The title ‘The Sisters’ to me, has an important significance. First and most obviously ‘The Sisters’ signifies the two sisters, Nannie and Eliza, who have taken care of the priest during his illness and have helped to arrange the formalities of his passing. Secondly the main meaning I feel Joyce wanted to portray from the title is more significant and symbolic. The title may signify the relationship of insanity to death of that of the close relationship between sisters, where an intimate relationship arises between each (preoccupation with death may be a course of insanity).
Joyce’s attitudes and values are formed through both his use of language as well as symbolism. He works with his style of ‘scrupulous meanness’. Imagery tends to be a strong aspect Joyce portrays in ‘The Sisters’. For example, the paralysis of the priest is used by Joyce as an obvious parallel to the ‘moral paralysis’ he sees all over Dublin. Joyce conveys a reference of sterility in the mechanical rituals of religious observance.
The opening of ‘The Sisters’ emphasises Joyce’s attitudes and values, as the story opens with an image of a Dubliner gazing through a window and reflecting on a dilemma. ‘The Sisters’ is the first of three stories told in first person point of view. The narrator never divulges his name and rarely reinforces this sense of quiet, detached observations. Through this narrative technique I feel that Joyce suggests that even first hand experience is in some ways voyeuristic, and that it is possible for a person to observe his or her own life from the outside.
Joyce conveys many themes in ‘The Sisters’, for example, the theme of the intersection of life and death. I feel that the theme of life via death is central to the story. ‘The Sisters’ explores death and the process of remembering the dead, and the closest with the ‘dead’. Another central theme in the story is again paralysis. Joyce creates the character’s desires; males face obstacles till it then ultimately relents and suddenly stops all action. Theses moments of paralysis show the characters inability to change their lives. Another central theme portrayed in ‘The Sisters’ is betrayal. For example, the young boy feels lonely and deceived as Father Flynn passed away. Religion is another central aspect in ‘The Sisters’, for example references to the priest, religious beliefs and spiritual experiences. To me, Joyce portrays an unflattering portrait of religion. Father Flynn cannot keep a strong grip on the chalice and goes mad in a confessional box. Joyce marks religion’s first appearance as a haunting but dangerous event of Dublin life. By closely analyzing ‘The Sisters’ I have came across the theme of symbolism. Joyce represents ideas or concepts through symbolism, for example, windows in ‘Dubliners’ created meaning and imagery whilst reading the novel through the image of windows. Joyce evokes an anticipation of events or encounters what is about to happen, for example, the narrator in ‘The Sisters’ looks through a window each night, waiting for signs of Father Flynn’s death. This creates suspense for the young boy, as space is separating interior life from the exterior. Joyce also uses windows to mark domestic space to the outside world, and through them the characters observe their own lives as well as the lives of others.
In ‘The Sisters’ Joyce creates effect and meaning by having a young boy narrate. Joyce portrays the narrator as observant, sensitive and lonely, whom does not like being called a ‘child’, and he bares not to expose his feelings before adults (although his fascination with death is so strong, he doesn’t try to disguise it). The narrator is also portrayed as a protagonist. The young boy’s name is never mentioned, and we only see important stages in his growth throughout the story. Since the story is in first person, from the young boy’s viewpoint, Joyce delivers much about his characteristics and disposition. The narrator comes across as knowledgeable for his young age, since Father Flynn had taught him extensively about society, history, religion and literature. This knowledge is evident in his actions both to the reader and to the other characters in the story. It creates a sense of paralysis to me to have a young boy narrate; I am left paralysed in a sense because it is very unusual to have a male child hooked onto a male adult so strongly. Trying to understand his feelings leaves me wondering. In which this is exactly what Joyce wanted to do; leave us paralysed.
The narrator experiences a drastic change in this story, this passage displays this change and its cause; “But no- when we rose and went up to the head of the bed I saw that he was not smiling. There he lay, solemn and copious, vested as for the altar, his large hands loosely retaining a chalice”, most of the themes, symbolisms, and change in ‘The Sisters’ could be drawn from this passage. However at the end of the short story the boy feels liberated from the influence of ritual and religion. Joyce also conveys that the boy completes one stage in growing up, with the new awareness of the conflict and suffering of the priest.
However, Father Flynn was a ‘disappointed man’, Joyce shows this through paralysis. Theses movements of paralysis show Father Flynn’s inability to change his life and reverse the routines that hamper his wishes. Father Flynn is in a state of inaction and numbness. His stifling state appears as part of daily life in Dublin, which he has to ultimately acknowledge and accept. Although Father Flynn is a ‘disappointed man’ Joyce portrays an image of the priest as reflected in the boy’s eyes. To me he is clearly a loveable man. This is shown to me through the boy’s attachment to him, though he is repelled by his physical features. Though the sisters comments suggests father Flynn was a troubled man, he strives to teach the boy sincerely, even in his fatal illness. Yet, the final impression I get of Father Flynn is that of the symbol of paralysis and death. The talk of the sisters is reinforced by the sight of his dead face, which should have been ‘smiling’ but is instead ‘truculent’.
