(Crider) Wary of the Church

Dubliners repeatedly points to James Joyce’s disapproval of British rule in Ireland.  His family consisted of strong advocates of the nationalist movement led by Parnell to instigate Home Rule in Irish Parliament.  However, while they longed for a united, independent Ireland, the Joyce household expressed a frustration with the Catholic Church, which naturally would have risen as a prominent component of Irish society under Home Rule.   Within James’ short stories are several accounts of clergy members, church doctrine, and the overall religious experience that portray the Church as an improper institution. 

 “The Sisters” describes the influence a paralyzed priest, Father Flynn, has on a young boy.  Reminiscing over lessons regarding history and the Latin language, the boy is troubled that his mentor is soon to die, though he wonders if Old Cotter’s claim that a young boy ought to be spending his time with children his age, not with an old  man, has some veracity to it.  He is further troubled when company at the mourning house following Father Flynn’s death recount his mental decline and rumors regarding licentious behavior before his paralysis set in.  “Grace” illustrates another case of wariness, though not quite as immoral, towards the Church.  After his drunken fall, companions of Tom Kernan attempt to set him straight and request his presence at a Catholic retreat.  After much prodding, Kernan agrees to attend, though he refuses to support any superstitious practice, particularly the use of candles in renewal of baptismal vows. 

In one piece of criticism, Joyce stated on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church growing to become a greater power than the British Empire:  “I do not see what good it does to fulminate against the English tyranny while the Roman tyranny occupies the palace of the soul.”  His inclusion of so many religious references, many based on reality, proposes that the Church’s wide influence has ensnared its members into believing in an afterlife that is not undoubtedly genuine.  Perhaps Joyce felt the Church’s offense was greater than Britain’s because its promises instilled a “false hope” in many practitioners enduring oppression or social indignity during the late 19^th century and early 20^th.  

(Crider) Crossing the River Liffey

Following his father’s 1891 entry into the Stubb’s Gazette, a monthly business magazine which featured registered bankruptcies, nine year old James Joyce witnessed the beginning of what would be a quick financial decline within his family.  A collector of property taxes, John Joyce provided an affluent life for his household prior to Stubb’s, but mismanagement of finances and a dangerous bout with alcoholism resulted in his dismissal and the family’s transition into poverty.  They were forced to relocate from the well-to-do town of Bray to North Richmond Street on the other side of the River Liffey in Dublin.  Here, young James was first introduced to the seedier side of society, where orphanages were as crowded as the slum tenements, and desperation (in every sense of the word) was as evident as the region’s obsolete sanitation.  James Joyce was no longer on the “respectable” side of the River Liffey.  Still, his experiences with Dublin’s underbelly coughed up the framework for his collection of short stories named after the citizens residing there.  Demonstrative of James Joyce’s devotion to fictional realism, many of the pieces in Dubliners reflect the author’s personal exposure to life beyond the river as a child.  “An Encounter” is such an example.

In “An Encounter,” two boys with hyperactive imaginations skip school in search of adventure akin to the western stories they obsess over.  The primary target for their escape from routine embarks them on a voyage to the Pigeon House, Dublin’s electrical station.  Before they even cross the River Liffey the duo is bombarded by two “raggedy boys,” likely orphans, after chasing a group of girls.  The orphans shout insults, mistaking the boys for Protestants.  This incident probably marks the school kids’ first personal experience with the religious conflict saturating Dublin.  The struggle between Protestants and Catholics was undoubtedly evident to Joyce before he ever crossed the river as well, considering his poems on the subject of Irish Nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell and his run-in with the church.  The boys reach the other bank by ferry and are sooner met by dusk and the stranger folk it carries in than the worry free adventure they expected.  Disturbed by a pacing, crazy old man whose constant bantering clearly displays his perversion, they find that their exciting afternoon has become its own troubled monotony.

(Little) Youthful Idealism Turned on its Edge

During the course of an otherwise lackluster school day, two young boys, pining for the Wild West, set out to find adventure in the city of Dublin. What they instead happen upon proves to educate the youthful idealists about the way of the world. James Joyce confronts the sometimes beautiful, though sometimes harsh realities of life in twentieth century Dublin in his short story, “An Encounter.” 

