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Dubliners Concept Of Paralysis

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Dubliners:the concept of 'paralysis'
James Joyce was an Irish, modernist writer who wrote in a ground-breaking style that was known for its complexity and explicit content.1 Joyce was and is one of the most respected writers of the 20th century. Among his works there is Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories, first published in 1914 , that is often reffered as one of the finest works ever written. This particular short story collection had to be submitted 18 times to a total of 15 publishers before actually getting published.
“ I call the series Dubliners to betray the soul of that hemiplegia or paralysis which many consider a city.” 2
The main theme of the Dubliners short story collection is centered around the concept of 'paralysis'. …show more content…

The Father's death creates an atmosphere of silence, solemnity and stillness in which the young-narrator is captured. The narrator can be seen as being paralysed because of the control and influence Father Flynn had over him.
It can be said that “The Dead”, the last story of the volume is the greatest story of all the stories in Dubliners. The story sustains the paralysis theme of the whole short story collection volume through the disfunctional relationships between the characters. The repetitive events present in this story also contribute to the theme: the party is repeated year after year, Gabriel holds a speech, Freddy causes a scandal and then they dance and sing. This repetitive and predictable party sets the characters in a state of paralysis. The relationship between Gabriel and his wife is also paralysed. As Gabriel learns about Gretta's former lover he has as epiphany: he will never truly know his wife. The fact that he cannot compete with a dead person places him in a state of paralysis. He is saddened because another man could once feel real love for Gretta, his wife, and he couldn't do it

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