother made.

4. Does Mary kill the men in Comber Bay, and if so, why?
   Yes. In the epilogue, Mare (Mary) tells Robert she has killed local men. The novel implies she targets those who harm women—predators, abusers. This aligns with her vow to protect all the girls who come to her cave. The action is presented as a form of justice, not random violence.

5. What does Mary’s final vow to “mother all the girls” signify for the overall novel?
   It means Mary chooses to become a guardian spirit for women in danger. This vow directly connects to Lucy and Jess’s modern story: the sisters are protected by Mary’s legacy. It also reframes motherhood as a choice rooted in solidarity rather than biology. For a deeper look at the novel’s resolution, see the ending explained.

For more frequently asked questions about the characters and plot, visit the questions and answers page.