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James Joyce’s works
james joyce techniques in the stories of dubliners
James Joyce’s works
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The beginning of the 20th century was an era where tremendous changes took place. Industrial revolution brought about techonological advancement while Darwin’s Evolutionary Theories completely overthrew traditional scientific beliefs. Undergoing such an immense transition at the turn of the century, the focus of the modernist writings was shifted from realism to experimental techniques such as fragmentation and defamiliarization. Modernist writers were no longer interested in depicting the city using the Victorian way. In the following paragraphs, short stories from “Dubliners” written by James Joyce and an extract of the poem “La Cuve (The Vat)” by Charles Baudelaire will be discussed and analyzed to illustrate how Dublin and Paris are described as city of paralysis and city of darkness respectively.
James Joyce chose Dublin not only as the setting of his short stories, more importantly, he wanted to “show the paralysis of the psyche, society and politics of Ireland”. (Daniels, 2) In the “Selected Letters of James Joyce”, Joyce clearly suggested that “[his] intention was to write a moral history of [his] country and [he] chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to [him] the centre of paralysis. (Thwaites, 14). Colonized by Britain for 800 years, Dublin and its people were constantly under political and religious oppression. Other than “[speaking] to the world about the paralyzed and dependent situation of the Irish people under English oppression”, Joyce intended to “[invent] a unified Irish society that could resist” the force through his short stories in “Dubliners”. (Thwaites, 11, 1) Various aspects of Dubliners will be explored to investigate how Dublin is described as city of paralysis, including the depiction of...
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... the city and the future. Joyce and Baudelaire invite readers to witness the prominent changes take place in Dublin and Paris through their depiction of city of paralysis and city of darkness respectively. This is detailedly depicted in their short stories and poems so that contemporary readers can have a glimpse of the tough life led by citizens at that time.
Works Cited
Brannigan, J. (1998) Dubliners/James Joyce ; notes by John Brannigan. London: York Press.
Daniels, P.J. (2001) The Voice of the Oppressed in the language of the Oppressor – A Discussion of Selected Postcolonial Literature from Ireland, Africa and America. New York: Routledge.
Joyce, J. Dubliners.
Lloyd, R. (2002). Baudelaire’s world. New York: Cornell University Press.
Thwaites, T. (2001) Joycean Temporalities – Debts, Promises and Countersignatures. Florida: The University Press of Florida.
Dublin to the speaker is nothing more than a constant bother in his life. James Joyce discusses Dublin, Ireland as being a very lack luster and tight nit city as he says the area “stood at the blind end” (Joyce 2). Which isn't the first time James Joyce went into detail regarding Dublin and all its wonders. His narratives are at a constant repetition regarding this neighborhood. He depicts this fulfilling need when he discusses the “Araby” and the desire for Mangan's sister. Through out the narrative the speaker is stuck with the need to see her or hear her, he often conflicts with himself and those around him on whether or not to pursue the
Modernism was the word of the era because it was the opposite of the last. People pined for new and exciting ways to make up for time lost to the war. This feeling of looking ahead through the ambiguity of the time permeated through all tiers of society from the working class to the elites. In Judith Walkowitz’s “A Jewish Night Out,” we find a dance hall catering to Jewish youth. One can rent a dance partner and learn how to dance well. It was suddenly important to be able to charm the opposite sex in talent, attitude, and appearance because sex wasn’t just for procreation anymore. Deborah Cohen’s Household Gods, she gives a look into architecture and material things. There’s a clear clash between the older and younger generations, and the younger ones enjoy modernism. “Advocates of the modern insisted that the new era required a new style. They deplored the vogue for reproductions, which, in the psychological language of the day, they analysed as evidence of an ‘inferiority complex’.” As well, stream of consciousness writing emerges from the depths of collegiate, middle class bohemia. The Bloomsburry Group were named after the London neighborhood they inhabited and were an artist collective, living life according to art and the new fragmentation of life after war. Virginia Woolf’s writing reflects the general feeling of the interwar period: confusing, ambiguous, hopeful, and moral-less. The Bohemians took the disassociation of the era and put it into new and modern art. All of these cultural ideas and forms of recreation were a result of the Great War because there was a generation of young people who were lost and needed a future meaningful to them, so they created
This is most evident when he observes that the “poor stunted houses” on Capel Street “seemed to him a band of tramps, huddled together along the river-banks, their old coats covered with dust and soot stupefied by the panorama of sunset and waiting for the first chill of night to bid them arise, shake themselves, and begone” (55). This demeaning but powerful personification is highly evocative and is arguably one of the most poignant descriptions of Dublin not only in “A Little Cloud,” but in all of Dubliners. These memorable words never make it onto the page in Little Chandler’s world, emphasizing how Little Chandler’s paralyzing doubts over whether he, as an aspiring poet, can actually “write something original” (55) prevent him from fully realizing his potential. But it is important to recognize that Little Chandler is an example of failed potential, rather than a complete lack of potential. In other words, he may limit himself as he walks through the streets of Dublin, and these self-imposed barriers may be reflected in his perceptions of the city, but his vision and capacity to capture the city are substantial even though his stature and presence are
“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
The theme of being trapped extends to many levels throughout James Joyce’s collection of short stories, Dubliners. The reader can often feel surrounded by an inescapable force that is making them read this seemingly plot-less book. Escaping this book becomes no more easier when asked to do a literary analysis. Never fear though, Dubliners transforms itself into a decently workable piece of art. In examining the Humanities Base Theme of individual and society and the Literary Base Themes of escape, journey, and entrapment in Dubliners there are quite a few examples of these themes that coincide with the readers’ feelings. Throughout Dubliners, characters feel trapped and make an attempt to escape society.
Joyce seems to be trying to get the reader to understand that Dublin is a
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.
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.
Garrett, Peter K., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Dubliners. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: 1968.
Schwarz, David R. Dubliners: Complete, Authoritative Text with Biographical and Historical Contexts, Critical History, and Essays from Five Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Ed. David R. Schwarz. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1994.
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 emerged as a radical new narrative writer in modern times. Joyce conveyed this new writing style through his stylistic devices such as the stream of consciousness, and a complex set of mythic parallels and literary parodies. This mythic parallel is called an epiphany. “The Dead” by Joyce was written as a part of Joyce’s collection called “The Dubliners”. Joyce’s influence behind writing the short story was all around him. The growing nationalist Irish movement around Dublin, Ireland greatly influences Joyce’s inspiration for writing “The Dubliners”. Joyce attempted to create an original portrayal of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. The historical context for Joyce’s written work was the tense times before the Irish-English civil war broke out. An examination of his writing style reveals his significance as a modern writer.
James Joyce wrote and published The Dubliners in the 1900s. During the majority of this time period, Ireland was thought of as one of the most oppressive countries in Europe. The Catholic Church was seen as the highest extent of the law and they did not encourage seeing women any higher than the second-class commonwealth of Ireland. In James Joyce’s The Dubliners, women are seen as victims of society, religion and the household. James Joyce leans towards feminism in how he portrays women in this book. However, even though most of the women in his stories face hardships and play against each other to get money, he promoted women’s suffrage through his short stories in The 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.
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.