Male and Female Paralysis in Dubliners
Critics widely recognized that each story within James Joyce’s Dubliners contains a theme of paralysis. In fact, Joyce himself wrote, “My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the centre of paralysis” (Joyce, letter to Grant Richards, 5 May 1906). Contained in this moral history called Dubliners are twelve stories that deal with the paralysis of a central male character and only four that deal with so called paralysis within a central female character. It could be said that Joyce did this merely because he is a male, therefore could write the character better. However, Joyce writes female characters just as convincing as male characters. In looking at the male-centered stories versus the female-centered stories I find a difference. As the author Marilyn French says in her book Shakespeare’s Division of Experience, “The basic distinction in human social order since the beginning of recorded history has been gender” (French, 11). While it is obvious that each of the stories within Dubliners deal with paralysis, I contend that the paralysis within a male character and the paralysis within a female character are essentially different.
Male paralysis is evident in the story “Araby,” about a young boy’s obsession over his friend’s sister. His life revolves around thinking about her and when the next time he is going to see her will be, even though he has never had a conversation with her. He comments, “I had never spoken to her except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood” (Joyce 20). His life is ruled by this fascination, and when she final...
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...wrote the male and female characters differently within Dubliners.
Works Cited:
Benstock, Bernard. Critical Essays on James Joyce. G.K. Hall & Co. Boston, Massachusetts: 1985.
French, Marilyn. Shakespeare’s Division of Experience. Summit Books. New York, New York: 1981.
Joyce, James. Dubliners. Washington Square Press. New York, New York: 1998.
Seidel, Michael. James Joyce: A Short Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, Inc. Oxford, UK: 2002.
Works Consulted:
Fairhall, James. James Joyce and the Question of History. Cambridge University Press. New York, New York: 1993.
Garrett, Peter K., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Dubliners. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: 1968.
Torchiana, Donald T. Backgrounds for Joyce’s Dubliners. Allen & Unwin, Inc. Winchester, Massachusetts: 1986.
Many different depictions of gender roles exist in all times throughout the history of American culture and society. Some are well received and some are not. When pitted against each other for all intents and purposes of opposition, the portrayal of the aspects and common traits of masculinity and femininity are separated in a normal manner. However, when one gender expects the other to do its part and they are not satisfied with the results and demand more, things can shift from normal to extreme fairly quickly. This demand is more commonly attributed by the men within literary works. Examples of this can be seen in Tennessee Williams' “A Streetcar Named Desire”, where Stella is constantly being pushed around and being abused by her drunken husband Stanley, and also in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper”, where the female narrator is claimed unfit by her husband as she suffers from a sort of depression, and is generally looked down on for other reasons.
Prange, Gordon W., Donald M. Goldstein, and Katherine V. Dillon. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. New York: Penguin Books, 1981. Print.
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On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3
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Robson, David. "The Defining Characteristics of Japanese Internment." The Internment of Japanese Americans. San Diego, CA: Reference Point, 2014. N. pag. Print.
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Fairhall, James. James Joyce and the Question of History. Cambridge University Press. New York, New York: 1993.
Corey, C. (1991). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (4th ed.). Pacific Grove, California, USA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. (Original work published 1977)