Every story has a main character, which cannot see the reality of life. The citizens of Dublin depend solely on the eye for understanding in the world, but they do not see clearly, rather in a blurred way. When there is a connection of senses at the end of the story, sight is replaced by insight and inner vision and the character is able to understand really what has gone on. Dublin puts the curtain in front of the eyes of the inhabitants to form a paralysis, which prevents them from seeing what is actually going on, until the end of the story.
Aimless wandering often takes place in the novel Dubliners and this can be seen in Araby, where it either leads nowhere or to a blind end, as in North Richmond Street, which is blind for two reasons. People cannot see clearly due to the paralysis from Dublin, and it is also a cul-de-sac, and so a dead-end, which cannot go on any further.
In An Encounter, the boys try to escape the paralysis of school and encounter the paralysis imposed on them by Dublin. They run from school and they want happens: “School and home seemed to recede from us and their influences upon us seemed to wane.” However, they soon discover that Dublin cannot give them enjoyment, “We were serious to the point of solemnity… The day had grown sultry, and in the windows of the grocers’ shop musty biscuits lay bleaching. We bought some biscuits and chocolate, which we ate sedulously as we wandered through the squalid streets…. We both felt rather tired.” Dublin has an effect on the boys in terms of atmosphere and there is a definite change in pace in the story, as they discover that Dublin is not all that they had hoped for. Dublin is the one of the central causes of paralysis in Dubliners, as its dull atmosphere has such an effect on people.
Another core source of paralysis is through religion, which can easily be seen in the stories about childhood. In The Sisters, Joyce writes: “I felt annoyed at discovering in myself a sensation of freedom as if I had been freed from something by his death.” By educating the boy, and from the first page, it can be seen that he has been well educated, the priest gave the boy freedom, but he also inhibited him, as he had to visit him and be educated, but now this no longer shall happen. The priest was not able to work in the church in his later life and so he educated the boy, in order to make him into a priest himself, and then he could live his life through the boy. The priest’s death gives the boy freedom, as he, no longer, must live up to the priest’s expectations.
In An Encounter, the boys are subject to religious prejudice, as they are thought to be of the wrong religion: “The ragged troop screaming after us: Swaddlers! Swaddlers thinking we were Protestants because Mahoney, who was dark-complexioned, wore the silver badge of a cricket club in his cap.” This diminishes the enjoyment of the day slightly, simply due to the fact that they were thought to be the incorrect religion.
In Araby the boy is in love with Mangan’s sister, and this is also paralysis through a religion, but in a different way: “I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes.” The boy actually worships the girl and it is through this “religion” that he has his downfall and becomes obsessive and therefore adrift from the real world.
Childhood is also a major inhibiting factor, which is a cause of paralysis. The first three stories in the novel are all on younger life, and so paralysis can be seen through a number of the different forms, but mainly through the fact that the main characters are children. School is one of the main problems in childhood and this is shown in An Encounter, when boys try to escape the tedium of school. This is done in the story in two ways, the first is through literature: “The adventures related in the literature of the Wild West were remote from my nature but, at least, they opened doors of escape.” Also through literal escape, when two of the boys do not go to school for a day, in order to spend the day in Dublin and away from school.
An example of the tedium of school is shown through the account of Father Butler discovering Leo Dillon’s book: “Everyone’s heart palpitated as Leo Dillon handed up the paper and everyone assumed an innocent face. Father Butler turned over the pages frowning. ‘What is this rubbish?’ he said ‘The Apache Chief. Is this what you read instead of studying your Roman history? Let me not find any more of this wretched stuff in this college. The man who wrote it, I suppose, was some wretched scribbler that writes these things for drink. I’m surprised at boys like you, educated, reading such stuff. I could understand it if you were…National School boys.” It is extremely strict, as is any Jesuit school, and, understandably, the boys do not appreciate this and want escape. The master is unsympathetic and does not even try to enter imaginatively into what they are doing. It is not surprising that the boys are tired of the weariness of school-life and want to break out, even just for one day. Even on their day out they are still afraid of school: “Leo Dillon was afraid we might meet Father Butler or someone out of college.” It is a major force on their lives and therefore for a great source of paralysis.
