Comparative Essay About Dubliners

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Comparative Essay about Dubliners

The book Dubliners by James Joyce is a collection of fifteen stories that all happen in

Ireland. The author has partitioned the book into three significant sections. The first three

narrations are based on childhood stories of the narrators. The second section that consists of 4

stories is on the adolescent stage and finally the stories on the last section of the novel are on

adulthood (Terrance, 25). The author of the novel utilizes several aspects of literature to create

the plots of these fifteen stories bringing out several themes from the narrations. Such aspects of

literature include tone, stylistic devices such as symbolism and characterization among others.

This paper shall provide an analysis the works of James Joyce in the book. How he utilizes the

literature devices in building up a multi-layered thematic statement in his book. Using

comparative analysis, I shall show how the final story “the dead” serves as a concluding section

and a summation of the preceding themes comparing it to three other stories in the book namely,

“Araby”, “Two Gallants” and “A painful choice”.

A reader of the book may have realized that there was one main theme that cut across

these four narrations and that was the theme of love. Characters from the stories show emotions

and the human nature of desire to experience love. The story ‘Araby’ is a narration of small

adolescent boy who has a crush on the big sister of his play mate. He does a lot of things to gain

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the attention of this girl that he has feelings for to no avail. However, once he gets his one chance

to prove his feelings to this girl, fate works its way to disappoint him. The second narration

“Two Gallants” is a story of two young men who are heading for dinner talking about their love

affairs and how unsuccessful they have been in finding the right girl. However one is optimistic

for he was going for on a date that night. The third “A painful choice” is a narration of young

man who is an introvert and has a dull life, stuck to a regular routine. But he meets one lady

friend who changes things in his life (Terrance, 14). His life becomes livelier and for a short

while he seems happy. However due to a misunderstanding they decide to keep away from each

other only for the man to read later from the newspapers about the sad death of this woman. The

final story is the last story in the book. The main characters of the narration are a man and his

wife who attend a party. In the party the man and his aunt play a song that really has an impact

on his wife. The man thinks his wife was moved by the song because of her love for him only to

find out that the wife was emotional because of her past lover (Terrance, 42).

All of these narrations revolve around emotions. I would say Joyce is not trying to bring

out the romantic side of love but rather the lonely and heartbreaking side of love and how

disappointing love can leave someone. In all the four narrations there is a sad ending to love.

Death, disappointment and heartaches are all a result of love. Moreover, Joyce utilizes themes

like mortality and paralysis in building up this theme of love. Moreover, the characterization in

the story also helps to build up the narrations to a common theme (Barners, 18).

The author is able to build up the stories into a satisfying conclusion using the story “the

dead” as the climax of the novel. However, it is not just about the story inside, but also the title

of the story. Something that is dead has no life, has seized to exist and it is something that only

exists in memories. In other words, something that is dead has come to its end. Therefore using

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this style the narrator has been able to signify the reader that this story is finally coming to an

end. Therefore, the themes inside are also coming to an end (Robert et al., 62).

Furthermore, the tone that the narrator uses especially when coming towards the end of

the narration also symbolizes the summation of the themes. The tone that the author has utilized

at the ending of ‘‘Araby’ is totally different from the tone that he uses towards the end of the ‘the

dead’. The tone that is used in “Araby” can be termed as sympathetic, “My body was like a harp

and her words and gestures were like fingers running though the wire.” The author represents

narrator as a serious boy and a reader can be sympathetic with this boy whose feelings are

overwhelming him but he lacks the guts to express them (Terrance, 15). However, the tone used

in the ending of “the dead” is sad, for the narrator is both heartbroken and disappointed on how

things turned out. He finds out that the woman he loves was in love with another person before

him. “His soul swooned softly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and

faintly falling like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead. When something

comes to an end, especially if it was something good, then there is as sad feeling. Therefore, the

sad tone used by the author is a clear that the novel is now coming to an end.

Furthermore, the author has also used the setting in signifying the end of the novel. The

setting of the novel is in during winter period. From the description of the snow on the ground, it

appears that it is towards the end of the year (Robert et al, 55). The setting of the narration being

placed towards the end of the year could also be used as symbol to a show the conclusion of the

narrations. Moreover, coming back to the theme of the love in accordance to the author’s point of

view, it can be said that Joyce made the temperature cold to act as a symbolic feature of what the

characters in the stories felt in their hearts. “It was falling too, upon every part of the lonely

churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried it lay thickly on the crocked crosses and

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headstones.” Moreover From the story “a painful case”, the narrator says, “He waited for some

minutes listening, he could hear nothing, and he felt he was alone.”

Also, the use of symbolism is a style that has been used by the author to show that the

story is coming to an end and also summing up the preceding themes. Many symbols have been

used from the title to the narration of the grave site where Michael Furey’s body laid buried and

forgotten (Robert et al 52). In the circle of life, the grave site is the final destination of every

human being. A graveyard is an empty place full of lifeless bodies that lack dreams and

ambitions. Therefore, having a description of a grave site in the last chapter of narration could be

a symbol of the ending of the novel (Terrance, 95). Furthermore, the gravesite could also

represent the emptiness that the lovers felt after being disappointed by love in the stories. In the

story of “two gallants" Lenehan feels lonely when he is having his meal alone thinking about his

friend’s date. “This vision made him feel keenly his own poverty of purse and spirit.”

Furthermore, in the last chapter, the author has utilized some literary devices like

paralysis, death and epiphany more than he has used it in other topics in the book. However, the

theme of death seems to be more dominant in this story as it runs from the beginning to the end.

Many things in the story represent death, for example the protagonist’s parents and grandfather

are said to be dead. Moreover some of the names used like the house help ‘Lily’ symbolize death

as lilies are flowers that are often used in funerals (Barners, 49). Moreover, the protagonist

speaks of death himself. He is scared of dying the similar way that Michael did or like his aunt

Julia. “Better pass boldly into the other world, in the full glory of some passion, the fade and

wither dismally with age.” All the talks on death are talks about the end of time which could

also symbolize the end. The use of paralysis is evident in many scenes of the narration (Barners,

51). They talk about the monks who sleep in their coffins. Joyce could have introduced the

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coffins in the story to symbolize paralysis. Furthermore, the story of the horse going round the

statue of king William is also suggests the use of paralysis by the author. The use of paralysis in

the final chapter of the story shows that the author is trying to indicate that the narration is finally

coming to an end. It cannot proceed any further.

In conclusion, Joyce utilizes his skills of literature to carefully build his themes in the novel. The

themes assist the reader in having a consistent flow of understanding from the beginning of the

narration up to its final end. Moreover, the literary tools used in the narrations have a significant

impact on how the author lays the foundations of his stories and how he builds the story from

this foundation. Nevertheless, the novel was intriguing and captivating and the Joyce succeeded

in giving it a satisfactory ending.

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Work Cited

Joyce, James. “Dubliners. Ed. Robert Scholes and A. Walton Litz.” (1976)

Joyce, James. A Potrait of the Artist as a Young Man; and Dubliners. Barnes & Noble Classic,

2004

Joyce, James, and Terence Brown. Dubliners: with a introduction and introduction and notes by

Terence Brown. Penguin , 1992.

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