Escaping an Ever Pressuring Society

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Escaping an Ever Pressuring Society

James Joyce author of Dubliners, is a book which examines the everyday life of people who live in Dublin. In this intimate portrayal of Dubliners, Joyce writes short stories about the individuals in Irish society. In Dubliners many characters feel the pressure of society, and show their desires to escape. In the stories “Eveline”, “Counterparts” and “The Dead”, the themes of individuals v. society and journey through escape are present. In each story there is a powerful person present that controls a particular person or situation. In Dublin jobs are very important, since they control the social standing in their society. Dublin itself is a major issue to the characters in Dubliners; they wrestle with the ideas of being able to escape.

In the story “Eveline”, a young woman gets the chance to escape from her hard life in Dublin, when a young man named Frank sweeps her off her feet and has plans to move to Buenos Ayres. In “Counterparts”, a man is faced with the unbearable aspects of his life, when he gets scolded by his boss, humiliated at the pub and when the pressure it too much he takes it out on his son and beats him. “The Dead” is a story about the realization that even though a couple might be together, they might not necessarily know everything about their significant other. Gabriel gets hit with a realization when he comes to find out that his wife was in love with another man at a young age, and the information is almost disheartening to Gabriel when he hears it.

In each of the stories there is a dominant person in their lives. Eveline a young woman struggles with having the responsibility of having to take care of her father a...

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...he story is very symbolic to the coldness that is now shared between the couple and the whole town of Dublin, “his soul swooned slowly as he heard the now falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead” (225).

James Joyce has pointed out many thoughts throughout writing Dubliners. The theme of journeys and escape are present in everyday life living in Dublin, and show how people are unhappy in their current lives and strive to escape through other activities. Reading Joyce he includes many themes that tie into the daily routine of Dubliners. Many references to fire vividly illustrate the point that they live life in a hell. Dubliners is a creative portrayal of individual people living in Dublin, all the while not giving too many facts surrounding a character or story.

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