The Freedom of Choices

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The Freedom of Choices

“James Joyce was born in Dublin on February 2, 1882” (Joyce i). In 1914, Dubliners, a work that illustrated the lives of the people of Dublin, from Joyce’s viewpoint, hit the shelves (Joyce i). The book consists of fifteen short stories all about the people of Dublin. There are many different themes thought these short stories but one that is very important to the book is the theme of escape. The book also lends itself to a philosophical point of view taking on many other themes: such as the theme of autonomy and responsibility. Three stories that these themes can be seen in are “An Encounter,” “Counterparts,” and “The Dead.” In these stories Joyce depicts many of the characters as people attempting to escape their responsibilities through the choices they make in their own lives.

One responsibility that is neglected throughout these stories is the responsibility characters have to each other. In the story “An Encounter,” although only two boys escape their responsibilities at school, there was a third that was supposed to tag along (14). The other two boys, the narrator and Mahony, made the decision to leave Leo behind and venture off on their quest to the Pigeon House. Joyce offers a choice to these boys in attempts to show the audience that they will choose to ignore their responsibility to Leo. The two friends use their freedom making the choice that they are going to leave the bridge without their third companion, Leo. Another example of characters disregarding their responsibility to one another occurs when the two boys meet the old man in the field. Instead of staying with his friend Mahony leaves the narrator by himself ignoring his responsibility to be a good friend and stick together. These choices exemplify the way that characters in these stories ignore their responsibilities to other people.

A second example of a character ignoring her responsibilities to another character occurs within the story “The Dead.” At the end of the story “The Dead,” the reader feels sympathetic with Gabriel, the main character, because he finds out his wife loved another man.

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