(A young James Joyce)

In this, the second story of the collection, James Joyce explores his hometown through an idealistic, youthful lens. This approach proves itself appropriate for the vignette as it is categorized as a story of childhood in the chronological sequence Joyce utilizes. As the two boys make their way through what they expect to be an adventurous afternoon fit for children, they find themselves encountering an array of rather adult themes.

The boys first notice the poor living conditions of the children they see walking the streets. The narrator repeatedly comments on the “ragged” quality of the children’s clothing as well as their unrefined attitudes. This may be the first encounter these boys have had with the poverty apparent in Dublin. While they take their charmed lives as private schoolboys for granted, these two fortunate youths stumble upon the harsh reality of life outside the shelter of their privileged existence.

Soon after their encounter with the impoverished children, the two boys are mistakenly recognized as Protestants. The same group of rabble-rousing kids starts flinging stones at boys because the narrator’s friend, as Joyce writes, “was dark complexioned” and “wore the silver badge of a cricket club in his cap.” In this moment, the boys first come into contact with discrimination. Though the encounter remains immature, simple boy-on-boy shenanigans, the underlying meaning has a profoundly adult quality.

The most climactic encounter the boys have comes later during the day when an elderly man approaches them. Harmless small talk evolves into the man’s disturbing rant about his fetish for young girls, as the boys come into contact with the most adult theme of the story, deranged sexuality. Joyce’s writing is coated in nuanced subtlety, but it is implied that the elderly man leaves momentarily to masturbate. Though the boys are perhaps too young to fully understand the situation as it plays out, the narrator admits that this man makes him feel odd. The story resolves shortly thereafter on a fairly disjointed note.

In this final encounter, Joyce’s characters experience uncomfortable, confusing feelings that parallel those notorious trademark feelings of adolescence. Joyce portrays Dublin as a city evolving with these characters, searching for an identity and managing the growing pains one encounters while on the road to maturity. 

A Quote to Remember: “The mimic warfare of the evening became at last as wearisome to me as the routine of school in the morning because I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real adventures, I reflected do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad.”

Irish Entrapment (Ryckman)

It is common to feel repressed by one’s hometown. People often feel the urge to uproot and leave behind their family and friends and duties in favor of a more enchanting lifestyle. It is this urge which drives many people across the world to foreign destinations to “find themselves.” Many of James Joyce’s Dubliners often feel trapped within their city, longing for something greater, as is seen in stories, “A Little Cloud,” and “Eveline." 

Thomas “Little” Chandler’s friend, Ignatius Gallaher, visits Dublin after eight years abroad. Little Chandler becomes inspired to leave Ireland for London or Paris and live a life full of art and sorrow and the full spectrum of emotions and impressions that exist within a poet. But his dreams are only dreams and do not actualize in the story. Instead, at the end of the story, Chandler is shown at the mercy of his wife, Annie, and their child, with “tears of remorse” forming at his eyes. These tears are for himself, as he realizes the life that has been built for him. He knows he cannot leave. He has a family.

The younger and more eager Eveline Hill shares similar feelings with Little Chandler, only she is not bound down by the same responsibilities. In the story “Eveline,” she has moments of panic, where she feels she must escape her home and Dublin and explore the world in the arms of her beloved. But when she must board the departing ship, she freezes and grips the iron railing, affirming her position in Dublin. Her longing for exploration and life are overcome by her reluctance to leave the safety of home.

Both Eveline Hill and Little Chandler are unable to leave Dublin, though they both fantasize about. In Eveline’s case, she is too young. She does not yet have the resolve that is required to break from home. Chandler, however, has missed his opportunity. He is bound by his family and his timidity. It seems, then, that the window to leave Dublin is very small. It is open only for a short period of time. I imagine that leads many people to remain in Dublin for the rest of their lives, perpetuating and contributing to this overwhelming longing.

(Bates) Religion in Dublin

Throughout James Joyce’s The Dubliners, the author takes a negative approach towards the Catholic Church. In many scenes across the various short stories, the Church is depicted as corrupt and hypocritical. One jibe appears in “The Boarding House,” in which the Madam’s daughter, Mary, is described as a “little perverse Madonna.” This description becomes appropriate when she is caught sleeping with one of the borders. The sacrilege of naming an unchaste character after the Blessed Virgin suggests that the Church is less pure than it would have its followers believe. 

