Original Writing - Prose: Commentary on my creative writing piece focusing on The Dubliners

Tahsin Sabir Commentary After completing my story, I thought I would say how the story that I had written related to the story 'The Dubliners'. The story that I wrote, I related to the theme of paralysis and the risk of death, a vision of the future and also a little about money, which is used in The Dubliners. I chose this viewpoint on the story as I thought it would relate well to the background I was using. Especially the theme of death would work well, as death is a very common situation so it helped when I dramatised the theme. Also I decided to use the times of today, as I thought it would be more easier to relate to 'The Dubliners' using a situation in a lower/ middle class background, but using a cultural difference. I also decided to use third person narrative, as I thought it would be clearer in third person. I did try to use first person, but I had a bit of difficulty in putting a point across, so I decided to use third person, as I found it much more flowing to do. I decided to start off with a line, which explained the background so the story would be easier to understand, as I used a different culture. If I had gone straight into a story, the story may have been hard to understand. I included a little introduction to the character and the backgrounds, so the reader would notice what culture I was trying to show and how I was trying to relate it to The

  • Word count: 909
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Commentary on The Boarding House.

Commentary on The Boarding House The Boarding House is one of the short stories out of James Joyce's collection of Dubliners. In the work, Mrs. Mooney is a wife of an abusive butcher. Experiencing a unsuccessful marriage, she directs her attention to the boarding house and keeps a close eye on the men interacting with Polly, her daughter and keep her away form inferior men. She allows intimacy to develop between Polly and Mr. Doran. She then accused him of "taking advantage of Polly's youth and inexperience" and demands reparation. Mt Doran's fear of a sullied reputation forces him to accept the marriage. The three principal characters in The Boarding House are all constrained by social conventions. They all lack the power to govern their own lives. Mrs. Mooney marries a drunken husband who "fights with her in the presence of customers" (pg.53) and ruins the business "by buying bad meat." (pg.53) In face of such tormenting marriage, she is motivated by the instincts for survival to earn a living by the boarding house to support herself and her children. Her ultimate goal is to avert her daughter, Polly, ending up an old maid like her but to "get her daughter off her hands" (pg.56) and confirm that her daughter is provided with financial security. It is the concept of materialism existed in Dublin which further heightens class distinction. Mrs. Mooney set criterion for

  • Word count: 830
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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James's Joyce's 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'.

In James's Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man the portrait is of Stephen Dedalus. He, the protagonist, narrates the novel and through his eyes we see his development from a shy, almost curious boy to a rebellious and independent young man. Stephen seeks a way out of his restraints. In Stephen's case, these are family, country and religion. Joyce uses symbolism as well as language and imagery to show Stephen's development. In a sense, Portrait of the Artist is a search for identity. Chapter One contains several first-times for young Stephen Dedalus: he sits at the adult table, he interacts with peers in a new place (Clongowes), he is punished, he seeks justice, and his peers publicly recognize him. Most importantly, Stephen must work out his own problems and finds the courage to do so. In effect, he is hailed as a hero by his peers. When he wins social acceptance by his schoolmates at Clongowes, he does so by acting in isolation, "They made a cradle of their locked hands and hoisted him up among them and carried him along till he struggled to get free." When he reports Father Dolan to the rector, he defends his name, the symbol of his identity, "It was wrong; it was unfair and cruel: and, as he sat in the refectory, he suffered time after time in memory the same humiliation until he began to wonder whether it might not really be that there was something in

  • Word count: 844
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Analyse the main themes and narrative devices introduced in The Sister

