Of Being Trapped: Male and Female Paralysis in Dubliners

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Williamson

Nikkita Williamson

ENGL 4510

Dr. T. Thompson

27 March 2012

Of Being Trapped: Male and Female Paralysis in Dubliners

        A pattern that tends to emerge in each of the stories contained within Dubliners by James Joyce is characters that are paralyzed. Joyce himself would write in a letter to Grant Richards that "[m]y intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the center of paralysis" (Myers 4). Dubliners, contains twelve seemingly independent stories that each deal with the theme of paralysis brought on by love. This theme is both obviously stated and subtly hinted at in the various stories. There is a difference though in the cases of paralysis brought on by love. Only four of the cases concern a major female while the rest have to deal with a major or minor male character. This could be explained by saying that Joyce had a majority of male leads because he himself was obviously male and thus he could write the character better. Evidence to the contrary though comes from the stories about the major females themselves in which Joyce had written the ladies just as well as the men. Now, it's not just the ratio of male to female stories being the main difference, there is also a difference in how Joyce represents the genders in the love-based paralysis. This secondary difference brings to light what Marilyn French discusses in her book Shakespeare's Division of Experience, “[t]he basic distinction in human social order since the beginning of recorded history has been gender" (11). Paralysis, in all of the stories, presents a great difference in how the love-based paralysis in a woman is presented from how it is presented in a man. The male form of paralysis is shown more as a stepping stone in life. The men eventually gain some knowledge from their affliction instead of being defeated by it. However, the women’s afflictions are show as something final. There is no hint of a learning experience nor is there character growth to be had in their respective stories. They become paralyzed in every sense of the word. It is the difference of these types of paralysis between male and female that shows the kind of constricting role that women held in Joyce’s portrayal of Dublin.

        There is a case of love-based paralysis that is illustrated in the story titled "Araby". The basics of which is a story about a young boy and his every growing obsession with his friend’s sister. His whole life basically becomes focused on all his thoughts about her and the more constant thought of when he would be able to see her again despite never really having a true conversation with the girl as evident by his remark that, "I had never spoken to her except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood" (Joyce 40). He allows his life to be ruled by his obsession and on the fateful day that she finally speaks to him, he is beyond astonished: "When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer" (41). She asks whether he is going to make the trip to the titular bazaar and requests that if he is going that he would bring her something back since she is unable to go herself. It is here that the boy's obsession grows worse once he receives a request from the object of his longing as stated here: "I could not call my wandering thoughts together. I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life, which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play, ugly monotonous child's play" (43). This fixation on the idol of all his unfulfilled affections completely rules his young life and now he has the hope to break into the adult world in order to finally have this girl consider him seriously. The bazaar presents itself as the perfect chance for the boy to prove how deeply his admiration for the girl runs. It is also a perfect time in which he can take himself from a fantasy realm to one of reality in which he gets the girl. He begins to cultivate this belief that somehow by going to Araby; it will begin a sort of metamorphosis from what he is now to someone that the girl will desire. He starts believing so strongly in this metamorphosis that he starts to focus his whole being into doing each step perfectly in order for this to go right. It is when the night of the bazaar arrives, however, that the boy encounters his first setback. His uncle was supposed to come home and give him money so he could go on his journey but the man is out drinking. He comes home late as a result and the boy ends up being extremely late for the bazaar. Because of this unforeseen tardiness, there are just a handful of stalls open when he finally arrives at Araby. He tries to do what he can however and browses the wares available to him but nothing really catches his eye because he becomes too caught up in what he believes to be his failure. Here the lights drop, acting as a rather abrupt symbol of the boy finally entering adulthood and leaving behind his fantasies.

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        The events before this abrupt ending are where the theme of love-based paralysis comes through. When he is caught in his imaginary failures, he becomes paralyzed even though this paralysis is not necessarily his own fault. The boy did everything in his power in order to achieve his new dream. The problem came from an outside source where there are things beyond the boy's power that are controlling the events unfolding around him that fateful night. His Uncle causes him to be late by not coming home and this begins to make the boy feel as if he is trapped. His ...

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