Yet the story “Grace” carries many more implications about the Church. Here, a group of friends try to convince Mr. Kernan to return to the Church, hoping to inspire a conversion of sorts. They discuss the doctrine of papal infallibility, and Joyce’s treatment of the doctrine highlights the absurdity in the belief. For instance, Mr. Kernan asks about corrupt popes in earlier times, and after grudgingly acknowledging the criticism, Mr. Cunningham says, “Not one of them, not the biggest drunkard, not the most… out-and-out ruffian, not one of them ever preached ex cathedra a word of false doctrine.” Ex cathedra literally means “from the chair,” meaning that the pope speaks with authority as head of the Church, and Catholic teaching states that anything the pope preaches ex cathedra is infallible. Yet Mr. Cunningham’s statement is illogical, as one cannot take another’s word about morality as infallible, least of all a drunkard’s. Mr. Cunningham does not offer any proof of his declaration, yet the men all blindly agree with him, as mirrored in the line, “He drank and the other gentlemen followed his lead.” Through this scene, Joyce emphasizes how Church teaching governs the Dubliners’ thinking. It prevents them from questioning, thus hampering growth and change.

Finally, the last scene of “Grace,” finds the group of men listening to a priest’s homily, which describes God’s mercy in terms of business. These associations violate the Church’s sacredness, making it seem cold and secular. Thus, Joyce views the Catholic faith as an unfavorable quality in the Dubliners. 

(Bates) Backwater Dublin

In his book The Dubliners, James Joyce portrays Dublin as a backwater and underdeveloped city, particularly when compared to other European capitols. This theme is especially potent in the story “A Little Cloud,” which details a meeting between two old friends: Little Chandler, a submissive and sheltered man who works a desk job, and Ignatius Gallaher, a well-traveled, successful newspaperman for the London Press. Little Chandler, when placed beside Ignatius Gallaher, comes to represent Dublin through his lack of determination and naïve tendencies.

Joyce describes Little Chandler in the statement, “His hands were white and small, his frame was fragile, his voice was quiet, and his manners were refined.” Such details depict Little Chandler as meek and easily overlooked, and by extension, Dublin. Further, Joyce describes Little Chandler’s smile as “a row of childish white teeth.” This comparison to a child implies that Dublin has yet to develop.

Yet Dublin’s portrayal as a juvenile becomes more pronounced when Little Chandler meets with Gallaher at Corless’s. First, Corless’s atmosphere, with its French and German-speaking waiters and finely-dressed patrons, stands as an anomaly within Dublin, which is characterized by “gaunt spectral mansions” and “decrepit old men who drowsed on the benches.” It becomes a reflection of the flashy and fashionable European cities like London and Paris. Thus, Corless’s serves as a perfect setting for Little Chandler’s meeting with Gallaher. During the reunion, Gallaher brags about his experiences, making Chandler feel unaccomplished and dull. After detailing a particularly scandalous story involving an English duchess, Gallaher says, “Here we are in old jog-along Dublin where nothing is known of such things.” This belittling statement discredits Dublin, suggesting that it knows nothing of the adventurous and social culture that the rest of Europe enjoys. The jibe is reflected in Chandler’s incessant blushing at Gallaher’s statements. He is embarrassed by the uncouth practices his friend describes, thus showing his outdated and naïve outlook of the world. As he has spent his entire life in Dublin, it can be assumed that he learned these views from his culture.

(Rochon) Alcoholic tendencies

Alcohol is a heavy influence for people in

Dublin, in James Joyce’s eyes.  One story he voices this in is “Counterparts.” Mr. Farrington works at bank and is always on bad terms with his boss Mr. Alleyne because he does not get his work done.  Instead Mr. Farrington spends more time going to pubs and drinking than anything else.  His task this time is to simply make a copy of documents and bring them to Mr. Alleyne by the evening or risk being fired.  He begins to work on it, but slips off to O’Neill’s shop governed by his craving for boozes.  Joyce writes, “Could he ask the cashier privately for an advance? No, the cashier was no good, no damn good: he wouldn’t get an advance…He knew where he would meet the boys…the barometer of his emotional nature was set for a spell of riot.”

