Joyce, James - The Dubliners

Indice

1. Dubliners – General characteristics
2. Dubliners - Themes
3. Dubliners - Narrative technique and style

Dubliners – General characteristics

The work is a collection of 15 short stories which had all been written by 1905, except for the Dead, the last and longest story, which was written in 1907. It was completely published, at the end, in 1914.

The stories are arranged in 4 groups that correspond to 4 phases of life: childhood-adolescence-maturity-public life.

As a matter of fact, the writer’s aim is to mark the history which he lives with the moral history of his literary work and to give a whole imagine of Ireland and the everyday life of Irish people.
So Dubliners is a way, as well, to talk about human fate and how the insignificance of human life can apparently became relevant.

Dubliners - Themes

A significant theme is the feeling of paralysis that many of the characters experience as a result of being tied to limiting social traditions. This paralysis is not only physical but also moral and linked to religion, politics and culture.
The paralysis is described as a circular motion because the character always returns where they had started their journey pointing out how life is always the same and no change is allowed in the archetype of their minds.

Dubliners accept their conditions because they are not aware of it or because they don’t have the courage to break these “chains”. They are spiritually weak and they can almost be considered as slaves of their familiar, moral, cultural, religious and political life. This paralysis is also reflected in their relationships, because the characters are unable to relate to others and communicate (as can be seen in the “Dead”).

Another important theme is the revelation or epiphany, which indicates the moment in a story when a sudden spiritual awakening is experienced and which marks the climax of the story.
Epiphany, as a matter of fact, is a Greek word that means “showing” and in this case it is used to describe moments of intense understanding, in which intuition is so strong that can brake the static lives of characters but this event will not happen. This situation it is linked also to Freud’s psychoanalysis’ principle to make what it is felt inside resurface.

Finally, another theme is the escape: the characters feels a feeling of enclosure and wants to change his situation, but all his attempts are destined to fail.

Dubliners - Narrative technique and style

Each story is told from the perspective of a character. Free direct speech and free direct thought are widely used: they consist in the presentation of the protagonist’s thoughts, thus allowing the reader to get a direct knowledge of the character.

Since the language used suits the age, the social class and the role of characters, Joyce uses different linguistic registers. Apparently it is realistic because it describes the characters, places, streets and languages of the contemporary Dublin. But on the other hand, Joyce is able to give common objects a deeper meaning, transforming them into “symbols”.

Joyce, then, was able to shape his writing style according to the stage of the stories: the easiest ones to understand are characterized by simple and clear sentences while the more enigmatic ones are written with an elevated and cryptic way of expressing meanings.