Dubliners

Any physical item can serve as a symbol in a great literary work, since great authors choose those details that reflect and resonate with the whole of the work. So keep in mind the global question...

The foreshadowing comes the day of the bazaar. That morning, the boy reminds his uncle of the bazaar, but the uncle is preoccupied and answers "curtly." As the boy walks to school, he notes that...

As the other answer to this question suggests, Joyce does not use stream of consciousness narration in Dubliners; he uses that technique most famously in his later novel Ulysses, which depicts the...

The stories, as the title indicates, are linked together by the Dublin (Irish) experience as Joyce understood it. They are also linked by the experimental method Joyce used to end each story....

Eveline is a 19-year-old girl who finds life in 20th-century Dublin unbearable. She is a dutiful daughter, who takes care of her family, especially her father, who is often drunk and abusive....

Free indirect discourse is when the point of view slides from third-person omniscient narration to inside the head of a particular person in a story without indicating the change. Jane Austen is...

Taken just as you've written it, without examining the context, you'd need to center on "scrupulous meanness." Joyce says that he wrote Dubliners with scrupulous meanness. Scrupulous means to have...

First published in 1914, Dubliners is James Joyce’s collection of fifteen short stories which depict life in the Irish middle class. A key theme throughout the collection is the social paralysis...

Gabriel experiences painful personal growth at the end of the story. Through most of it, he is self-centered, seeing the world entirely from his own self-satisfied perspective. At the end of the...

In his introduction to The Dubliners, a collection of short stories by James Joyce in which "Eveline" is one, Terence Brown writes, So detail in The Dubliners is disposed like brush-stroks in a...

Most Dubliners share the same trait: they are paralyzed and prevented from living fulfilling lives. Various characters recognize their inability to move forward, but most do nothing about it....

While you have not specified which of Joyce's stories from Dubliners you are referring to, I can assume that you are referring to "An Encounter," as it is the only story to feature school-aged boys...

"Eveline" is certainly an appropriate choice for the essay on Dublin's being "the soul of hemiplegia and paralysis" as the concept of paralysis drives this story. From the very beginning of this...

What is distinctive about Joyce's work is his use of epiphanies, or moments of sudden realisation, when characters realise essential facts about themselves or their context. "Araby" is of course...

In both "Eveline" and "The Boarding House," it becomes apparent that the lives of the Irish women of Joyce's stories are certainly limited. For both Eveline and Polly marriage seems to be the only...

In addition to the possible theses outlined in the other answer to this question, it's worth considering building a thesis around the absence of father figures in these three stories. Indeed,...

There are a number of political representations in Dubliners by James Joyce, primarily driven through the idea of Irish nationalism. During the early twentieth century, the Irish found themselves...

Having intended for Dubliners to be a tableau of the city and its people, both to themselves and to others, James Joyce connects his stories as the "stages of man." For, he has planned three...

Both Eveline and the young adolescent narrator of "Araby" come from lower middle class Dublin families. Both have little status within their family units. Both feel frustrated and suffocated by...

The conflict in this story is between the boys and society (or you might call it "the way the world works"). The boys want excitement and adventure, but they find that things that seem like they...

When I first read James Joyce's Dubliners, I found the short story "After the Race" to be the most difficult to understand. Indeed, I actually found it boring, initially. However, after reading it...

The Dead by James Joyce is from The Dubliners series of short stories, all of which reveal aspects of society or flaws of human nature. Gabriel considers himself to be a knowledgeable man, superior...

The presence of priests in many of the stories contained in James Joyce's Dubliners symbolizes the presence of Catholicism in the lives of the Irish, an often overbearing presence that stultifies...

Paralysis is a central theme of "Eveline." At the beginning of the story, the protagonist sits at home, observing and reminiscing, preparing to leave. Even as she thinks about her departure, she...

It is clear that the characters of Eveline and Polly in these two short stories are very different and are presented in contrasting ways by Joyce. Eveline is a character who feels burdened by her...