Alcohol drives Mr. Farrington to neglect his job even when it is a simple task to complete.  It causes him to not restrain his tongue when he needs to.  Boozes coax him into selling his watch just to buy more drinks instead of hanging on to that money.  He prefers to get drunk with friends instead of figuring out how to get another job.  He gets angry at losing a wrestling match and takes everything out on his son because there is no dinner waiting for him at home.  Mr. Farrington does all of these things because he is a slave to alcohol. He disregards everything that is important to him just for a few drinks.  He cannot even see the kind of ruin he’s putting himself and his family through nor does he care to see.  The only thing he cares for is alcohol. 

(Rochon) Social Laws of Dublin

According to the way James Joyce saw Ireland, social laws are dominant forces in Dublin.  This is shown through his short story, “The Boarding House.” Mrs. Mooney leaves her husband and opens a boarding house.  There are many men that pass through there and a lot of them like flirting with Polly, her daughter.  Mrs. Mooney does not confront Polly about that because it is a social norm for men to visit places for a little while and enjoy the pleasantries of drinking and women.  Joyce writes, “young men like to feel that there is a young woman not very far away…” and “Mrs. Mooney…Knew that the young men were only passing the time away: none of them meant business.”  These indicate that the social laws approve of men and women flirting with each other and going beyond that just for their own entertainment. However, what is against the social law of Dublin is to abuse hospitality. 

Joyce writes, “she had all the weight of social opinion on her side: she was an outraged mother. She had allowed him to live beneath her roof, assuming that he was a man of honour, and he had simply abused her hospitality…He had simply taken advantage of Polly’s youth and inexperience.” Mr. Doran impregnated Mrs. Mooney’s daughter, which is something he could walk away from, but he has a very high status in Dublin.  News travels fast in Dublin because it is a small place and Mr. Doran’s reputation will eventually be ruined.  He accepted the fact that he may have to marry the girl in order to save her honor and his own.  Joyce writes, “The affair would be sure to be talked of and his employer would be certain to hear of it. Dublin is such a small city: everyone knows everyone else’s business…all his long years of service gone for nothing! All his industry and diligence thrown away!” He was not sure if he cared for Polly that much, but marriage sat fine with him as long as his social status is maintained.

The Duality of Ireland

James Joyce's Dubliners depicts a city that is greately influenced by the Church and its leaders but struggles with morality.  The stories span from a young boy who struggles with his ending relationship with a local priest, that is alluded to being a pedophile, to an older man who attends a funeral to discover he didn't know his wife as well as he thought.  Joyce shows how these people in Ireland live and how they keep themselves living.   Joyce writes his stories in a stream of consciousness style and does not simply state exactly what the characters are experiencing, yet leaves the reader to abstract it.

Joyce depicts Ireland as a city held strongly by The Church's beliefs, yet the characters embrace hedonism.  The Irish identity is binary, holding two conflicting ideas.  In "An Encounter" two young schoolboys are captivated with the Wild West, which shows how the Irish people embrace American culture.  The kids encounter an old man who, on one hand, talks about finding girls to fancy and, on the other, discourages it.  This odler alcoholic is alluded to being a pedophile as well.  The old man says, "Every boy has a little sweetheart," then he switches his viewpoint, "If ever he found a boy talking to girls or having a girl for a sweetheart he would whip him." This man is obviously a drunken Catholic or Protestant who holds on to his values while still embracing hedonism.

In "A Little Cloud," Little Chandler is jealous and displeased morally of his friend Ignatius Gallaher because he has gone to Britain and is making a good sum of money.  Little Chandler, on the other hand, is finding refuge in his personal cloud of poetry.  As well as his family, Ireland is holding him back.  His dreams are only a part of his cloud, which is representative of Ireland holding onto its sense of identity in the face of other European nation's success.  The city of Ireland is existing on an island yet still struggling to be free of the influences of England.

Ireland: beloved yet painful

Dubliners is filled with feelings of pain and remorse.  The characters are dealing with their anguish often by resorting to having a brew in the pub, and, most of them end up just going on with their lives.  Some characters are very fund of their country while others show much hatred towards it.  Some are just living their lives within the city following the flow of the hustle and bustle.

