(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.