Dubliners: An Analysis of Four Short Stories - Essay Example

?Dubliners: An Analysis of Four Short Stories Dubliners, is a collection of 15 short stories, based on societal issues byJames Joyce. In the 20th century people living in and around Dublin city were majorly the Irish middle class that were known and believed to live a certain type of lifestyle. During that time there was a jinx between history and culture. People’s way of reasoning and thinking were mainly drafted from these two schools of thought. Irish nationalism was at its most volatile stage and people were striving to achieve identity and purpose in the society. This brings to light the converging issues of the human mind due to circulating nature of events. The author mainly uses epiphany where a character creates an understanding with the inner self. The stories are progressive in nature just like the stages undergone by humans in their growth and development. That is childhood, adolescence and finally maturity. The stories include the “An Encounter”, where two school boys were always not true in their actions and deeds for quite a while until they finally came across an elderly man. The boys always staged mock battles from school to get that chance to escape and go for an adventure. Another is “After the Race”, where in the wake of establishment of class in the middle level college, a student by the name Jimmy Doyle tries to fit in with his wealthy friend’s posh lifestyle. While studying in Cambridge, Jimmy enjoys the good moments of being seen in company of such well to do families and always riding in very expensive motor vehicle in Dublin. Surrounded by money and politics that corrupts everything, self-gain and high end life is inevitable for Jimmy. In the “Two Gallants”, two conmen Lenehan and Corley decide to try and get a servant maid who is willing to steal from her wealthy employer so as to bolster their lifestyles. They hatch a plan so that she procures money from her employer. The pimping nature of Corley shows how gullible he is with his quest for sexual desires.1 They also do not trust each other in their deal to get the maid. Later Lenhan throws a gold coin to Corley to show that the plan swung their way. Finally the Counterparts talks about Farrington an alcoholic lumber who could read and write hence qualified for the secretarial and administrative duties during that time. As a scrivener you could develop into a public servant, lawyer, accountant and petition writer. Farrington having constant abusive meetings with Mr Alleyne, his boss, makes him contemplate on going for a drink every evening. He passes the chief clerk on his way to the drinking den to avoid identification. When returning from his errands he discovers that he has uncompleted assignments that needed duplication. He experiences lapses in his concentration at work only thinking about his thirst for the gin. He takes pleasure in abusing his boss and he jovially tells his friends Nosey Flynn, O’Halloran and Leonard about it. He fought a wrestling match and lost to Weather and takes his frustration to his son Tom for just leaving the fire to burn out. Joyce uses literary styles to create suspense in the text and most of the time does not come into a conclusion as the readers are let to make their own ethical judgments and conclusions. This creates a close relationship between the people and their understanding of the environment. He also uses description from the characters point of view. This easily enables a reader to outline the characters’ personalities through analysis of their possession. He also employs the use of local and global elaborations on the character traits. To sum up Joyce also uses the stylistic motif of using parodies from other stories.2 “An Encounter” is a story about adolescent life. Although people wait for chances to escape and seek for adventure during this time, a set code of working is always present, refusing them the chance, as one can get new experiences which may impart negatively on their lifestyles.” However well we fought, we never won a siege or battle”. 3 Any learning institution has a certain routine, but here it is disrupted by the constant battles necessitating shifting to another area. The elderly man is so engrossed in erotic magazines and women therefore being cast as a pervert. Having a certain predictable schedule makes the old man a boring figure. But since the school boys were seeking for an escape from the rather tiring school routine they must persevere with the old man’s habits. The narrator feels that the meetings were not so typical of the Dublin life or the childhood years. The presence of the old man creates a rift with the boys as he exploits and abuses their innocence.4 The way the man puts across his ideas astonishes and disturbs the narrator. His habitual way of repeating words makes the narrator uncomfortable. By exposing himself which was unusual of him, the narrator knows that something is wrong and he suggests to Mahony, they assume names that are not real though he remains transfixed to the ground even after the man returned later.5 Since most of our imaginations are best illustrated in the religion that we confess, conflicts will always ensue if the differences are made publicly. This is when Father