In the story "The Boarding House" the mother is a stern woman who finagles her daughter into a marriage with a well-to-do business man.  She successfully becomes independent of her husband, which causes her to be overbearing with her children.  The mother keeps her daughter from going to school to help out with the boarding house she owns, possibly to marry her off.  The middle aged suitor is nervous about marrying her, but he simply accepts the mother's will.  The mother gets the two to marry, yet the man sees the marriage as his doing because he the elder.  This sense of responsibility comes from his beliefs from the church.

On the other hand, Mr. Duffy from "A Painful Case" sees the world outside of other institutions and people.  He has lost hope in Dublin and lives outside of the city to live by his own accord.  He holds politically radical views, but he does not influence the advancement of ireland.  His love affair comes to a sudden end, and the death of his mistress brings him great pain.  Like the suitor, he blames himself for the outcome of the situation.  The mother from the boarding house and Mr. Duffy are just going through their lives dealing with pain and anguish.  Though they are not directly influencing the development of Ireland, the two share the undeniable pain that the Irish nationality all share.

(Poelker) A Moment for Dubliners

Take for example, “Two Gallants.” The first few pages ought to be familiar to any social young person: two friends walk around, talking. Lenehan and Corley are definitely sinister characters (particularly Lenehan’s attitude toward women) but in Joyce’s artful description we find something universal. The way that Lenehan bends to Corley’s will, and the description of Corley establishes and iconoclastic dynamic, with which we can identify. Corley, a physically “burly” man, “son of an inspector of the police” is self absorbed: “He spoke without listening to the speech of his companions.” On the other hand, Lenehan shows a certain weakness by several times repeating that his friend’s stories, “take[s] the biscuit,” and responding only with questions so his friend can keep talking. In this duality, I can see sides of myself as much as I can see qualities in other people I know. The balance of this dynamic is expressed most artfully in the description of a street musician only blocks from Trinity College: “One hand played in the bass the melody of Silent O Moyle, while the other hand careered in the treble after each group of notes. The notes of the air sounded deep and full.”

Lenehan’s individual struggle also strikes a chord. While wandering alone through the streets of Dublin, he enters a restaurant. (Note that the description of the restaurant is particularly Irish—and old): “A poor-looking shop over which the words Refreshment Bar were printed in white letters. On the Glass of the window were two flying inscriptions: Ginger Beer and Ginger Ale. A cut ham was exposed on a great blue dish while near it on a plate lay a segment of very light plum-pudding.”) Inside the restaurant having received “a plate of peas,” Lenehan’s inner dilemma is revealed.

“He was tired of knocking about, of pulling the devil by the tail, of shifts and intrigue. He would be thirty-one in November Would he never get a good job? Would he never have a home of his own?” For we Irish travelers, these problems are some years away—after all, Lenehan’s got a decade on most of us, but I think we can identify. The question is a part of the project of Dubliner’s as a portrait of life in Dublin at the beginning of the 20th century spanning from childhood, through adolescence, and onto maturity, Lenehan is somewhere in between the last two, as are we. The story is important as a portion of the whole text: Aside from the admittedly vivid descriptions of a certain time and place Joyce provides (100 years ago, Dublin), the collection is intended to illustrate life itself.

(Poelker) Fictional Geography

To relate to James Joyce’s view of Dublin 100 years ago, it helps to think about New Orleans now. Ireland’s capital has about three times the population of our city, but they share a reputation as international centers with rich histories, in addition to being ports of cultural and economic importance. Dubliners is full geographical details that have me browsing Google Maps in anticipation, drawing comparisons to the places I’ve gotten to know in New Orleans. Each time I read of Stephen’s Green I wonder whether its more like Audubon Park (being close to Trinity College) or Jackson Square (being an open space landmark downtown). As much as I can imagine the landscape, it won’t make sense until I’m there and even then I fear a sense of surreality.

In “A Painful Case,” I’m reminded of Walker Percy’s New Orleans, as described in The Moviegoer. Joyce writes, “Mr. James Duffy lived in Chapelizod because he wished to live as far as possible from the city of which he was a citizen and because he found all the other suburbs of Dublin mean, modern and pretentious.” Duffy’s attitude is interesting because it implies the sort of qualities that are intriguing about Dublin, but also shows how the city had begun to change in the early part of the last century. In the same way, Percy’s protagonist Binx prefers the slower pace and open space of Gentilly to the old-family pressures he feels in the Garden District, and the more urban atmosphere of the French Quarter. Gentilly is a different place than in the 1950s setting of The Moviegoer, now less of a suburb then an extension of the city itself. But I think that difference is part of why I’m drawn to the comparison. As much as New Orleans has changed in the last 50 years, Dublin must have changed all the more in the last 100 years. I hope for familiarity amongst the foreign.

