The Theme of Escape in James Joyce’s Dubliners

1058 Words3 Pages

The Theme of Escape in James Joyce’s Dubliners

In James Joyce’s Dubliners, the theme of escape tends to be a trend when characters are faced with critical decisions. Joyce’s novel presents a bleak and dark view of Ireland; his intentions by writing this novel are to illustrate people’s reasons to flee Ireland. In the stories “Eveline, “Counterparts”, and the “Dead”, characters are faced with autonomous decisions that shape their lives. This forlorn world casts a gloomy shadow over the characters of these stories. These stories are connected by their similar portrayal of Ireland. They clearly represent Joyce’s views on people’s discontent with Ireland.

In the story “Eveline”, Joyce’s main character Eveline has ambitions to escaper her life in Ireland. For the main part of the story she is waiting in front of a window ready to leave for a new life with her lover Frank. “She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror. Escape! She must escape” (29). This illustrates the theme of escape by showing her dissatisfaction with her life in Ireland. She is reluctant due to a promise made to her mother to stay and take care of her family. Being an independent person she longs to leave Ireland however, she decides to stay at the end of the story with complete awareness of her decision. “NO! No! No! It was impossible. Her hands clutched the iron in frenzy” (34). She could leave her father and live a happy life instead she lives this displeasing life. Eveline is overwhelmed by her unending struggle with her will to leave.

Eveline is compelled by her responsibility of taking care of her father. In this story, the main antagonist is her father who is a shameful parent. He creates an unplea...

... middle of paper ...

... we see that life is a façade; the characters disguise their sorrow in modesty. Joyce’s portrayal of Ireland undoubtedly creates a desire to evade a gloomy life.

In Joyce’s stories “Eveline”, “Counterparts” and the “Dead”, the theme of escape and responsibility is represented by the characters desire to flee their lives. These stories symbolize Joyce’s interpretation of life in Ireland. With careful analysis it can be inferred that the miserable situations portrayed in these stories can be directly tied into how readers may view life in Ireland. Like the characters in Dubliners people desired a better life for themselves in and out of Ireland. The themes common to these stories show an appreciation to opportunity and success in the world. The themes of escape and responsibility present in a readers mind a looking glass for viewing life and society.

Show More
Related

  • James Joyce's Dubliners Analysis

    1239 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Dubliners” by James Joyce was first published in 1914. It is a collection of short stories, which takes place in the same general area and time frame, moving from one individual’s story to the next. Boysen in “The Necropolis of Love: James Joyce’s Dubliners” discuses the way the citizens of Dublin are caught in this never ending misery because of the lack of love- mainly instituted by the “criminalization of sensual love” from the church- and the economic stress, and struggle to survive. Zack Brown goes through the individual short stories, pointing out their references to paralysis, as well as a few other themes in “Joyce’s Prophylactic Paralysis: Exposure in “Dubliners.”” “James Joyce’s usage of Diction in Representation of Irish Society in Dubliners” by Daronkolaee discuses the background knowledge of the culture and particular details of the city that enhance the understanding of the reader and enforce the ideas presented by Boysen and broken down by Brown. These analytical articles help support the idea that Joyce uses

    Read More

  • James Joyce's Dubliners

    1429 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the story Dubliners by James Joyce, he writes about a few different themes, some of these being autonomy, responsibility, light, and dark. The most important of the themes though must be the individual character in the story against the community and the way they see it. I have chosen to take a closer look at “Araby,” “Eveline,” and “The Dead” because the great display of these themes I feel is fascinating. Many things affect the way the individual characters see the community, for example their family, friends, fellow citizens, or even new places. In Dubliners, the way the characters see the community affects them and other people around them.

    Read More

  • Dubliners: A Collection of Short Stories

    629 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dubliners is a collection of short stories that encircles around men, women, and children focusing on every aspects of their lives within the Irish capital of Dublin. These series of short stories were considered to be a masterpiece that was published by James Joyce in 1914, one of the most influential writters during the twentieth century. Joyce's unique style of writing is clearly displayed throughout the stories. This book consist of fifteen depressing and unhappy tales that form a sequence of desire for escape, diminishing faith, and missed opportunities among the characters. These themes are the cores of Dubliners that apply one way or another. The arrangements of each and every story appears to resemble the cycle of human life, commencing from childhood all the way to adulthood and beyond. Despite the differences, there were numerous amount of common and recurring themes found between the stories. Escape has played a crucial role in Dubliners, acting as one of the central themes presented within the stories "An Encounter", "Araby", "Eveline", and "The Dead". The protagonist of each story had made attempts to escape their tedious lives in Dublin and change was demanded, however they were all unsuccessful until arriving at the sense of realization. Having gone through traumatic experiences, only to discover that everything that they thought was possible were nothing more than a mere dream.

