Dubliners and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

844 Words2 Pages

Dubliners and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Several of Joyce's stories in Dubliners can read as lamentations. They

are showing the frustrated inability of man to represent meaning by

external means, including written word. When characters in ^Araby^,

and ^A Painful Case^ attempt to represent or signify themselves, other

characters or abstract spiritual entities with or through words, they

not only fail, but end up emotionally ruined. In T.S. Eliots^ poem, ^

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,^ the feeling relates to one

overall issue of emotional investment in representation. The poem

laments, and with this theme and the symbols used, it is signified

enough to be related to Joyce^s short stories in Dubliners.

The name of the story itself and the bazaar-within-the-story,

^Araby^ is the most crucial object of misdirected concentration

and sought signification. The boy explains, ^The symbols of

the word Araby were called to me through the silence in which

my soul luxuriated and cast on eastern enchantment over me.^

Joyce emphasizes the formal properties- ^syllables of the

word^- thus granting ^Araby^ a kind of physical, phonetic

importance beyond its external meaning. The narrator goes on

to describe ^Araby^ as ^the magical name.^ Throughout the

piece, the title-word ^Araby^ displays itself as a guiding

metaphor. The name of the poem by T.S. Eliot, ^The Love Song

of J. Alfred Prufrock^ is a misdirected concentration that is

significant. The title is very ironic. The irony is present

with the reader expecting the theme of love, but clashing that

idea with the boring and dry name of J. Alfred Prufrock. The

poem goes on to describe the journey as one, not of romantic,

heartfelt,! or brotherly love, but of one story of

frustration.

^A Painful Case,^ demonstrates a more complicated signifying

condition. Early in the story, Joyce describes a piece of

literature by emphasizing its formal properties, not its

^content.^ ^In the desk lay a manuscript translation of

Hauptmann^s Michael Kramer, the stage directions of which were

written in a purple, and a little sheaf of papers held together

by a brass pin.^ The conspicuous ^purple ink^ and ^brass pin^

highlight the graphic qualities of Duffy^s volume. Joyce goes

on to describe Duffy^s odd treatment of the manuscript, again

emphasizing actions. ^In these sheets a sentence was inscribes

from time to time and, in an ironical moment, the headline of

an advertisement for Bile Beans had been pasted on the first

sheet. The infrequency of Duffy^s inscription and his ^ironic^

outlook toward the physical text are made clear.

Open Document