Still, some spirit ties the two cities and the two stories together. The two main characters share a loneliness in between there halted love affairs. Binx’s constant and self-aware “search” aligns with Duffy’s “autobiographical habit” of composing sentences about himself; The same “malaise” that overtakes Binx’s romances seems to have caused the end of Duffy’s affair. Both men fictionalize there lives, narrating within the narration. Each story in Dubliners is centered around Joyce’s notion of the epiphany. As readers and writers, the trick is to maintain our sense of beauty and taste for art, without imposing artificial melodrama on our daily lives.

DeBold-Contrasting Social Mentality in the Face of Disaster

I first realized the psychological effects of death and mass disaster shortly after September 11^th.  I noticed New Orleans locals are also keen to what I am describing as; wisdom attained following the pain and sufferings of a disaster. In conversation, with locals in New Orleans and New York, I made note of references to their own lives and experiences in terms of before and after.

New Orleans faced widespread destruction and long-term dislocation from its people and city. The crisis changed thousands of people’s lives and so, to those who experienced it first hand; their life predicaments suggest a reference to either before or after the storm.


  As I researched Irelands history, I read about the five-year potato famine in the 1840’s. One Million people died of starvation and disease while another million  fled the country. The tone of Dubliners familiarizes the reader with a city that has known affliction.  

  Controversy spread during the famine as the English continued exporting mass amounts of Irish crops despite the starving country. Comparisons between the Famine and the Holocaust even arose in my research; alluding to British exports role in the degradation of Ireland's population, similar to that of Nazi Genocide. 

“I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls

With vassals and serfs at my side

and of all who assembled within those walls

That I was the hope and the pride.

I had riches too great to count, could boast

Of a high ancestral name

But also I dreamt, which pleased me most, That you loved me still the same.”  (Joyce, "Clay"126)

Reading these accusations and descriptions of Irish suffering led me to presuppose a similar mentality of the Irish as I have seen in New Orleans and New York.

  To my surprise, Joyce’s characters in Dubliners did not assert recognition of their misfortune the same way. Joyce leaves more subtle implications of the effect rather than characters directly referring to the time period of loss. Rather, Joyce intertwines the rippling’s of depression within character predicaments and their mentality. Eveline has components within its character development alluding to harsh times directly caused by the potato famine.  Eveline’s mother died from disease and her lover is attempting to flee the country while her other brother also has passed. Joyce includes Eveline’s home ties and experiences to portray her characters reason for paralysis before getting on the train. “Strange that it should come that very night to remind her of the promise to her mother, her promise to keep the home together as long as she could” (Joyce, 41).

Eveline never refers directly to the famine; perhaps she is still not removed enough from the incident just yet. Evidence can be found throughout stories in Dubliners implying the effects of the disaster. From immorality in Dublin’s underground ‘slavey’ scene described in Two Gallants to Jimmy losing the card game in After The Race.  The short peek the reader gets into the characters lives is alluding to a city struggling to find its footing  following the famine.   

Hildebrand- Little Dublin

James Joyce's passionate relationship with Ireland, and particularly the city of Dublin, is animated in every short story that comprises "Dubliners." He paints a portrait of a people dictated by societal expectation, religious standards, a violent need for nationalism, and gross hypocrisy. Joyce animates drunks, perverts, priests, children, battered women, and youths longing for a better life in a new country. They are all bits and pieces of Irish culture and history: the need to conform and fight welded into one entity, a bipolar organism breathing on the Liffey. 

