Alone

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Recommended: James joyce techniques in the stories of dubliners

Dubliners by James Joyce is a collection of short stories all connected by a common theme of paralysis. Overall, it is a novel about life in the city of drab Dublin. But it is evident that each story has its own epiphany, eventually leading to prove to the readers of how hollow Dublin is. The four different stages of life that the readers are woven through portray how powerless and hopeless the Dubliners actually are. The short stories show the struggle that the people of Dublin face everyday. The Irish people are stuck in their old ways and want to change their life, but are too afraid to change. The snow that covers Dublin portrays the hollowness and loneliness of all characters as they age, as well as the negative progression and the idea of paralysis in Dublin’s society.
As childhood is the first stage in life, in Dubliners, Araby is projected as a short story in which the main character is striving for a love that can only be bought. The young boy symbolizes pure hope. He has exotic dreams to meet and be with this girl that he admires and loves. The pressure to get her attention blinds him and everything comes crashing down as the bazzar closes and he does not get a chance to buy her a gift. He was looking for guidance from his uncle, but his uncle is preoccupied getting drunk. At the bazzar the boy realizes that he has been blinded by love, and that his childhood dreams will never become a reality. In Araby, the epiphany occurs right at the end as he says: “gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (Araby 28). These last sentences symbolize how crushed and hopeless he is, as well as his inability to move forward. Mangan’s sister represented ho...

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... people, but the Irish decided against it. Joyce is showing that Ireland is turning into a “monster”. There is no hope lying in this country, just negative progression. The future of Ireland will only get worst and be cold and pitiful. The snow at the end that covered all of Ireland symbolizes how their lives have been frozen and that they all have been trapped in a state of paralysis. That people are never willing to break away from their comfort zone, no matter how bad it is. Characters are blinded by all their emotion, physical, and sexual problems until The Dead when Gabriel’s epiphany is one that all of Ireland needs to see. Each individual should open their eyes and see the real world, not live behind a lens. The Irish are barely surviving in Ireland, the snow all over Ireland represents how alone, hopeless, and ignorant the people and country of Dublin are.

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