James Joyce’s Dubliners

Throughout James Joyce’s Dubliners, the many stories share the same themes with different plots and characters. The Dead is the most significant story because it not only concludes Joyce’s novel, but it is the only story whose character sums up the epiphanies throughout the book. The themes of paralysis, routine, and death are all seen constantly throughout Dubliners. Every story leading up to The Dead explores an inconclusive version of the themes, thereby setting the stage for The Dead to resolve the novel.

In the first story, The Sisters, a priest who is a friend of the narrator has passed away and the boy later recollects his time with the priest. The constant repetition of the priest’s routine in church can be seen as his ultimate downfall into paralysis and ultimately, his aforementioned death. The story ends rather inconclusively and the novel begins already leaving the reader hanging.

Also in Araby, death is mentioned almost immediately when the narrator makes reference to the priest who died in the house before his family moved in. The theme of repetition is seen through the boy’s daily spying of his friend’s, Mangan’s, sister. He constantly thinks about her but never gathers the courage to express his feelings for the girl. The narrator is essentially emotionally paralyzed from expressing himself further to the girl. Even given the opportunity to further his relationship with the girl and get her a git at the bazaar she cannot attend, he fails to make any progress. At the end, the narrator describes how he feels as, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (Joyce 19). The narrator is left in desperation and with no conclusion on how to change his life.

In Eveline, a woman finds herself stuck supporting her abusive father and stuck with the routine of working and being with her family. Eveline’s most important moment, however, is when she secretly decides to sneak off with her lover, Frank, and she gets caught in a moment of epiphany. She even refers to her mothers death and resolves not to repeat the life of sacrifice her mother has. However, upon remembering family life, she finds herself frozen and unable to board the ship which her lover has set upon. Eveline is paralyzed from beginning a new life and is left standing by herself.

A Painful Case is about a man who shares a random connection with a woman, Mrs. Sinico. For years, Mr. Duffy can be seen as a predictable man whose life has taken on endless routine as a bank cashier. When Mr. Duffy later reads of her death, he walks to the pub to catch a drink. On his way, something catches his eye, “He looked down at the slope and, at the base, in the shadow of the wall of the Park, he saw some human figures lying. Those venal and furtive loves filled him with despair. He gnawed the rectitude of his life; he felt that he had been outcast from life’s feast” (Joyce 77).The shadow of two lovers leads Mr. Duffy to think of Mrs. Sinico and reflect on his own morbid, unchanging life.

The novel ends on The Dead which begins with a routine gathering which repeats every year. Gabriel gives a speech, Freddy arrives drunk, everyone dances, then everyone eats.