Cárolina Romero
Mr. Maust
English IV AP
15 April 2016
The Beginning and the End of Dubliners by James Joyce In James Joyce's most famous novel, Dubliners, each story has some aspect that he critiques in Ireland. Joyce did not like his home country and believed that it was paralysed by the Roman Catholic Church, because the country was held back from modern times and failed economically. His first story The Sisters shows the overall themes of Joyce’s collection of short stories. It introduces the themes of corruption and paralysis, as well as the symbols of yellow and brown, and the motif of death. His last story The Dead is the be-all end-all of the collection. It is regarded as perhaps Joyce’s greatest story, and it encompasses all his previous …show more content…
The boy in The Sisters is not very surprised when he hears the news of Father Flynn’s death, but yet he admits that it bothers him that he did not feel in a mourning mood. In The Dead, Gabriel knows that Grette was happier with Michael, than she would ever be with him. With both stories having the main characters undergo very tragic experiences - the death of a friend and the disapproval of society on the friendship, and the slow but sure death of a never-passionate marriage - Joyce seems to propose that all those in Dublin are aware of the paralysis, of the death, and of the sadness that lingers just over the city. Joyce was never happy to be a part of Ireland, like Gabriel, who can be assumed to be very close, if not the very same, to the boy in the first story. But both Gabriel and Joyce admit that “Irish is not my language.”(The Dead, 103) With this disconnection, Joyce may have felt that the sad mood over everyone’s heads is the only thing that connects the Dubliners together. Both stories set the idea in mind, and the stories between the two support the idea even further. It is fitting that Dubliners starts with a young boy’s realization that the dead he was once friends with was truly not what he appeared, and that it ends with a very real pressure that most adults sadly feel: the death of a marriage. Both truths are part of everyday life, and are accepted and ignored by everyday people; however, Joyce knows this, and shows how this ignorance, this sadness, connects the Dubliners with one
Mr. Maust
English IV AP
15 April 2016
The Beginning and the End of Dubliners by James Joyce In James Joyce's most famous novel, Dubliners, each story has some aspect that he critiques in Ireland. Joyce did not like his home country and believed that it was paralysed by the Roman Catholic Church, because the country was held back from modern times and failed economically. His first story The Sisters shows the overall themes of Joyce’s collection of short stories. It introduces the themes of corruption and paralysis, as well as the symbols of yellow and brown, and the motif of death. His last story The Dead is the be-all end-all of the collection. It is regarded as perhaps Joyce’s greatest story, and it encompasses all his previous …show more content…
The boy in The Sisters is not very surprised when he hears the news of Father Flynn’s death, but yet he admits that it bothers him that he did not feel in a mourning mood. In The Dead, Gabriel knows that Grette was happier with Michael, than she would ever be with him. With both stories having the main characters undergo very tragic experiences - the death of a friend and the disapproval of society on the friendship, and the slow but sure death of a never-passionate marriage - Joyce seems to propose that all those in Dublin are aware of the paralysis, of the death, and of the sadness that lingers just over the city. Joyce was never happy to be a part of Ireland, like Gabriel, who can be assumed to be very close, if not the very same, to the boy in the first story. But both Gabriel and Joyce admit that “Irish is not my language.”(The Dead, 103) With this disconnection, Joyce may have felt that the sad mood over everyone’s heads is the only thing that connects the Dubliners together. Both stories set the idea in mind, and the stories between the two support the idea even further. It is fitting that Dubliners starts with a young boy’s realization that the dead he was once friends with was truly not what he appeared, and that it ends with a very real pressure that most adults sadly feel: the death of a marriage. Both truths are part of everyday life, and are accepted and ignored by everyday people; however, Joyce knows this, and shows how this ignorance, this sadness, connects the Dubliners with one