Butler tells off Leo about the magazine and scolds him to bring out the Protestants and Catholics.6 This is also because religion is a norm in human life. Also when the boys throw stones at each other the narrator confuses them with the Protestants showing the conflict that is there between religions. The playfulness of the games does not hide the open religious differences. In “After the Race” the young men in company of Jimmy decide to leave and cruise around the town to show off how wealthy they are by participating in car races something that is associated with the rich in the present day society. Here the potential destructive nature for the desire for money and status in the society is highlighted. The financial ability of the characters is brought into play but is narrowed down to Jimmy’s efforts to join the wealthy class together with his father who owns a chain of businesses.7 The affluent people receive stature in the society due to their strong financial muscle. His father tries to encourage Jimmy’s lush lifestyle by securing him admission to the prestigious Cambridge College. But due to his character of being associated with wealth and prestige he is not contented with it but yearns for more and more successes to come his way. His father, despite his large income base, is also obsessed with the lush lifestyle of his son Jimmy. Overburdened by money and Jimmy’s life only rotates around money and attending social events. His quick nature to do things and seeing himself with no obligations is considered a fool because after a series of card games he is left with nothing in the pocket. Nonetheless, his chances of winning the game are slim due to his drunken nature.8 According to the author, Jimmy hardly recognizes himself as a person he is duly aware of his company. According to Jimmy if you do not seek wealth and recognition in the society you will be miserable and embarrassed. The evils associated with the carefree spending of money are always haunting Jimmy. Though he later reveals himself and comes into terms to change his character he does nothing about it. He bluntly loses in the card games but is aware that regret will set in the next day. The moments revelations are short lived and would have been of great assistance had he taken into account what his soul wanted. Jimmy is always faced with reality but he sweeps it under the carpet and continues to seek solace in wealth and his friends and yet he avoids the real situation. His actions are always laced with regrets and despair and as usual he is always ignoring due to his obsession with wealth.9 Riding in a French car shows how flamboyant their lifestyle is and must cut a niche in the society. His intoxication with the way the group must look and trying to convince himself of the position he has in the group. Even at the yacht he delivers a speech and cannot remember thereafter what he said but to him it would have been better if the group just applauded him.10 Jimmy’s character is depicted as simple and passive with an insatiable quest for money that mostly avoids him. The profitable businesses that Jimmy’s father owned flourished at the expense of his political views. Though formerly he supported the Irish independence he makes his fortunes from contracts with the same police who protected the law. By sending his son to England he goes against the national interests and also investing with the French. When his son tries to talk about it he is silenced. At the end neither of the characters wins as Jimmy’s cash ends up at the disposal of other people the way the cars cruised in town and vanished so fast. “Two Gallants” is an ironical title because the two men are reasonable and strive to leave but they only do so against societal norms by duping the maid to steal from their employers. Lenehan is quite self-reflective in contrast to Corley who came up with the idea of getting easy money from the maids. Since Corley is haunted by bankruptcy he is considered by many as a fleece. According to Joyce both men live very pathetic lives and are always full of deceit in anything they do, until they do not even trust themselves. Here, the theme of paralysis and betrayal is highlighted. With fewer prospects in life they devise ways of getting easy money. The author tries to show the importance of money by telling us about the gold coin. Money is their ultimate goal and satisfaction in this story therefore using betrayal to acquire it, is not of any moral relevance to them. They are always treacherous in their ways and actions. Corley is the one who makes the move to approach the maid leaving a distance between him and his accomplice for fear of competition as they don’t trust each other. When Corley disappears with the maid his friend is worried that the deal might hit a snag and his trust is restored when Corley resurfaces the maid. Being part of a generation that was abandoned by the Irish government due to their affiliation to a political figure who had illicit love affair, Lenehan and Corley feel there is no one to trust. This imbalanced state of the mind leads to an influx of more bad ideas into their minds. The two men live dissolute lives which are associated with the traditional lives as an imagery of a harp is used. ”The men pass a harpist who is