    Read More

  • Eveline, Dubliners and James Joyce

    1498 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Eveline" is the story of a young teenager facing a dilemma where she has to choose between living with her father or escaping with Frank, a sailor which she has been courting for some time. The story is one of fifteen stories written by James Joyce in a collection called "Dubliners". These stories follow a certain pattern that Joyce uses to express his ideas: "Joyce's focus in Dubliners is almost exclusively on the middle-class Catholics known to himself and his family"(the Gale Group). Joyce's early life, family background, and his catholic background appear in the way he writes these stories. "Where Joyce usually relates his stories to events in his life, there are some stories which are actually events that took place in his life" (Joyce, Stanislaus). James Joyce in his letter to Grant Richard writes:

    Read More

  • Search for Meaning in James Joyce's Dubliners

    2387 Words  | 5 Pages

    Twentieth Century Interpretations of Dubliners. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: 1968. Torchiana, Donald T. Backgrounds for Joyce’s Dubliners. Allen & Unwin, Inc. Winchester, Massachusetts: 1986.

    Read More

  • Religion In James Joyce's Dubliners

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    A collection of short stories published in 1907, Dubliners, by James Joyce, revolves around the everyday lives of ordinary citizens in Dublin, Ireland (Freidrich 166). According to Joyce himself, his intention was to "write a chapter of the moral history of [his] country and [he] chose Dublin for the scene because the city seemed to [b]e the centre of paralysis" (Friedrich 166). True to his goal, each of the fifteen stories are tales of disappointment, darkness, captivity, frustration, and flaw. The book is divided into four sections: childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life (Levin 159). The structure of the book shows that gradually, citizens become trapped in Dublin society (Stone 140). The stories portray Joyce's feeling that Dublin is the epitome of paralysis and all of the citizens are victims (Levin 159). Although each story from Dubliners is a unique and separate depiction, they all have similarities with each other. In addition, because the first three stories -- The Sisters, An Encounter, and Araby parallel each other in many ways, they can be seen as a set in and of themselves. The purpose of this essay is to explore one particular similarity in order to prove that the childhood stories can be seen as specific section of Dubliners. By examining the characters of Father Flynn in The Sisters, Father Butler in An Encounter, and Mangan's sister in Araby, I will demonstrate that the idea of being held captive by religion is felt by the protagonist of each story. In this paper, I argue that because religion played such a significant role in the lives of the middle class, it was something that many citizens felt was suffocating and from which it was impossible to get away. Each of the three childhood stories uses religion to keep the protagonist captive. In The Sisters, Father Flynn plays an important role in making the narrator feel like a prisoner. Mr. Cotter's comment that "… a young lad [should] run about and play with young lads of his own age…" suggests that the narrator has spent a great deal of time with the priest. Even in death, the boy can not free himself from the presence of Father Flynn (Stone 169) as is illustrated in the following passage: "But the grey face still followed me. It murmured; and I understood that it desired to confess something.

    Read More

  • Mr. Duffy

    540 Words  | 2 Pages

    Eveline has always felt lonely ever since her mother’s death but especially now when there is nothing more she can do with her life but find someone to take her away and love her. Eveline’s desire for a better life seems like it may come true when she meets Frank who she thinks will take her away to Buenos Aires. When her chance comes along for her to leave with Frank she too pushes her chance away. She thinks that she no longer deserves a better life other than fulfilling her duties to her family and chooses to be alone for eternity.

    Read More

  • The Modern Relevance of Themes in James Joyce's Eveline

    927 Words  | 2 Pages

    James Joyce is widely considered to be one of the best authors of the 20th century. One of James Joyce’s most celebrated short stories is “Eveline.” This short story explores the theme of order and hazard and takes a critical look at life in Dublin, Ireland in the early 20th century. Furthermore, the themes that underlie “Eveline” were not only relevant for the time the story was wrote in, but are just as relevant today.