The Boarding House acts as a microcosm of Dublin. Mrs. Mooney extracted herself from an abusive husband and set up a boarding house, where she is know as "The Madam." Her title demands respect, but at the same time imagines her as the manager of a whorehouse. This title suggests that because of her disobedience to her husband, and subsequently all women's disobedience to their husband's, she has gained power at the expense of her reputation. The respect she has is paper thin and an illusion, yet she is satisfied with it. She is an icon for independent Irish women, she is cast away from society but has gained an illusive power secretly desired by most women. 
Her daughter Polly is kept from her office job and tends to the men who stay at the house. She works dutifully, but it is suggested that she has affairs with some of the men. Most notably with Mr. Doran; Mrs. Mooney manipulates this affair and lets it continue past a socially appropriate stage. It's easy to assume that Polly and Mr. Doran have established a physical relationship, or even that Polly has conceived a child, and Mrs. Mooney is aware. She uses this situation to force Mr. Doran to marry Polly and take her out of her mother's care. 
Mrs. Mooney knows the Irish mentality better than any character. She knows Mr. Doran must marry Polly to avoid becoming a pariah. If he does not marry her, he will have to face social critique form his priest, his employer, Mrs. Mooney, and her violent brother.  It is in his nature to abide by the unstated rules of decorum, even though it goes against his intuitive feelings about Polly. Mr. Doran is the ideal Irish citizen. He is chained by the unwritten rules of society; he will follow them wholly despite his instincts (after all, Polly is in a lower class than him).

The boarding house is Dublin: various class and races mix under the roof, but relationships are constantly being gauged and watched, class lines are negotiated, and social standing comes before emotions. The inhabitants are not free to do as they choose because the house is governed by invisible social standards, just as is the city. 

Dietze, The Irish Identity Crisis

“But real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who sit at home: they must be sought abroad”  - An Encounter

James Joyce seems to perfectly encompass the struggles and affairs of the people of Dublin in the 20^th century during the scorn of Irish nationalism. Torn and stressed from British rule, the citizens are polluted with confusion and disillusion of who they are both on a national as well as individual level. Each generation from youth to adulthood is faced with that looming question which is carried out throughout separate stories in Joyce’s Dubliners. As each short story has its own complications, struggles, and trials; they all come together to form one whole entity, just as the search for identity confined both the individuals there and make up of Ireland as a nation.

As the characters each struggle to figure out where they stand, a reoccurring notion of rebellion is entwined throughout the stories often in the form of leaving Ireland to find their answers.

From the struggles of the young schoolboy in "An Encounter": “I began to hunger again … for the escape for which those wild sensations seemed to offer me.” In "A Little Cloud” when Little Chandler's timidity is holding him back from his dreams of being a poet and concludes he is a ‘prisoner for life’ both within the confines of his homeland and within himself. To “Eveline” when the young woman turns down a new life in Argentina with her lover, to stay trapped in a life she isn’t happy in, confused and unsure. In "Counterparts", “his body ached for him to do something..." "A Painful Case", “His life rolled out evenly – an adventurous-less tale” and "Grace" which presented religious struggle and the men's longing to repent and reinvent themselves.

And lastly, in "The Dead", when Gabriel tells Miss Ivors of his annual cycling tour in France and Belgium, she sternly questions why he would leave his own country and scolds him for such an idea. He retorts saying he’s “sick of his own country," and felt “his own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling.”

As the characters in Dubliners, search for their identity in the discontent of their nation; I hope we all allow Dublin to open our minds and teach us something new about ourselves. 

(McNeil) Through Joyce's Eyes

James Joyce was born into a Catholic, middle class family in a suburb outside of the main city of Dublin in 1882.  Throughout the Dubliners we get a sense that the stories are a reflection of what Joyce might have seen growing up.  During the late ninetength century and early twentith century, the political scene was intense.  The British versus the Irish, Ireland seeking independence from Great Britian.  The nationalist front runner, Charles Parnell (1870s), had revamped Irish politics with his Home Rule Bill, which sought to give Ireland a louder voice in British government.  Parnell was highly liked by the Irish for his support of land ownership and anti-British views.  Both Ireland and England were shocked when word gave of the affair Parnell was having with another policitical opponets wife.  Sadly his career never recovered from the scandal and he then passed in 1891.

In "Ivy Day in the Committe Room" Charles Parnell and Dubliners mixed feelings towards him is the focus of this story.  Ivy Day is an Irish Holiday set to commemorate the death of Parnell in 1891.  Richard Tierney, a current canidate for the election of Lord Mayor is watchful eye of the other men in the pub.  Some of the voters believe that he is sympathetic to the British even though he is running as an Irish Nationalist.  The skepticism in the characters is a reference to Irish Politics and how Dubliners are inconsistent with their beliefs of who they can trust.  Where the characters are gathered is significant because the "Committe Room" is where in 1890, Irish political figures chose not to back Parnell.  Though Parnell was liked, after the scandal broke many Irish were left feeling a sense of betrayal.  The story foreshadows that what happens in the past can reflect the future, leaving the Irish lost and confused when it comes to their own political views.