For the children in the book, the home is also a source of paralysis. Whatever they do, they cannot fully escape. “We had to be home before four o’clock lest our adventure should be discovered.” Reality strikes them, as they realise they cannot always escape, as they are prisoners of time.
In Araby another inhibiting factor affects the boy, this is adolescent love, of a kind, which he will never succeed in but he cannot help himself. “Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door…I kept her brown figure always in my eye… I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes.” The boy is clearly obsessed with Mangan’s sister, and even worships her. “All my senses seemed to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: ‘O love! O love!’ many times.” He knows that his love is unlikely to be unrequited, but he still is obsessed with her and thinks of her the whole time: “Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance.” It is this fixation that causes him to go to the bazaar and eventually to realise that what he has been doing in his life has been stupid, as there is no way that she would ever respond to his passion in a good way.
An especially significant source of paralysis, especially in the childhood stories is through the older generation. All of the childhood stories include accounts of where the older generation have restrained the younger in their progress through life.
“He began to puff at his pipe, no doubt arranging his opinion in his mind. Tiresome old fool! When we knew him first he used to be rather interesting, talking of faints and worms; but I soon grew tired of him and his endless stories about the distillery.” As described in The Sisters, the boy feels alienated because of the generation gap, and Old Cotter is a typical member of the older generation, which are characteristic of Dublin’s paralysis. “Why, when I was a nipper every morning of my life I had a cold bath, winter and summer.” The older generation always want the children to live in the past, as they do and not look to the future. “The old chap taught him a great deal, mind you; and they say he had a great wish for him.” The boy has to do as he is told and follow what he is instructed for him, this is a restriction on him and therefore a source of paralysis through the older generation. “Tiresome old red-nosed imbecile!” The boy wants to live his life the way he wants, and not have Old Cotter wittering on to his aunt and uncle, as to how he should really be living his life. The boy’s uncle is also a source of paralysis, as he wanted him to enter the priesthood, as did the priest, as it was a great honour then, however, the aunt was more genial and genuine: “ ‘God have mercy on his soul,’ said my aunt piously.”
In An Encounter, the paralysis through the older generation is through the schoolmaster and the paedophile, who they come across on their day out. The boys try to escape the tedium of school through literature, but the schoolmaster catches them and tries to stop them, and so they try to escape by going truant for a day. However, the meeting with the paedophile ruins this: “There was nothing he liked, he said, so much as looking at a nice young girl, at her nice white hands and her beautiful soft hair…He said that when boys were that kind they ought to be whipped and well whipped…A slap on the hand or a box on the air was no good: what he wanted was to get a nice warm whipping…He described to me how he would whip such a boy as if he were unfolding some elaborate mystery. He would love that he said, better than anything in this world; and his voice, as he led me monotonously through the mystery, grew almost affectionate and seemed to plead with me that I should understand him.” The meeting up with this man, destroys the day, as it is not a pleasant thought for him, and he is understand himself more, but in a bad way. The responsibility is placed on the boy, which causes an inappropriate seriousness on him, which he should not need to encounter at his age.
The uncle is the key source of paralysis from the older generation in Araby, as he prevents the boy from getting to the bazaar in time, to see it in all its glory, which would probably mean that he would still be a happy boy, and yet obsessed with Mangan’s sister. “At nine o’clock I heard my uncle’s latchkey in the halldoor. I heard him talking to himself and heard the hallstand rocking when it had received the weight of his overcoat. I could interpret these signs. When he was midway through his dinner I asked him to give me the money to go to the bazaar. He had forgotten.” The uncle is drunk and has had his pleasure, but he has no interest in the boy, and has forgotten all about him. The Aunt feels a bit sorry for him, and in this way, is more caring and like the aunt in The Sisters: “Can’t you give him the money and let him go? You’ve kept him late enough as it is.” However, the uncle is a main source of the paralysis, as it is his entire fault that the day has become such a disaster.
