Dubliners: Critiquing 'Paralysis' in Joyce's Short Stories, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Dubliners: Critiquing 'Paralysis' in Joyce's Short Stories e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! DUBLINERS (1914) PLOT: It is a collection of fifteen short stories set in Dublin in which Joyce criticizes the “paralysis” of the city drawing its moral history. There is almost no action and the story develops due to the characters’ thoughts. SETTING: Even though all stories take place in Dublin and are characterized by realistic details, it can be said that the actual setting is the characters’ mind as that's through their thoughts that the reader is able to understand what is happening and is able to perceive the subtle symbolism omnipresent in Joyce's stories. CHARACTERS: While Dickens’ characters were mostly plain due to the need, following the Victorian compromise, to define clearly good and bad characters, Joyce’s characters are more complex (even though Eveline’s father is a negative figure there was a time in the past in which he was lovely and treated her well). AIl Joyce's characters experience that sense of “paralysis” that the author criticises and presents in its four stages (childhood, youth, maturity and public life); this paralysis is a paralysis of will since, even though Dublin’s inhabitants are aware of their condition and would like to change it, they aren't actually able to make a change and at the end they passively accept their fate. That's the reason why Joyce”s characters are always described as passive, weak, in despair (Eveline, looking like a helpless animal, unable to move while the boat is leaving). CRITICISM: Apart from the criticism of the paralysis of will, Joyce addresses his criticism towards the strictness of Ireland's Nationalistic and strongly catholic spirit as he stands for freedom and claims that people should be free to choose what to do. NARRATOR: In Joyce's works a third person narrator can be found but, differently from Dickens that only presents the narrator’s point of view, here the narrator shares the character’s feelings and point of view. LANGUAGE: Joyce uses a simple and understandable language characterized by a lot of different styles and notions. The style is varied because the author wants to represent the variety and the fragmentation of his society. In fact, Joyce wants to draw a realistic portrait of Dublin's life, presenting all its aspects and that's why his book was tumed down by publishers as a lot of his stories were considered obscene. SYMBOLS: Joyce uses symbolic effects to present a new, more conscious view of reality. A lot of these symbols are used to manifest the “epiphany”. The epiphany is a sudden revelation in which, through a common object, Joyce's characters realise their condition (the music of the organ for Eveline). Some symbols in Eveline: e Theorgan, that makes her remember of her past and her promise to her mother; e The dust, that represents the dreariness of her life and the sense of paralysis; e Thesea, that represents her future with Frank and her chance of salvation