Dec 16, 2009

Eveline | Themes

Paralysis
Among the most obvious themes in Dubliners is that of paralysis. In fact Joyce emphasizes this theme from the very first paragraph of the first tale in the collection, “The Sisters.”

Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely to my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent being.

The theme and word “paralysis” hang over many of the tales; the...