Essay on Two Themes in James Joyce's Dubliners

    In the early twentieth century, Ireland, and more specifically Dublin, was a place defined by class distinctions. There were the wealthy, worldly upper-class who owned large, stately townhouses in the luxurious neighborhoods and the less fortunate, uneducated poor who lived in any shack they could afford in the middle of the city. For the most part, the affluent class was Protestant, while the struggling workers were overwhelmingly Catholic. These distinctions were the result of nearly a century of disparity in income, education, language, and occupation, and in turn were the fundamental bases for the internal struggle that many of Joyce's characters feel.

In "Two Gallants," the sixth short story in the Dubliners collection, James Joyce is especially careful and crafty in his opening paragraph. Even the most cursory of readings exposes repetition, alliteration, and a clear structure within just these nine lines. The question remains, though, as to what the beginning of "Two Gallants" contributes to the meaning and impact of Joyce's work, both for the isolated story itself and for Dubliners as a whole. The construction, style, and word choice of this opening, in the context of the story and the collection, all point to one of Joyce's most prevalent implicit judgments: that the people of Ireland refuse to make any effort toward positive change for themselves.

James Joyce emerged as a radical new narrative writer in modern times. Joyce conveyed this new writing style through his stylistic devices such as the stream of consciousness, and a complex set of mythic parallels and literary parodies. This mythic parallel is called an epiphany. “The Dead” by Joyce was written as a part of Joyce’s collection called “The Dubliners”. Joyce’s influence behind writing the short story was all around him. The growing nationalist Irish movement around Dublin, Ireland greatly influences Joyce’s inspiration for writing “The Dubliners”. Joyce attempted to create an original portrayal of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. The historical

The setting of the story, Dublin, has been written in such a way that only

James Joyce wrote Dubliners to portray Dublin at the turn of the early 20th century. In Dubliners, faith and reason are represented using dark images and symbols. James Joyce uses these symbols to show the negative side of Dublin. In “The Sisters,” “The Boarding House,” and “The Dead” dark is expressed in many ways. James Joyce uses the light and dark form of symbolism in his imagination to make his stories come to life.

| This is how he starts out the book and it is in a way introducing you to one of the worst childhoods that you can have. It also shows you that you can go beyond your childhood and become something or do something with your life. I think it is kind of weird that one of the worst childhood to have is Irish because that would not have been the first one on my list.

Symbolism is a powerful tool used by people every day to force people to look past the obvious and find the deeper meaning. Symbolism is used by authors, musicians, priests, and many others. James Joyce, a well-known Irish author, uses symbolism repeatedly throughout his collection of short stories published in 1916. In these stories, titled Dubliners, Joyce uses symbolism not only to enhance the stories, but to also show the hidden, underlying message of each story without coming out and saying it directly. Joyce’s stories are centered on the problems of Dublin and through his use of symbolism Joyce is able to focus attention on what problem each story is addressing. James

Dubliners (1914), by James Joyce (1882-1941) is a collection of short stories representing his home city at the start of the 20th century. Joyce 's work ‘was written between 1904 and 1907 ' (Haslam and Hooper, 2012, p. 13). The novel consists of fifteen stories; each one unfolds lives of the different lower middle-strata. Joyce wanted to convey something definite about Dublin and Irish society.

When Joyce applies personification to the setting, he creates the mood of the story, and directs the reader to the double meanings found in the personified setting. As an example of mood, winter brings with it the connotation of impending gloom, as the narrator claims, "...the houses had grown sombre...the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns" (379). This idea of Winter casts itself as the mood, where the feeling of awkward introspection is predominant. The lamps like the people of Dublin, have grown weary of there own, during Ireland's own battle with identity. In the broader scope of Joyce's imagery for the short story, it may be said Ireland itself is like the adolescent struggling to find its way. Joyce's messages of "complacency" during the tremendous social and political upheaval are encapsulated in the stories like "Araby," that collectively represent the book "Dubliners."

Although the young boy cannot apprehend it intellectually, he feels that the street, the town, and Ireland itself have become ingrown, self-satisfied, and unimaginative. It is a

In James Joyce’s short story "Araby," the main character is a young boy who confuses obsession with love. This boy thinks he is in love with a young girl, but all of his thoughts, ideas, and actions show that he is merely obsessed. Throughout this short story, there are many examples that show the boy’s obsession for the girl. There is also evidence that shows the boy does not really understand love or all of the feelings that go along with it.

Their respective relatives were so embarrassed of the McCourts that they conspired to ship them back to the Old Country, so the McCourts returned to Belfast, Ireland from the States, where they had met and married and where Malachy's drinking, the death of a baby daughter, and other misfortunes had reduced them to a life of despair and poverty. One might think the return of a family member who’s been gone for years would be an occasion for rejoicing, but this is Belfast in the early 1900’s and war is brewing. Malachy’s family is far worse off than the citizens of Brooklyn. After spending only one night in his family’s small home, Malachy, Angela, and their children are sent packing – to Limerick, the town where Angela grew up.Back in Ireland Malachy, rarely worked; when he did he usually drank all the money he earned, leaving his wife, Angela, to beg from local churches, charity organizations and even just on the streets. Frank remembers his little

James Joyce was a prolific Irish writer who wrote about Ireland and the troubles the people of Ireland faced. According to the Volume Library Encyclopedia, with Ireland being about 94 % Roman Catholic, religion is a motif brought forth prominently in Joyce's works. In Dubliners, his book of short stories as well as his supposed autobiography, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce shows religious turmoil and indecision through his characters. Stephen Dedalus, the main character in the journal-like story of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, goes through an internal turmoil of his own throughout the entire book on how he would view religion. He shows certain extremities of

In the Book “Maggie: A Girl of The Streets”, (“the tale of a pretty young slum girl driven to brutal excesses by poverty and loneliness,” (Lo)) Stephen Crane depicts selfishness in humanity by showing how living in a poor, poverty stricken, urban area can reduce people to their basic natural instincts by showing how they destroy their chances of progressing foreword, and using brutal tactics, such as selfishness and aggression to survive. He also uses Imagery to show how the filth of the streets that occupies Rum Alley (”An aptly named area where life is centered on working, drinking, and fighting” (dlschirf).) is like an echo of the bowery in which there house is also mentioned to reflect.

In “A Little Cloud” by James Joyce, Gallaher plays a key role in shaping how Little Chandler conducts himself, as well as provoking the abrupt change Chandler has towards his family and life. Gallaher seems a successful, cultured, and metropolitan man who achieves much of what Little Chandler hopes to do in his life. While Little Chandler becomes stuck in his boring job, Gallaher travels around Europe writing newspaper articles and exploring an adventurous life that Little Chandler strives for. This life of Gallaher’s not only evokes jealousy in Little Chandler, but also anger and changes the way he sees his life and the life he truly wants. Little Chandler changes throughout the story because of his meeting with Gallaher, who parades the perfect life Little Chandler always wanted, and causing Little Chandler to regret his life choices and stimulates frustration and resentment towards his current life.