Analyse the main themes and narrative devices introduced in 'The Sisters' There are many themes and narrative devices introduced in the short story 'The Sisters' from the collection 'Dubliners' by James Joyce. Themes include the moribund nature and the simony of the Dublin Catholic Church of the time, Home Rule and contemptus mundi. Some narrative devices which Joyce uses are epiphany and ellipsis. Firstly, there is the major theme of the decline and ultimately moribund nature of the Catholic Church at the time. This is first seen in the first section of the novella through the image of the dead priest. The first line itself is symbolic of the religious demise in Dublin. 'There was no hope for him' mirrors the lack of hope for the Catholic Church in Dublin. Also, the nature of his death ('it was the third stroke') is an allusion to the trinity showing how a spiritual symbol in this city is a cause of death. Also, the date on which he died is significant; July 1st is the Feast of the Most Blessed Blood, a Catholic Feast day commemorating Jesus' sacrifice of his own blood for our sins. This is ironic because it emerges later on in the novella that Father Flynn's most serious transgression is spilling a holy chalice ('it was the chalice he broke'), presumably containing either transubstantiated wine or Eucharistic wine in any case. The former would have especially have been

  • Word count: 1728
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Explore Joyce’s treatment of Epiphanies in some of the stories you have studied.

English - James Joyce Explore Joyce's treatment of Epiphanies in some of the stories you have studied. In literally every of story of Joyce studied so far we could discover one or more epiphanies. This term is generally used as a description of any sudden moments of understanding or sense of revelation. Joyce himself once described them as "sudden spiritual manifestations", whether in the vulgarity of speech or gesture or in a memorable phase of the mind itself. I will try to fathom these epiphanies and Joyce's use of them in the following. The story I am going to start with is "An Encounter", which happens to be at an early stage of Joyce's chronological order in Dubliners - childhood. It mainly deals with a bunch of younger school boys, who live a rather sheltered childhood in catholic Dublin, reading stories about the Wild West, playing Indian fights, and having parents who go to "eight-o'clock mass every morning". Inspired by the stories read in their Wild West booklets, Leo Dillon, Mahony and the narrator decide to have their own little adventure and plan a day out of school, playing truant and going to see the so called Pigeon House at the other end of Dublin. However, in the next morning they are starting their journey without Leo Dillon. Mahony freely comments: "Come along. I knew Fatty'd funk it". When the two boys, after a long voyage, still haven't arrived at

  • Word count: 1503
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast Joyce's 'Araby' and 'Eveline'. Comment on the writer's effectiveness.

Compare and contrast Joyce's 'Araby' and 'Eveline'. Comment on the writer's effectiveness. Joyce, James was born on February 2, 1882 in Rathgar, a suburb of Dublin. The oldest of 10 children, his family moved to different part of Ireland during his upbringing. In 1898, he began to attend University College, Dublin, and four years later he moved to Paris. He returned to Dublin in 1903 because of his mother's illness, and around this time he met Nora Barnacle, his lifelong companion. The North Richmond Street's, houses and schools were founded by Edmund Rice in 1828 and the foundation stone was laid by Daniel O'Connell. Joyce struggles to make a home in the cold, gloomy rooms of this house, which he portrays in "Araby". Joyce describes the claustrophobic atmosphere of this street vividly in "Araby", a story from Dubliners Joyce's 'Eveline' is a story about a young woman who was unhappy with her life so decides to run off with a man whom she plans to marry. The plot of the story is a quest-like search for the love she doesn't feel with her father. The writer spreads this throughout the story, showing the depth of Eveline's character and her problems that come mainly from her father and all that arise from their relationship. The best moment in 'Eveline' only comes after the long flashbacks into Eveline's life end, where the time finally comes for her to leave her past life

  • Word count: 2151
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast the stories of "Eveline" By James Joyce and "Samphire" by Patrick O'Brian.

Will Miller 19th September 2001 Compare and contrast the stories of "Eveline" By James Joyce and "Samphire" by Patrick O'Brian Both of these stories tell of women wanting to break away from dominating male influences in their lives. Eveline is fed up of working at home and of looking after her father where as Molly wants a life away from Lacy. But at the end of each story, neither woman is nearer to her goal of a new life. The start of "Eveline" is very descriptive and gives the reader the impression of her life so far. Although Eveline works around the house, "in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne". "She was tired" and these three words set the tone of the story for the reader. In contrast, "Samphire" opens with the uplifting white cliffs and the vicious sea. "The wind ... brought the salt tang of the spray on their lips". This opening is also very descriptive but in a different way to "Eveline" - the sheer power of nature and the quiet and simple home. But both of these openings are effective in setting the scene for the story. Eveline lives at home with her father as "her brothers and sisters were all grown up, her mother was dead." This last fact obviously had a huge effect on Eveline and her father, possibly making her father become violent, "she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father's violence". And now Eveline wants "to go away like

  • Word count: 945
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Dubliners: Choose one story from the collection and discuss how Joyce depicts relationships between people of different generations.

