Dubliners, given the time and situation in which the collection is set, could have been given the title, Paralysis. ‘Paralysis is the inability of physical movement, but it is also a spiritual, social, cultural, political and historical malaise’ (Bulson 2006: 36). James Joyce viewed Dublin as the capital of paralysis. Joyce was surrounded by the mundane and unromantic reality that was Dublin society in the early 1900’s. On the contrary, the term paralysis can be viewed a s a paradox as it prevents characters from engaging with life but it is also the driving force that helps the stories to progress further. This essay will discuss ‘Eveline’, ‘A Little Cloud’ and ‘Clay’ as they best represent the theme of paralysis. It is also worthwhile to determine what is the source of the characters paralysis and if these include internal or external influences. It will examine how Joyce represents paralysis and how it manifests itself throughout Dubliners.
‘Eveline’ is at the centre of paralysis. She is the only character who is presented with the opportunity to escape which makes the paralysis more effective. Her source of paralysis is both internal and external. The internal source is her fear for the unknown while the external source is the threats of violence from her father ‘latterly he had begun to threaten her’ (Joyce 1914: 26). All of this concludes her sense of paralysis, ‘The story portrays Eveline as trapped between two different versions of the patriarchy – her father’s brutality and Frank’s possible immorality’ (Ingman 2009: 140). Eveline is ultimately paralyzed from all aspects of her life and is tragically unaware of this.
Joyce further depicts Eveline’s paralysis by presenting her as an observer of life ‘she sat at the window ...
... middle of paper ...
...mcake and her reaction when it disappears ‘coloured with shame, vexation and disappointment’ (Joyce 1914: 79) proves she has naive worries. Her inability to focus on more genuine matters further display her paralysis.
Joyce’s ability to play with language perfectly demonstrates the prevailing sense of paralysis. His narrative style includes scrupulous meaning where the reader is encouraged to engage with the text and look beyond the individual consciousness. Joyce’s use of writerly text and free indirect discourse heightens our understanding of paralysis. The stories ‘Eveline’, ‘A Little Cloud’ and ‘Clay’ best articulate the theme of paralysis. Paralysis unfolds itself throughout the text. It displays the physical and emotional moral decay that defined a generation. Paralysis defines the ‘Dublin that Joyce left and helps to explain why he left it’ (Gibson 2006: 68).
“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
Although James Joyce and Sherwood Anderson situate their subjects in very different milieux (Joyce's in Dublin; Anderson's in Winesburg, Ohio), two of their subjects speak the same language of idiosyncrasy. In Joyce's "A Painful Case," Mr. Duffy keeps on his desk "a little sheaf of papers held together by a brass pin. In these sheets a sentence was inscribed from time to time and, in an ironical moment, the headline of an advertisement for Bile Beans had been pasted on to the first sheet" (Joyce 103). In Anderson's "Paper Pills," Dr. Reefy records his thoughts on "scraps of paper that became hard balls and were thrown away" (Anderson 36). These scribbled bits of subjectivity offer insight into the constituions of Anderson's doctor and Joyce's painful case.
Throughout the novel Dubliners, James Joyce renders the theme of paralysis and the aspiration to escape through his compilation of fictional short stories. Joyce depicts the impotent individuals who endeavor the idea of escaping, but are often paralyzed by their situations, resulting in their inability to escape the separate circumstances exemplified within each short story. Furthermore, the recurring theme of escape and paralysis is evident within the short stories, “An Encounter”, “Eveline”, and “A Little Cloud.” Consequently, these short stories imparts the protagonists’ perspectives to subdue the paralysis of their situations and conveys their inability to escape their undesirable conditions, constraining them to inadequate lives.
James Joyce is praised for his distinct stylistic purpose and furthermore for his writings in the art of free direct discourse. Though at times his language may seem muddled and incoherent, Joyce adds a single fixture to his narratives that conveys unity and creates meaning in the otherwise arbitrary dialogue. Within the story “The Dead”, the final and most recognizable piece in the collection Dubliners, the symbol of snow expresses a correlation with the central character and shows the drastic transformation of such a dynamic character in Gabriel Conroy. The symbol of snow serves as the catalyst that unifies mankind through the flawed essence of human nature, and shows progression in the narrow mind of Gabriel. Snow conveys the emission of the otherwise superficial thoughts of Gabriel and furthermore allows for the realization of the imperfections encompassed by mankind. Riquelme’s deconstruction of the text allows for the understanding that the story cannot be read in any specific way, but the variance in meaning, as well as understanding depends solely upon the readers’ perspective. Following a personal deconstruction of the text, it is reasonable to agree with Riquelme’s notions, while correspondingly proposing that the symbol of snow represents the flaws, and strengths of Gabriel, as well as the other characters as it effects all equally.