(McNeil) Religious Struggles

Throughout the story of James Joyce's Dubliners, religion plays a large part in just about everything Joyce rights about.  The first story "The Sisters" is where we first see the theme of religion.  The narrator is struggling with the loss of his mentor Father Flynn. Though the narrator sees greatness in the Father not everyone has the same views.  Another character Old Cotter insinuates that Father Flynn had ulterior motives for becoming so close with the narrator.  There was talk of how Father Flynn's behavior had become odd right before his death.  He was found locked in a confessional box laughing to himself and could not hold a steady grip on a chalice.  In the past religion has been a struggle for the city of Dublin, the Catholics versus the Protestants.  During the time of Joyce's writing was the conflict was at its highest peak.

Another story focusing on religion is "Grace". The main character Tom Kernan is a converted Catholic who struggles with his lack of faith.  Kernan converted to Catholicism when he married his wife and wasn't to thrilled about the idea.  Kernan's friends in the story try to help boost his lack of faith by dragging him along to a church retreat.  The focus of this story is to highlight the role of religion in the lives of Dubliners and the process of redemption.  It is mentioned in the story that Father Purdon shares his name with the popular red-light district of Dublin, this creates irony in the reader because it is suggesting that the Father is a symbolism of sin even though he considered to be divine in the name of the church.  Religion serves a great purpose in creating part of the history of the city of Dublin.  Even today parts of Ireland struggle with the Catholicism versus Protestantism fight that was so prominent back then.

The Celtic/Irish cross dates as far back as 7th century AD.  The cross became a Christian symbol that would represent the first century crucifixition of Jesus.  Legend says that the cross was first introduced into Ireland by St. Patrick in order to help convert the pagan Irish. The combination of the typical Christian cross and the sun cross from the Pagan religion was to help the Pagan Irish have an importance towards the cross, therefore having an importance to Christianity.

(Little) Through the Eyes of Eveline Hill

Eveline Hill’s Irish heritage is apparent in every aspect of her life, more embedded in her being than the dust that hugs the various neglected objects in her quaint Dublin home. In amongst the impeccable descriptions that shape James Joyce’s famous short story “Eveline,” the reader is introduced to a heroine grappling with a bewildering identity crisis. 

After accepting a proposal from a free-spirited sailor, Eveline prepares herself for a new life with her husband in exotic Buenos Aires. In the onset of the story, Joyce paints an idyllic portrait of childhood nostalgia as Eveline looks back on the youth she spent so wistfully in the city of Dublin. The protagonist struggles against the strong emotional attachment she has to her hometown as she convinces herself that a life no longer exists for her in Ireland.    

Eveline’s psychological journey to find her self is representative of the search for national identity apparent in Ireland in the onset of the twentieth century. James Joyce, through the eyes of his heroine, tells the story of a lost nation caught in the perpetual landslide of an identity crisis.

As Eveline muses on in her nostalgic reverie, she begins to feel the pressure of her conflicting emotions. Part of her psyche screams telling her to escape, to leave Ireland and never look back. It is not until the final four sentences of the story that Eveline realizes she can no longer ignore her heart as it lovingly pulls her back to her home, Dublin. 

Continuing his metaphor, Eveline’s conflicting emotions are indicative of the converging influences plaguing Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Eveline’s ultimate epiphany also showcases the passionate nationalism apparent in the Irish people at the time. In the form of a poignant vignette, Joyce manages to educate readers about the state of affairs in Dublin at the turn of the century. 

A Quote to Remember: “She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.”

McCay: Welcome to Iggy in Ireland

Hello Folks, Iggy has decided to join us in Ireland. The blog is now opened for comments and posts. You will find the syllabus and all assignments and readings (except for Dubliners, which you must buy and read before you arrive in Ireland) posted on blackboard within the next two weeks (long before you are due in Ireland). Robert and I hope you enjoy the course and get a publishable travel article out of your experiences in the Ould Sod.

Mary