Ruth Norris Dubliners: Choose one story from the collection and discuss how Joyce depicts relationships between people of different generations. In your answer you should: * Explain your own view of the treatment of the young by old people; * Look closely at the effects of Joyce's narrative methods and language; * Comment on how the story relates to the concerns and methods of the novel as a whole. In Eveline Joyce portrays two generations, namely Eveline and her parents. Unlike the narrators in the previous stories, Eveline is an adult but the entrapment of the narrators remains constant with her. The main treatment of the young is of Eveline by her father. Her father, an alcoholic, abuses his daughter, "Even now, though she was nineteen, she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father's violence. She knew it was that that had given her palpitations." He makes her work but takes away her wages to throw away on drink, saying that she would "squander" the money, having "no head". He is ungrateful for the hard work she does and ridicules her. Like Dublin, her father is stifling and oppressive and while she is with him she can never be happy or prosper. Also her work colleagues treat her unfairly, another example of the mistreatment of the young by their elders. On wondering what they will think to her moving away, she says they would "say she was a fool, perhaps; and

  • Word count: 1016
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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The Flood Tribunal

The Flood Tribunal A Tale of Three Witnesses by Vivienne Traynor . Liam Lawlor The revelations by spin-doctor Frank Dunlop were the real turning point for the Flood Tribunal in 2000. Initially, Mr Dunlop handled the tribunal's question with ease, but after a grilling by the Tribunal Chairman, when he threatened Mr Dunlop with the possibility of a spell in prison, he appeared to crack. In a memorable day for Tribunal stalwarts and the watching public, the political lobbyist finally appeared to crack. In April, after two and a half years of legal sparring, the tribunal finally discovered something people had long suspected. Mr Dunlop admitted that certain politicians were taking cash for votes on rezoning. He wrote the names of 15 politicians, who had taken sums ranging from £500 to £40,000, and he made particular mention to a very powerful, Mr Big. The journalists were ecstatic and Frank McDonald, the Irish Times Environment Correspondent, brought in clippings, which referred to politicians pocketing brown paper bags back in the early 90s. Liam Lawlor immediately denied that he was the "Mr Big" who pocketed the most from Dunlop's generous sponsors, but this didn't stop Fianna Fail from launching an investigation into Mr Lawlor. After a lengthy grilling by party colleagues, Liam Lawlor ended up leaving the party. (Fine Gael also launched a set of internal inquiries

  • Word count: 1768
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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What impression of Dublin and its people does James Joyce give in him story 'Araby'

What impression of Dublin and its people does James Joyce give in his story 'Araby'? James Augustine Alrysius Joyce, an Irish writer, was born in Dublin 2nd February 1882 and died in Zurich, Switzerland 13th January 1941. He was born into a well-off Catholic family and was the eldest surviving child; two of his siblings died of typhoid. Joyce was originally educated at Clongowes Wood College, a boarding school in County Kildare, which he left at the age of 6 because his father could no longer pay the fees. James Joyce studied at home for a brief period of time before being offered a place in the Jesuits' Dublin School. At the age of 16 he rejected Catholicism which changed his life completely. At the age of 20, after graduating from the UDC (University College Dublin) he left for Paris and tried studying different occupations like teaching, journalism and even a doctor. At the age of 21 he returned to Ireland after receiving news that his mother was diagnosed with cancer. After she had died James Joyce became a heavy drinker but gradually stopped as he got over her death. He then stayed in Dublin for a period of time from 1904-1907 writing the "Dubliners" and also started many other books. The book "Dubliners" is a collection of short stories and "Araby", like all of them, have "paralysis" meaning that they can't leave Dublin. For example in the short story "Clay" Maria has

  • Word count: 1788
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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