The Dubliners is the most famous short-story collection by Irish writer,James Joyce.As the shortest story in the collection,Clay reveals the deep theme that the loss and deterioration of humanity has corrosively influenced the Irish people under the social background of British ruling.Joyce aims to arouse Irish people's awareness of pursuing the spiritual freedom.Based on functional stylistics,this paper analyses Clay in terms of transitivity theory,and discusses connection between the deep theme and writing style.This new perspective enables readers to better understand the novel.