Many people are familiar with the “light bulb moment”- the moment when one suddenly understands and everything becomes clearer. From a more technical and literary standpoint, that moment could be referred to as an epiphany. James Joyce, in his manuscript of Stephen Hero, defines an epiphany as “a sudden spiritual manifestation.” In addition, Joyce used epiphanies liberally throughout his writing of Dubliners. The epiphanies, which can be found in each short story, they are essential in shaping Joyce’s stories. Because epiphanies were used so often throughout Dubliners, their effects on the protagonists can be compared and contrasted between stories. One such is example is “The Dead” and “A Painful Case.” Though the epiphanies experienced
“This passage describes the narrator’s spiritual nadir, and may be said to represent her transition from conscious struggle against the daylight world to her immersion in the nocturnal world of unconscious-or, in other terms, from idle fancy to empowering imagination” (Johnson 525). Which was supported when Jane attempted to fight the urge to engage in her unconscious state. “And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t like it a bit. I wonder – I begin to think- I wish John would take me away from here!” (Gilman 92). This exhibits the struggle Jane was facing while trying to maintain her conscious state of mind. However, John felt that if she was taken out of her environment she would go crazy, which ironically led to her slow decline into the unconscious mind. “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” (Gilman 89). It was here that Jane began giving human characteristics to inanimate objects. As Gilman’s story continues, Jane gradually becomes more entranced by her imagination. “There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice but myself, and that is that it changes as the light changes” (Gilman 94). Displaying the idea that Jane was immersed in her unconscious world, validating the Johnson’s argument that Jane progressively develops into her unconscious mind throughout the
Many readers believe this piece of fiction to be a ghost story, but it is one that is about a woman with acute psychological delusion, portrayed through the use of characterization and occasion. Bowen begins her dramatization by defining the woman’s psychological delusion through the characterization of her anxiety and isolation. She establishes the woman’s anxiety in the beginning and closing of the third paragraph when she subtly narrates how, “she was anxious to see how the house was”(Bowen 160) and “she was anxious to keep an eye”(Bowen 160). To believe that it is impossible to imagine a letter, is someone who does not know the mind of a person plagued with psychological delusion.
Works Cited: Benstock, Bernard. Critical Essays on James Joyce. G.K. Hall & Co. Boston, Massachusetts: 1985. Joyce, James. 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.
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.
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.
The Spleen by Anne Finch, the Countess of Winchelsea, presents an interesting poetic illustration of depression in the spleen. The spleen for Finch is an enigma, it is mysterious, shape-shifting, and melancholic. Melancholy leads the subject to flashes of a grander, terrifying emotion: the sublime. The subject of Finch’s Pindaric ode experiences the sublime, and yet has the uncanny ability to reflect and reason on the feeling with acuity--even though the subject suffers from depression, which in effect dulls sensory information. The fact that she intensely perceives the sublime suggests a paradox where dulled senses can produce a penetrative emotional episode. To understand the paradox, the theory of the sublime and Finch’s engagement with the sublime in The Spleen must be traced to conceive the state of the dulled mind in the thrall of an infinite, and transcendent wave of emotion. The focus of this essay is that Finch understands that Dullness, as a by-product of depression, enables rational thought during a sublime experience. Furthermore, she thus illustrates her experience through images where she emphasizes her sensory information and her feelings, which were supposedly numbed by depression. Her feelings, indicated in The Spleen, are the crux to how Finch is able to simultaneously feel numb, and process the sublime.
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.
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.
In the majority of the story Eveline "sat at the window," (512) which parallels with her paralysis because she does not move. Eveline "was going to go away like the others" (512) because she was one of the only people left in Dublin from her childhood. However, Eveline doesn't go since she is trapped in her setting. Almost nothing in Eveline's setting ever changes throughout her life. The significance of Eveline looking around the room "reviewing all its familiar objects" (512) is that she "never dreamed of being divided" from them. All around her Eveline "had those she had know all her life about her" (512). Eveline is a product of her environment. The reader can see how the setting never changes, Eveline's life molds to it. This explains the reason for her not going away and starting a much happier life.