Dubliners is essentially a collection of tales depicting trapped characters, thwarted ambitions and wasted opportunities.

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“Dubliners” is essentially a collection of tales depicting trapped characters, thwarted ambitions and wasted opportunities.

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was a writer and a poet, born on February 2nd 1882. He is widely considered as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. James lived in Dublin and was the eldest of a family of ten. James’ father and mother were devoted Irish Catholics. His father, John was known for spending large sums of money and drinking a lot of alcohol. This made it difficult for the Joyce family to retain social standings. James expressed his difficult childhood in his writing. E.g. In the story of Eveline, Eveline has to deal with a drunken father and living on little income. James went to Clongowes School in 1888, which was a Jesuit institution. He then went on to Belvedere College where he decided to enter the priesthood, which pleased his religious parents. After getting in contact with members of the “Irish Literary Renaissance”, he became bored with the idea. Soon he became critical of Ireland and its religion. In 1902, Joyce decided to leave Ireland and pursue a medical career in France. Joyce did not return to Ireland until the death of his mother. James then took up residence in Paris, where he began to write. In 1905, Joyce produced his first book, “Dubliners”, but it was not published until 1913. During this time, he met an Irish woman called Nora Barnacle. They did not marry, but had two children. All in all Joyce wrote a total of four books, “A portrait of an Artist as a Young Man”, “Ulysses”, “Finnegan’s Wake” and of course “Dubliners”. James Joyce died from a stomach ulcer aged 58 in 1941. After Joyce’s death, people became interested in his work. Even today, “Ulysses” stands as the distinctive text of the Anglo-American modernist movement marking Joyce’s creative genius and premier abilities as a stylist of the English language.

        I think that the statement “Dubliners is essentially a collection of tales depicting trapped characters, thwarted ambitions and wasted opportunities” is accurate, but I also think that there is a lot more that contributes to make up Dubliners. There are eight main themes in this novel. The first and foremost theme is the stages of life. Joyce writes the eight tales that make up Dubliners in order of age. He begins with younger characters and continues with tales based on gradually older protagonists. The next theme involves poverty and class difference. The author sees mostly only the negative part of Dublin and its people. A lot of the characters in the tales are lower or middle class. Another theme is alcoholism. Joyce merges alcoholism with thwarted ambitions. Irish politics and colonisation is a recurring topic. “Ivy in the Committee Room” is a tale in Dubliners that is nearly completely committed to this theme. The fourth theme is longing for escape (or trapped characters). The author was obsessed with the liberating feeling of fleeing Ireland and he applies this obsession to many of the characters in Dubliners. Another subject is defeat, imprisonment and paralysis. Due to Dublin’s defeated status, Joyce makes it clear that many of the characters feel trapped and are not able to leave Ireland. This theme is closely related to Isolation. Many characters are lonely and a lot of miscommunication occurs. Death or Mortality is the final theme in Dubliners. It is a natural theme of Joyce’s life structure. All eight of Joyce’s tales that make up the novel are packed full of these themes. I have chosen to analyse An Encounter, Araby, Eveline and The Dead.

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An Encounter is about two young boys who long for escape from school life. They play hooky and wonder around some of Dublin’s poorer areas, finally across a very strange man, who my have some dark intensions. One of the main themes this tale is longing to escape. The boys play cowboys and Indians that is a symbol that they want to leave the tiny world of Dublin. The story starts with talk about the American frontier, which is a symbol for freedom and adventure. The boys walk around the poorer areas of Dublin, which addresses poverty. The main ...

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