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Novel
Fourth year
Dubliners
"A painful case", "counter parts"
and "The Dead"
(1)James Joyce's style
Joyce asserted that he had deliberately used a "style of scrupulous
meanness" in Dubliners
...
For example, the use of repetition, the same words
may be used yet in different forms, the use of images or the figure of
speech, the use of psychological analysis, the use of iconoclastic images,
the use of epiphany, the use of details, the use of symbols, the use of
economy of expressions, the use of significant description of characters to
reveal their nature, the use of stream of consciousness, the use of
narration
...
For example, in "A painful case", when Joyce seeks to show how
Duffy views the relation between man and woman, he writes "… as every
bond is a bond to sorrow" , this shows how he is alienated
...
He has no ability for love
...
This shows Joyce's criticism against everyday alcoholic life in
Dublin
...
For example, on
describing Gabriel in "The Dead", "… idealizing his own clownish lusts" ,
this describes his state of desire while sleeping beside his wife, which is
later on blown by Gretta's admission of her love for Michael Furey
...
Gabriel, also describes the sentimental moments of his life with his wife on
seeing her tears on listening to the "Lass of Aughrim", that all her duties
"had not quenched all their soul's tender fire"
...
In addition, within " A painful case", Mrs
...
On describing how Duffy is isolated and alienated from society, he is
described as "an outcast from life's feast"
...
Alleyne Farrington's partner is
described as " a polished skull", "large egg", and a "manikin" , which shows
that he is a ridiculous and one dimensional character
...
Thirdly, one of the most important stylistic features of Joyce's style is
the use of psychological analysis
...
For
example, Joyce describes the psychological state of Duffy as he hates any
kind of physical or mental disorder
...
Mrs
...
The words "to buy spirits" said by
her daughter in the inquest conveys Mrs
...
2
Within "counter parts", there are a lot of words which shed the light
on the psychological state of the main character Farrington
...
Within "The Dead", Gabriel's psychological state of being egoist, in
showing how his speech is more elevated than the guests' minds is shown
in the word "anxious"
...
Words like "Pang of lust"
describe his own psychological triumph after his speech and his pompous
appearance in the party
...
Fourthly, the use of iconoclastic technique which means to break the
image, his aim is to show those people of Ireland that they aren’t like what
they are thinking of themselves
...
Duffy in "A painful case" is an example of those
Dubliners who try to control their life suffering from urban corruption
...
It is this inability
to Sustain human relationships which results in his ending up as painful a
case as Mrs
...
Even, Mrs
...
Within "Counter parts", Farrington is an example of those Dubliners
who are totally involved in alcoholic habits, and thus, he lost all his finer
feelings
...
He does not even know the name
of his child, he is weak and sober
...
Even Alleyne, Farrington's partner, is drawn away from what
Dubliners think of the solicitor, he is domineering employer seizing every
opportunity to show off, before female client
...
This is the state of
Dubliners that Joyce is interested in portraying
...
As a kind of showing
Joyce's optimism, Gabriel's thinking intellectual and liberal ideas go beyond
his own immediate injuries
...
Thus, he is
a good example of characters, he somehow is not "breaking image", he is
different from both Duffy and Farrington
...
Yet, his inner sensitivity helps him overcome his
feelings and show kindness towards her and her dead young lover
...
Fifthly, the use of epiphany, which is for Joyce "the most delicate
moments", in which one experiences a sudden spiritual manifestation
whether in vulgarity or of gesture or in a memorable phrase of the mind
itself
...
This does not exist in all stories within
"Dubliners"
...
Within "A painful case", Duffy is disturbed when he reads the
epigraph in the news item about Sinico's death
...
He could hear nothing, the
night was perfectly silent
...
He is shocked on hearing about his wife's
old love affair, which ended tragically
...
However, it deeps
his understanding of the human condition and he is able to emerge from it
whole
...
Sixthly, the use of details is one of the important stylistic technical
devices used by Joyce; he uses the element of selection or a mirror in
choosing certain details and certain characters, setting to convey his
realistic and naturalistic attitude as well
...
Still, he is both pessimistic (naturalism) and optimistic
...
This
evidently portrays the Joyce's naturalism
...
Moreover, Joyce gives details to Duffy- Mrs
...
Which gives us a pessimistic view towards the
barren marriage relation within the Dublin society
...
Sinico's death, shown within the epigraph in the
news, feeling "revolted to think he had ever spoken to her of what he held
scared", over shadows his moment of epiphany which no sooner appears, it
is oppressed by the silence at the end of the story when "he felt that he had
been outcast from life's feast"
...
Even, the details of describing the characters themselves are both
realistic and naturalistic
...
Sinico is described as "warm soil" for Duffy's
needs, to show his sexual dissatisfaction
...
Duffy is described as "the type of the male
celibate" , " he heard the strange impersonal voice which insists" on " the
soul's incurable loneliness", this is totally naturalistic
...
For example, the first encounter between both
Farrington and Alleyne is described through selected details (mirror) to
show how both of them represent contrasting figures
...
