The Dubliners

Writing enables James Joyce the power to belittle not only Dublin, but to express his lack of affiliation with the Catholic Church. In Dubliners, Joyce paints the picture of a town filled with greed, both sexually and financially. He takes the definition of religion and turns it on itself. Joyce shows no mercy on his path to ridicule Dublin’s pride and historical roots. In a number of the stories Joyce depicts man as an infection in Dublin. Most of the time men will be at fault or the root of a problem. Joyce also has little difficulty writing about an imperfect Dublin, one that when spoken about only draws countless gasps.

James Joyce was a boy born into religion and a man born into his own way of thinking. Joyce started his life in the category of influenced thinking which years later people are still able to relate to. He practically came out of the womb dressed as an alter boy equipped with a bible. “Ireland had known many centuries of economic and cultural impoverishment, political suppression, and religious conflict from the Middle Ages until Joyce's day, and these hardships were especially harsh for Irish Catholics.”(The Gale Group, 1996. pp. 160-181.) Agreeing with the quote mentioned it is obvious that Joyce’s town of Dublin lacked the opportunity to choose how to live your life. His family like most Irish Catholic homes threw religion on their children as a means of escape. To have faith and live accordingly, which would transpire into a joyous ending.

Joyce only saw Dublin one way, through his own eyes. He had no intention of portraying a fairytale setting of the town, with its residents producing carefree thoughts and peaceful faces. “ Joyce produced a diatribe essay, ‘The Day of Rabblement,’ in 1901 that attacked the social, political, and literary climate of Ireland.”(The Gale Group, 1996. pp. 160-181.) This quote clearly states how Joyce’s view on his holy town surfaced as a young adolescent. Age bared no restriction on the power and seriousness of his work.

“The Sisters” was based on the character Rev. James Flynn and his influence on the young nameless boy in the story. Joyce writes, “Sometimes he used to put me through the responses of the mass which he had made me learn by heart: and as I pattered he used to smile pensiv...

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... will die Catholic because I am always moping in and out of the Greek Churches and am a believer at heart: whereas in my opinion I am incapable of belief of any kind.”(Letters II: 89) James Joyce in his mind started a religion of his own and if he died being the only follower his face would still wear a smile.

Works Cited

Dictionary of literary Biography, Volume 162: British Short-Fiction Writers, 1915-1945. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by John H.Rogers, Vincennes University. The Gale Group, 1996. pp. 160-181.

Journal of Modern Greek Studies 17.1 (1999) 107-124

Joyce, James. Dubliners. Edited by: Hans Walter Gabler 1993Library of Congress-in-Publication Data. Joyce, James, 1882-1941. Dubliners/ Joyce-1st vintage International. Afterword, Bibliography, and Chronology by: David Campbell 1991.

"James Joyce: Dubliners", in Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them, Volume 3: Growth of Empires to the Great Depression (1890-1930s), edited by Joyce Moss and George Wilson, Gale Research, 1997.

Letters II and III. Letters of James Joyce. Edited by Richard Ellman. New York: Viking, 1966.