Joyce, James - Dubliners, style and language

Dubliners (1914) is the first important work written by Joyce. James Joyce has always been interested in two topics: the problem of the artist in general, the second problem was the modern city and the modern citizen (this second problem can be found in the Dubliners)

Structure and main themes

Dubliners is, as a matter of facts, a collection of short stories. There are 15 short stories, and the last one, added

later on, is called "The dead" and it is generally considered his first masterpiece. These 15 stories are organized into stages and areas and are arranged into 4 groups. We have the first group of short stories dedicated to childhood, where the main character is a child. For this reason the language is relatively simple. We have the group of the adolescence, in particular "Eveline" that deals with the problem of the adolescence. Then we have another group of short stories that deal with the problem of grown up people. The last group deals with political problems, culture and society. But what are the main themes?

Paralysis and symbolism

The main theme is paralysis. What is paralysis? Of course it is not a physical kind of paralysis, but it is a kind of mental, spiritual, psychological kind of paralysis. This paralysis was influenced by religious problems, political and social problems. So all of those problems create the paralysis in which the character lives. It is a kind of condition of stuck in which the character lives. So Dublin in this case, becomes a prototype of a modern city, and the Dubliners become a prototype of modern citizens, they represent the modern city. The description of each story is realistic and extremely concise, with an abundance of eternal details, even the most unpleasant and depressing ones. The use of realism is mixed with symbolism.

In fact Joyce wanted to take the reader beyond the usual aspects of life and he employed a peculiar technique to reach this purpose: the

In fact, every single story can be considered a kind of epiphany (an understanding, a sudden revelation of the

reality in its full significance; this understanding is caused by a very simple event, but this event may cause the

change of characters' point of view)

Characterization of characters

What kind of characters are they?

Of course all of them live in this paralysis caused by family, politics, religion, that create a net. Every single character

finds himself in a net, and this net can be the family, religion, politics, culture. The characters are all "living dead". They are connected by the same idea of paralysis. Each of these characters

deal with their own frustration, their own impotence to change the situation.

Why? Because of the moral, intellectual, spiritual paralysis in which Dublin is centered. So when the characters understand

the situation of paralysis they are living in, they try to overcome this situation, but they can't go on. All of the characters of Dubliners are not well defined, in fact we don't have a lot of information about Eveline. They are not described in full details. What is the solution?

The solution is the escape from the net, they try to free themselves but they simply can't. So there is a kind of attempt to overcome the paralysis with the escape, but then they understand that there is no way out.

Language and style

What about the language? The language used by Joyce is increasingly more complex, because starting with the main character as a child, the language suits the character. (if the character is a child, the language is more simple). So the lanquage changes during the stages. There is also a mixture of realism, he wants to describe life as it really is, but there is also a combination of symbols, images and also colours. In "Eveline", for example all the colours have a negative meaning (yellow, black, brown), because they are a symbol of decay, paralysis. Another symbol is the water, black/brown water is always a symbol of decay, paralysis, lack of communication. Instead clean water is always positive and brings life, communication. What about the style?

In the Dubliners there is not the use of the stream of consciousness technique yet. The main character is the narrator, who tells us the story. He makes a massive use of the free direct and indirect speech. The free indirect speech is when there is a kind of reference, expression without the reporting verbs. The free direct speech when the characters tell their own stories without verbs that are helpful for us. All of this will make the reading more complex, even if the Dubliners is the easiest of all.