James Joyce's Dubliners Analysis

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Understanding the Social Circumstances in Dubliners by James Joyce “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 …show more content…

Little Chandler dreams of having the adventurous life of a poet, but has to settle for living through his friend, Ignatius Gallaher (Joyce 55-68). He is aware of how trapped he is, and how sad his life is, but he still cannot manage to get away. Again, the reason behind his paralysis are financial struggle, and in this case, even financial debt to pay off a house full of furniture that he doesn’t even like. In fact adds to his oppression because the reason for its presence in the fist place is because it was picked out by a wife he could hardly stand. The financial debt along with the responsibility to his wailing infant and the previously mentioned “aggressive and dominating wife (Boysen 7)” kept him in his miserable

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