Literal paralysis can be seen in some people through illness, for example the paedophile is mentally ill, as is shown by his sick and perverted pleasures. The priest in The Sisters, is also mentally, and also physically, ill and therefore “paralysed”: “Even as he raised his large trembling hand to his nose little clouds of smoke dribbled through his fingers over the front of his coat…When he smiled he used to uncover his big discoloured teeth and let his tongue lie upon his lower lip - a habit which had made me feel uneasy in the beginning of our acquaintance before I knew him well…‘That affected his mind’ she said. ‘After that he began to mope by himself, talking to no-one and wandering about by himself.’” The priest is not quite in total control of himself, as with the paedophile, who also needs a walking stick. Both these characters are both physically and mentally handicapped and so are “paralysed.”
Paralysis is something that certain characters do not like unsurprisingly and so the need to escape is another major theme in Dubliners. In The Sisters, the boy tries to escape the tedium of life at home with his Aunt and Uncle, by dreaming of foreign and exotic lands, such as Persia: “As I walked along in the sun I remembered old Cotter’s words and tried to remember what had happened afterwards in the dream. I remembered that I had noticed long velvet curtains and a swinging lamp of antique fashion. I felt that I had been very far away, in some land where the customs were strange.”“Araby” the title of one of the short stories, represents Arabia, which is another exotic land and is a form of escape for the boy, where he can connect with his “love.” The Wild West is the land of escapism for the boys at the school in An Encounter, where they can live off heroes in another world. Dublin is also a place of escapism in An Encounter, where they try to escape the restrictions of school.
The priest, in The Sisters, tries to escape in a different way, as he tries to escape the limitations of the church, by living his life through the boy. However, all these characters try to escape the paralysis through life and literature, but it always ends in frustration.
Every one of the stories in Dubliners has many forms of paralysis, which have a crippling effect on life. In The Sisters, paralysis affects both the boy and the priest, who is not only affected by literal mental and physical paralysis, but also by the paralysis from the limitations of the church. The priest, who in a way also thrust him forward with education, held the boy back, but he also suffers paralysis through the older generation, from Old Cotter, his father and the priest, who impose expectations on him.
The boys in An Encounter, suffer from many forms of paralysis. The school imposes limitations on them, and it is this that they are mainly trying to escape from. The older generation, linked to the school through the master, but also through the paedophile are a major source of paralysis, as in all the stories. The paedophile, is also a victim of paralysis, through, as with the priest in The Sisters, both literal physical and mental paralysis. Time is also a force holding the boys back, as shown when they realise that they must get back home before four o’clock. Their escape from the tedium and paralysis of school is a serious failure as they encounter many other forms of paralysis, which are just as depressing, especially Dublin, which deteriorates the atmosphere dramatically.
The citizens of Dublin depend solely in the eye for comprehension and understanding of the real world. However, they do not see clearly but rather in a blurred way, upon the connection of two senses, usually the sight and hearing, the characters are able to fully comprehend the reality. As is shown clearly in Araby: “My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom.” The tears are a literal showing of the fact that he cannot see clearly, until the boy hears the conversation between the people at the bazaar: “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” Hearing this conversation, brings forth his moment of discovery and awareness and realises that the aimlessness of his hopes. As the lights go out his sight is replaced by insight and inner vision and he finally realises that his previous world was an innocent vision and illusory.
Paralysis in Dubliners is a metaphor for the doomed and self-defeating life in Dublin and it is a very affective force upon the lives of the children in the first three stories. Some stories focus on some forms of paralysis rather than others, but the recurring main source of paralysis is from Dublin, the city itself. All three stories end with a greater self-awareness within the boys involved, who learn to take on the guilt of the world. James Joyce intended to write a chapter displaying Dublin, as a centre of paralysis and he did this by using a number of sources of paralysis and showing them in different contexts.
