Critical Analysis of "A Mother" in Dubliners

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Critical Analysis of “A Mother” in Dubliners

        In the short story, “A Mother”, James Joyce highlights four different aspects: Theme, Style, Language used, and the Characteristics of the Characters.

        There are five different themes highlighted in the story. The first one is Paralysis, which is the central theme for all the stories in “Dubliners”. In this story, paralysis is shown with the story’s main character, Mrs. Kearney, who is constantly relying and depending on her daughter, providing her with a very good education and making her follow a career in music. Paralysis could also be seen with Kathleen Kearney, who was forced by her mother to follow a musical career, and the way some people eventually say that she has no future in music whatsoever.

The second theme, marriage, deals with the way it is portrayed in a negative way. Mrs. Kearney got married “out of spite”, and there isn’t much romance in the relationship between her and her husband, although this doesn’t suggest that she has completely given up her romantic ideas. We also see the portrayal of husbands and wives, or family life in general, in a negative way.

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The third theme is class distinction. This is to do with how Mrs. Kearney keeps on bragging to her friends that her husband is taking her and her daughter to Skerries and they spend their money on Kathleen’s education and music lessons, to help prepare her for the concerts. Another aspect that highlights this theme s Ms. Kearny’s use of language, which is that of an upper class, and this shows that she received an education that was as good as her daughter’s.

The fourth theme is culture and religion. Certain aspects of culture are highlighted when we are told ...

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