Dubliners James Joyces novel Dubliners is a collection of seemingly odd stories that are united by the themes of death, corruption and spiritual decay. The characters portrayed in it, exhibit different psychological traits, however, they are all shown as being negatively affected by the obscure Catholic doctrine. Joyce was an outspoken critic of Christianity, which held back Irish cultural and social progress, before Ireland gained independence from Britain in 1922. Dubliners was written in 1914, during the time of so-called a potato famine, when scarcity of food prompted millions of Irishmen to immigrate to other countries. This famine author shows as direct consequence of English colonial rule, which Joyce considered as second greatest evil that prevented Ireland from realizing its true destiny. Dubliners tell us a great deal about social customs in Ireland at the time. Many characters of Joyces novel are described as drunkards, who take pleasure in engaging in anti-social activities. In story Eveline, for example a young woman recalls the time of her childhood, when she used to be constantly beaten up by her father, who she rarely saw being sober.
What is truly remarkable, is that author directly associates peoples spiritual depravity to the influence of Catholic Church. Dubliners most despicable characters are shown as devout believers. By doing this, Joyce proved himself as intellectual, in the true sense of this word, because he was able to discover a true essence of Christian doctrine. In story Sisters young boy suddenly realizes that he becomes mentally relieved, after the death of Catholic priest Father Flynn, even though that he used to be psychologically attached to him. This strikes this boy as something unexplainable, however, as story progresses; he begins to understand that Father Flynn was actually preventing him from living a normal life, because this servant of God taught him to be ashamed of his natural instincts. After the death of Father Flynn boy experiences a sensation of freedom. This story is probably the most allegorical one. Father Flynn is associated by Joyce with Catholic Church and the boy represents Ireland.
The Essay on Dubliners & stories
James Joyce’s book, “Dubliners” offers a variety of stories about the city of Dublin. James wrote the collection of short fifteen stories where each story adds to the wonderful completion of the book. Each story was so different from the previous and it was very interesting to read various tales that took place in Dublin where each of the stories were kept interested and ready to read the next ...
Author wanted to tell readers that Catholicism does not help the national cause, as many people in Ireland believed, at the time. Quite contrary to that it turns people into religious fanatics, who prefer to live in imaginary world, without having courage to face the objective reality in logical manner. It is not by sheer accident that Father Flynn was described by Joyce as being paralyzed for quite some time, before his death. This symbolizes Christianitys metaphysical impotency. Even though that Joyces novel is written in very simple language, it contains a lot of sophisticated symbolism. Author was known as Irish passionate nationalist; this is why many stories in Dubliners have much deeper meaning than it appears on the surface. For example, Joyce used to think of Irelands destiny in terms of failed quest.
This is because, while having an adequate cultural and scientific potential, Ireland remained on the background of European history. In Eveline, storys main character dreams of leaving Ireland with her fiancee, however, she realizes that her emotional attachment to Ireland will not allow her to run off the cursed island. Eveline proves to be unable to even take a ferry to Liverpool, where her fiancee is waiting for her, because she lacks resourcefulness. Thus, we can think of Eveline as very symbolic character, because the parallels between her failed quest and the fact of Irelands failure, in geopolitical sense of this word, are obvious. Even Evelins name sounds similar to Emerald Isle, which is Irelands nickname. Joyce remains sympathetic towards Evelin, throughout the story, and only at the end we get the impression that author did not want us to feel pity towards Evelin, because she has no one to blame for breaking up her dreams, but herself: He rushed beyond the barrier and called to her to follow.
The Essay on The Female Role in Quest Stories
When we think of “quest” stories what do we see? Knights in shinny armor? Magic? Fantasy? Fighting? Damsels in distress? Yes, in quest stories we do have a hero, which is predominately male, handsome, brave, and smart. His part is to defeat the foe, save the damsel, and ride off at the end, right? Sometimes as readers we focus too much attention on the hero and miss other characters that ...
He was shouted at to go on but he still called to her. She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition (Joyce).
In story An Encounter author develops the theme of failed quest. Two friends Mahony and Leo Dillon decide to take a trip across Liffey River, while skipping school. They meet a stranger, who turns out to be a sexual pervert.
At the end of the day they return home, while being deeply shocked by this experience. In this story Joyce shows boys quest ending on absurdist note. Joyces novel is not affected by political-correctness; he describes things as he sees them. This is why he refers to sexual diversity as form of mental sickness, which comes as the result of Christian suppression of peoples natural instincts. Thus, again and again, author tells us that it is not the lack of idealism, on the part of characters who undertake a quest, that prevents them from reaching their goals, but the fact that they were being a spiritually corrupted by Christian teachings. Unlike other promoters of nationalist cause in Ireland, at the time, Joyce used to stress out that this was only the matter of time, before his country would gain independence, because it was predetermined by historical logic. According to him, it is social factors that define political dynamics within a society.
Joyce does not consider social affiliation as a decisive aspect, which typifies peoples behavior. However, he showed it as being very important. In story The Boarding House mother of a young girl decides to overlook the rules of traditional morality, in order to allow her daughter to become sexually involved with a representative of higher social class, so that he would have no choice but to marry her. James Joyce novels value can hardly be underestimated, because it is easy to read, while being very informative, at the same time. Dubliners contains many progressive ideas that only now gained recognition as being absolutely valid. This is why we cannot consider Joyces novel as merely a fictional work. It is rather a philosophical piece, in form of a novel. The fact that novels characters are represented as being utterly real makes it easier for us to relate to the essence of Joyces philosophy.
The Essay on James Time Didn Radiation
The supermarket was going to be a doomsday dungeon this Sunday afternoon for James Faruggulo, but he knew he had to go. He had given the housekeeper a week off to lie around in the warm tropical waters off of Jamaica. She did the laundry, cooking, cleaning and of course, she always fetched the groceries. Even the perfect layer of atmosphere which lay upon the earth that day could not keep his mind ...
Ireland is now an independent country, where the influence of Catholic Church is waning rapidly. This corresponds to the fact that this country cannot be referred to as Europes province anymore. Joyces ideas were simply ahead of its time, which enable us to refer to him as being more than just a writer.
Bibliography:
Joyce, James Dubliners. 2001. Project Guttenberg. 21 Apr.
2007. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext01/dblnr11h.htm James Joyce. 2007 Wikipedia. 21 Apr. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joyce Outline: Introduction p. 1 Main part Pp. 1- 3 Conclusion p.
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