Even, the bar to which Farrington moves a wish to escape his anger, being
5
absorbed within alchohol, is described in details; it is a place where there
are people of the same desire
...
This is
realistic and also naturalistic showing his own disappointment and rage on
going to home
...
Farrington's face is
described as "wine coloured" or coloured like "dark meat" which reflects
his inseparable attachment to liquor and its unhealthy effect on his physical
condition
...
He is described like a
copying machine which sheds the light on his in humanizing
...
Moreover, Alleyne,
Farrington's partner is described as "a polished skull" and "large egg" and
a "manikin" to show his ridiculous and dimensional character
...
For example, Gabriel is described as "a stout,
tallish young man", Gretta as "country cute"
...
The choice of Gabriel himself alone through a mirror of selection is
not naturalistic
...
Even
the Misses Morken are described in details to represent a determined
cheerfulness, hospitality and refinement
...
He comforts Gretta and accepts the tragic affair as
a part of their life
...
In "A painful case", the
room of Duffy is a symbol of his loneliness and a separation from humanity
...
In addition, the use of
light and dark is symbolic, he meets the Sinicos in one evening at the
opera, the darkness is always associated with Mrs
...
Even, her death occurs one evening
...
Mrs
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Within "Counter parts", there are other symbols which overshadow
the escape of Farrington, the hero, and his corrupted state with anger
...
Moreover, the "manikin" is a symbol of
Alleyne with his caricatured character
...
Within "The Dead", there are various symbols which illustrate
Gabriel's stage of realization of his illusion, for example, the song of "lass
Aughrim" is a symbol of lost past lover Michael
...
Moreover, the "snow" falling at the end of the story is a symbol of his
moment of epiphany where his humanity overcomes his own jealousy,
sympathizing with both his wife and her own dead lover
...
Eighthly, Joyce uses many expressions which are contracted ones
revealing a lot about characters' feelings and description in addition to the
main themes
...
For example, in "A painful
case", Joyce conveys how Emily Sinico failed in changing her life through
two words only "Anger and Anguish"
...
Sinico's
sexual attempts is not shocking
...
Sinico
...
Words like "wine colored" convey
Farrington's addiction to wine "bullied him when he was sober, and bullied
her when he was drunk" convey their marriage relation
...
He is drawn as a caricature
...
Although he uses the
omniscient point of view, he leaves a gap between the readers and the
characters; still, he sets his own opinion through the description of
characters
...
Thus,
there is a mixture between what is conscious and what is sub-conscious,
what took place in the past
...
Sinico's epigraph in the news, Duffy's sub-conscious begins to emerge;
as he begins to move to another feeling related to how he caused her death
"why had he withheld life from her? Why he sentenced her to death?"
...
Similarly, in "The Dead", when Gabriel is shocked by Gretta's innocent
confession of her past love for Michael, the dead lover, he sub-consciously
thinks of frail Aunt Julia perhaps, she too would die soon
...
As a result, generous tears filled his eyes, while the snow was falling
...
For example, in "Counter parts", he uses the word "man"
8
as a reference to Farrington
...
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
...
In his early youth he was very religious, but in his last years, he
began to reject his catholic faith in favour of a literary mission which he
saw as involving rebellion and exile
...
Still,
he felt such paralysis in during something for his country, especially after
being rejected in the exile
...
Even nostalgia towards the past is represented in his
own self and reflected through his characters who feel total paralysis
...
The idea of paralysis is closely to the inhabitants of Dublin which is
drawn like a prison, the characters themselves are smitten with moral
paralysis
...
Once contract is established,
Duffy's ego takes over, he becomes paralysed
...
He leaves all his feelings about her
unresolved feeling paralysed until the news of her death shatters his
artificial calm
...
The feelings of guilt and
sympathy "why had he withheld life from her? why had he sentenced her to
death?"Are transformed to calmness which is a sign of paralysis, he
"allowed the rhythm to die away"
...
In "Counter parts", Farrington is paralysed by his alcoholic habits,
leading him to have a shabby work resulting in insults and punishment
...
The bar is a kind of fantasy for him that he
9
would escape such feeling of paralysis; yet, he is defeated there where a
boy wins wrestling with him
...
The climax of his paralysis is shown
when he goes when he is bullied by his wife, he does not remember the
name of his child, Tom
...
Moreover, Farrington's personality is
an extension of the machine at work and a ruined man
...
In "The Dead", Gabriel's paralysis is obviously portrayed in the last
moments of the play, in the moment of epiphany, on confessing innocently
that she loves once a lover that he was now dead, and the song of "Lass
Aughrim" reminds her of Michael
...
He weeps, his tears are a
sign that his humanity overcomes his own jealousy
...
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
(3)The theme of a wish to escape and alienation
In "The Dubliners", Joyce portrays characters who seek escape from
their paralysis
...
Within every story "A painful case", "Counter parts",
"The Dead", has different reason of his feeling of escape, and a different
place where he escapes, yet, this leads at the end not to escape, but to his
alienation
...
He escapes from
Emily's sexual contact
10
place to
– himself
- his books
end
- alienated
- rhythm