In his writings, Joyce is often extremely critical of the Catholic Church in Ireland, presenting its domination of Irish public life as chiefly responsible for the country's cultural and...

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, paralysis is "a state of powerlessness or incapacity to act." In the short story "An Encounter" from the collection Dubliners by James Joyce, the author...

One of the primary tenets of the modernist period was the belief among artists that their artwork, including literature, could create social change and cure social ills. In American literature,...

What attracts Eveline more than anything else is the prospect of escape from a life of drudgery, hardship and suffering. The powerful memory she has of how her mother lived her life and how she...

The most striking similarity between the stories is the stifling gender roles under which the women live in each. Eveline and Polly both live in households where women must do all that needs to be...

In “The Dead,” James Joyce explores the idea of the paralysis that afflicts Dublin through the story’s protagonist, Gabriel. At a Christmas party, Gabriel interacts with a number of guests. Each...

Jimmy in Joyce's "After the Race" from Dubliners is obsessed with being with and accepted by his European continental friends. He is the paralyzed Dubliner typical of the short story collection...

I do enjoy Joyce, but it's not an easy read. I enjoy a challenge though. As for depressing stories, they are entertaining- just not in the same way as happy ones. I can stand hardly anything...

The story makes it clear that Jimmy's father's prosperity has been something that has allowed Jimmy to receive a much higher standard of education than his background and class would have...

The fire in the story is generally taken to represent Irish nationalism, the urge for independence from England. The story is overtly political, based as it is on the canvass for an election, and...

The cinder path runs "before the new red houses...bright brick houses with shining roofs", while the concrete pavement lies before the drab "little brown houses" where Eveline...

In general, women bear the brunt of the cultural paralysis that is the main theme of Joyce's Dubliners. For the most part, the female characters in these stories lead stunted lives, intellectually...

In the opening story "The Sisters" from The Dubliners, you might find the answer to the question in the italicized words: gnomon, paralysis, and simony. These form the heart of what plagues the...

Counterparts is one of the stories in James Joyce's Dubliners' series. Farrington is in an unrewarding job and has no motivation to do well. He feels unfairly treated and his manager, Mr. Alleyne...

James Joyce's short story, "A Painful Case," relates Mr. Duffy's paralysis in his relationship with Mrs. Sinico and in his life generally. Before meeting Mrs. Sinico, he has a perfectly orderly...

While there is no specific story from Dubliners that is stated in the question, a safe assumption would be that the question refers to the first story. “The Sisters” establishes Joyce’s depressing...

One story in James Joyce’s Dubliners that contains both religion and paralysis is the first short story “The Sisters.” The presence of the brings issues of religion. The fact that the priest is...

This is a fun question. Right away, we can make two easy comparisons between Langston Hughes's "Pushcart Man" and James Joyce's Dubliners. With both, we are dealing with the short story form in the...

In "The Sisters," the narrator's friend, a priest, has died, no longer associated with the church (a tragedy in such a heavily Catholic country such as Ireland) and alone except for his...

In order to find a symbol that will connect the three stories about childhood in Dubliners, you will likely find it helpful to compare the themes of the stories first and then focus on the ways...

The narrator of the first story in Dubliners, "The Sisters", is a nameless main character who is also a young boy, perhaps an acolyte. His best friend is an elderly priest of the Catholic Church...

In a short story, the setting is a crucial element and, as it creates mood and circumstance, it can be as important as the theme. Short stories need to convey their message in a very short space of...

Please note that you are only allowed to ask one question at a time on Enotes. In your original question, you asked several. I've edited it to help you with Eveline's character. If you need further...

James Joyce’s short story “The Sisters” is the first from his collection called Dubliners. It is a story about a boy confronting the loss of his mentor, Father Flynn. Father Flynn suffered several...

One Joycean ending I will never forget is the empty depressed atmosphere at the close of 'The Dead' short story. Gabriel realizes that after all the diligent steady work he has put into his life,...