    Read More

  • Desire of Escape

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Dubliners, James Joyce tells short stories of individuals struggling with life, in the city of Dublin. “It is a long road that has no turning” (Irish Proverb). Many individuals fight the battle and continue on the road. However, some give up and get left behind. Those who continue to fight the battle, often deal with constant struggle and suffering. A reoccurring theme, in which Joyce places strong emphasis on, is the constant struggle of fulfilling responsibilities. These responsibilities include; work, family and social expectations. Joyce writes about these themes because characters often feel trapped and yearn to escape from these responsibilities. In “The Little Cloud”, “Counterparts”, and “The Dead” characters are often trapped in unhappy living situations, often leading to a desire of escape from reality and daily responsibilities.

    Read More

  • General Criticism of Araby by James Joyce

    1439 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thomas, Steve. "Dubliners by James Joyce." ebooks@Adelaide. The University of Adelaide, 23 Aug 2010. Web. 20 Jan 2011

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In James Joyce's The Dubliners

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    Another one of these stories was “Eveline”. Many women of this time period were faced with the reality of choosing the future instead of holding on to the past in order to make a life. Eveline was mistreated by the men in her family but is not able to fully let go of the family relationship that she still found with them. This goes to show that women were underestimated for their compassion role in society. She wants to run away with the man she has been seeing for a long time. His name is Frank. She sees him as a way to escape and maybe have chance at a happier life but backs out of this decision when she hears an organ play in the streets that brought back memories of her mother’s death. Eveline shows the side of humans that desire routine and a need to feel safe in repeated routine. Paralysis is seen through the way she is frozen in her life because of routine and cannot let it go. Joyce blames the Catholic Church for the way women lived and people in general, lived their lives in fear of anything

    Read More

  • Analysis on James Joyce´s Eveline

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Escape! She must escape!” but why she did not (Meyer 515). James Joyce title character in “Eveline” had all the reason in the world to escape her odd life and explore a new life. She fears making the change in her life by moving to Buenos Aires with her boyfriend Frank. Eveline becomes the main provider for her dysfunctional family after her mother’s death and has to make the biggest decision of her life, to stay or runaway. The guilt that Eveline will feel forced her to stay in her trap awful life. James illustrates in the short story “Eveline”, that his character didn’t leave her gloomy life because of two reasons, Eveline promised her mother to care for the family and she doesn’t know or love Frank enough to leave.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Araby And The Dead By James Joyce

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    James Joyce began his writing career in 1914 with a series of realistic stories published in a collection called The Dubliners. These short literary pieces are a glimpse into the ‘paralysis’ that those who lived in the turn of the century Ireland and its capital experienced at various points in life (Greenblatt, 2277). Two of the selections, “Araby” and “The Dead” are examples of Joyce’s ability to tell a story with precise details while remaining a detached third person narrator. “Araby” is centered on the main character experiencing an epiphany while “The Dead” is Joyce’s experiment with trying to remain objective. One might assume Joyce had trouble with objectivity when it concerned the setting of Ireland because Dublin would prove to be his only topic. According the editors of the Norton Anthology of Literature, “No writer has ever been more soaked in Dublin, its atmosphere, its history, its topography. He devised ways of expanding his account of the Irish capital, however, so that they became microcosms of human history, geography, and experience.” (Greenblatt, 2277) In both “Araby” and “The Dead” the climax reveals an epiphany of sorts that the main characters experience and each realize his actual position in life and its ultimate permanency.

    Read More

  • Eveline´s Decision in Eveline by James Joyce

    341 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the short story “Eveline “ by James Joyce, Eveline, the protagonist is given the opportunity to escape from her hard unendurable life at home and live a life of true happiness at Buenos Ayres with Frank, her lover. Throughout the story, Eveline is faced with a few good memories of her past from her childhood and her mother, but she also faces the horrible flashbacks of her mother’s illness and her father’s violence. In the end, she does not leave with Frank, Eveline’s indecisiveness and the burden of her family’s duties makes her stay.

    Read More

  • Why Eveline Didn't Leave to Go to Buenos Aires with Frank

    605 Words  | 2 Pages

    Trapped in a world where mental anguish imprisons her, Eveline is another of James Joyce's paralyzed souls. Her life is full of ups and downs. Every day she struggles with burdens that she should not have to bear and when the opportunity comes for her to get away from this retched life, she denies herself the chance. The reasons why I feel Eveline did not leave for Buenos Aires with Frank is because she was obligated to her family, she was afraid of the unknown and she did not know how to receive love.

    Read More

More about The Theme of Escape in James Joyce’s Dubliners

Open Document