playing on a feminized bare and weary instrument …”11The melodies follow the pace of Lenehan’s footsteps and Corley is busy trying to persuade the woman. Lenehan is guilty of their plan to fleece this maid showing a nation can be swindled its resources by unscrupulous leaders. Just as their lives lack direction and discipline as they head direct to the drinking joint to continue with their miserable lives. The green peas and the orange ginger imageries’ the Irish flag and how its citizens are in a state of despair with no probable remedy in sight for their problems. “The Counterparts” just like the stories in the short stories in the “Dubliners” where the characters face obstacles in their lives and ultimately they forfeit in paralysis giving us an insight of how frustrations can derail the development of the human soul. Here Farrington sees everything as a hindrance to his life. The work that is at hand is so tedious and he never relents in doing other things that are required of him life. This forms a certain routine in Farrington life.12 He is at cross roads because his job is founded on duplication. He copies documents to his ever demanding employer. By replicating his duties this creates monotony leading to his violent and explosive character. This demands a mind that is ready to accommodate changes something Farrington lacks.13 This makes him to seek solace in alcohol. His friends have a habit of buying drinks in turns for subsequent days varying the buyers. One of his friends Weathers discovers the loop holes associated with system and takes advantage of it. The anger is manifested in Farrington when he discovers that routines and repetitions are always swindling him his resources. The ever circling way of events only leads to his unsettling of the mind and yet he does nothing about the discontentment. When he loses a wrestling match he goes ahead and beats up his son Tom at home. This is in contrast to the other characters in the context who are in passive acceptance of their fate irrespective of the replicating lives and struggles, something Farrington is in not versed with. The title “Counterparts” refers to a replicate of a legal document something that Farrington does every other day the but also things that are the same. The watch symbolically releases him from the bondage of repeating schedules but he is dragged back by work frustrations and the daily happenings at the pub.14 There is a distinct line between the various areas of life. The consistent emotional theme of anger forms the bench mark of every event in this excerpt. Farrington is worn out by anger and turmoil mind. This makes him not to consolable by his son and even ends up beating him. He fails to discover that his own deeds are far much worse than the harassment posed by his boss. He is referred both as a “man” and his real name by Joyce hence used interchangeably.15 Every place Farrington is associated with and passes by he referred with different names showing how he can easily correct his behaviour and character. The anger and frustrations that are exhibited by Farrington goes through is not new in the setup of Dublin city and people have been living with it. In conclusion, Joyce brings out the way people try to come into terms with their personal frustration, anger and self-satisfaction only to end up with no probable solutions irrespective of how they try to disentangle themselves. The Theme of the prison of routine is depicted in the above stories whereby the characters are in difficult predicament is due to their repetitive details of the everyday work trapping them in the cocoon of frustration and violence.16 Farrington’s work is a mirror of his social and home life making him to be in conflict with his mind every other time. The consequences of mundane repetitions are loneliness and the feeling of not being loved. Circularity of the events prevents people from gaining new experiences. Another theme is desire to escape. This makes the character to long for an adventure in other countries. This is strongly depicted in “An Encounter” and the “Two Gallants”. The character Lenehan in the latter excerpt wish to escape but are not able to do so. The characters have the impulse to escape from the disturbing life conditions but they lack the ability to undertake the process. Joyce uses epiphany as the characters experience varied levels of self-revelation in their daily lives. The epiphanies used do not bring forth any hope of the possibility to reform and bring fresh encounters. This makes them to slump into frustration and despair therefore the reader is quick to ascertain that the characters lack self-reflection.17 Lastly Joyce clearly brings out the theme of betrayal. Deception, deceit, and cunningness underline every relationship that is in place in the aforementioned stories. This weakens the bond that tries to bring people together. Most of them fear displacement and humiliation. 18 Bibliography Joyce, J., Dubliner: Literary Touchstone Classic (Dublin: Prestwick House Inc., 2006). SPARKNOTES, ‘Dubliners’, Spark notes Literature. [Web page] 2012 http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dubliners/themes.html accessed 29 Oct.2012. Taglieri, G., Dubliners (Maxnotes Literature guides). (London: Rea, 1996). Read More