The novella beings with Lily “literally run off her feet”. The opening sentence and language seems to float away from the novelist and take on the properties of the character, who now seems to “own” the words. The writer is free to inflect the reported thought, to bend it around the character’s own words (Woods 2008). The choice of word expected here is “figuratively”, but Joyce makes no mistakes. The word “literally” is a stylistic contamination and emphasizes on the character’s personality and her influence on Joyce’s choice of words. She is introduced as the caretaker’s daughter and the word “literally” shows that she is not well educated, as it is a common mistake amongst many of her status. It could also be used as a metaphor and if Joyce,
