Dubliners - ‘Nothing is unnecessary, and nothing is spelled out; we are expected to supply the missing pieces ourselves.’

Dubliners 'Nothing is unnecessary, and nothing is spelled out; we are expected to supply the missing pieces ourselves.' This refers to the style of the short stories in Dubliners. Each of the fifteen stories are written in this way. The first few stories refer to the specific theme of childhood, and they are all narrated by children. The fact that 'nothing is unnecessary' means that all of the information in the story is relevant. In the short stories the entire plot is not laid out on a plate. There are certain things that you have to work out for yourself. In the first story 'The Sisters' there is a hint that the priest is a distorted figure. 'I wouldn't like children of mine to have too much to say to a man like that'. Here Old Cotter a friend of the boy's uncle gives his opinion of the priest. In this it has overtones of a warning as if the priest is a paedophile. Here the reader is expected to 'supply the missing pieces.' In the short story not everything is instantly apparent. They require the reader to interpret for themselves what is going on. In the first story a priest dies instead of focusing on the detail of how he died Joyce only talks of the priests 'third stroke.' The short stories don't have an ending as such that corresponds with the rest of the story, this also leaves the reader in suspense 'So then, of course, when they saw that, that made them think

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Discuss the portrayal of desire and disappointment by James Joyce in the Dubliners.

The Dubliners Discuss the portrayal of desire and disappointment by James Joyce in the Dubliners. James Joyce wrote Dubliners in 1905. Joyce was trying to express Dublin as he experienced it. He was bringing his own insight to each of the stories. Portraying Dublin in a true light as a "special odour of corruption." His intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of his life, expressing Dublin as a "centre of paralysis." From looking at the book Dubliners, we see how Joyce creates this sense of paralysis by studying two short stories; Araby and Eveline. In the opening paragraph of Araby it sets the tone for the rest of the story. Joyce wants to make the boy life look repressive, shut-in and joyless. Joyce describes objects with colour relating to decaying, as he uses colours like brown and yellow. He uses lots of description in "blindness" and "isolation", creating an atmosphere of death, decay and silence. Contrasting with the title of the story "Araby", this conjures up the vision of eastern promise. The books in the second paragraph have a great significance for the boy. The books provide an escape for the boy. "The Abbott" is a historical romance, which could relate and reflect his own feelings for the girl across the street. Also the fact that the priest died in the back room. Indicating that Joyce maybe felt that religion was dead or dying. He found that

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"Two Gallants" by James Joyce - a critical analysis.

Two Gallants: critical analysis (of passage) Two Gallants is a story where Joyce moves way from the gentle satire of the previous two stories and attempts a more political message, albeit at the expense of the large symbolic structures present in the later stories. Involving three characters, it would be inaccurate to claim they each represented a particular entity only; rather, Joyce blurs his symbols emphasizing the manner in which he has trouble perceiving reality (a theme explored more fully in Clay). Yet what exactly is Joyce's purpose for writing this story? Ireland's political and moral weaknesses are explored and criticized, but looking closely at the character of Lenehan, I feel that Joyce is showing a rare moment of sympathy for paralysed Dubliners, portraying them as racked with pain, despite their sycophantic ways and moral flaws. Lenehan's circular journey is hinted at in the opening sentence of the story: the "mild warm air ... circulated in the streets," and as well as being a comment on the stagnancy of Dubliners' lives, its location at the beginning suggests that Lenehan's search is preordained, and is ultimately futile. The passage that I will be examining focuses on Lenehan's journey, which also acts as a deconstruction of traditional Romantic ideals. We are told he walked "listlessly" and the constant search for meaning has clearly left him exhausted and,

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"These stories are all about escape and how characters are unable to escape." In the light of this quotation, I am going to discuss Dubliners, with close detailed reference to two of the stories, "Eveline" and "The Boarding House."

Sachin Shah 5S2 GCSE: English and English Literature Coursework Dubliners "These stories are all about escape and how characters are unable to escape." In the light of this quotation, I am going to discuss Dubliners, with close detailed reference to two of the stories, "Eveline" and "The Boarding House." There are many similarities between these two stories, as well as contrasts. In "Eveline," her father is a drunkard and is also the head of the house, whereas in "The Boarding House," Polly's father, "was a shabby stooped little drunkard" who lives separated from his family. Polly's father has been cut-off from her life, and Eveline's mother is dead. The similarity here, is that each child has had one of their parent's cut off from a period of their life. Eveline wants to escape to Buenos Aires, to get away from her poverty in Dublin. Mr Doran wants to escape from the prospect of marriage. This brings us to one of the main points of the book, the characters inability to escape. Eveline has been given the chance to escape from her life, where "she had to work hard both in the house and at business." Poor Eveline, however, finds that she is unable to move forward. She lacks the courage and strength to make that leap that will free her of her oppressive situation. . She's sees her lover as a possible source of danger: "All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He

  • Word count: 1246
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Discuss the portrayal of desire and disappointment by James Joyce in the Dubliners

Dubliners Essay - Discuss the portrayal of desire and disappointment by James Joyce in the Dubliners. Joyce said that in "Dubliners" his intention was "to write a chapter in the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because the city seemed to me the centre of paralysis; The fifteen stories which make up the collection are studies on the decay of lower middle-class urban life and the paralysis to which Joyce refers to is both intellectual and moral. The characters who appear in the stories lead uneventful and frustrated lives, which are described through carefully chosen details. In the actual stories the characters portray a sense of desire that is almost certainly followed by disappointment. In Araby we see a boy who becomes infatuated with a local girl from his neighbourhood. Joyce describes her firstly with great detail and with great beauty and emphasizes this with the use of light "her figured defined by the light". The boy becomes obsessed with her and spends all of his time watching her or waiting for her. One day she asks him to go to the bazaar and get her gift, with his infatuation with her in mind and the sense of adventure his desire took over and he accepted. The title, "Araby," also suggests escape. To the nineteenth-century European mind, the lands of North Africa and the Middle East symbolized "decadence, exotic delights, escapism, and

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Analysis of Eveline

Analysis of Eveline James Joyce's "Eveline", one of the short stories in "The Dubliners" , is a tale based upon the friction which can exist between familial and romantic love , the conflicts between the opposite choices of perpetuating the status quo versus initiating irreversible change , and the agonies that are experienced when pivotal decisions have to be made and powerful but divergent emotions inevitably collide. The plot is not complex. The story opens - we see a young woman who is agonising over a vital life choice. She is bored and overworked , victimised and threatened by her aggressive and occasionally drunken father yet she has been offered the chance of salvation from these circumstances by a potential lover who would transport her far away perhaps never to return. Her decision as to whether to take this chance causes her much distress as she wrestles with the arguments for both staying and going. In the end she decides to stay , perhaps no less anguished , perhaps in the future to regret what might have been ; we are not told - the story closes. Such has been the basic theme , with of course some variations , for countless stories , anecdotes , legends , dramas , novels (ancient and modern) , and even fairy tales. Twist the ending and we have the story of "Cinderella" ; modify the father to a crippled husband and we have the basis for "Lady Chatterley's

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

What impression of Dublin and its people does James Joyce give in his story 'Araby' 'Dubliners' is a book written by controversial Irish writer James Joyce, Dubliners was published in 1914 although the various stories in it were actually written between 1904 and 1907. James Joyce despised his homeland and every thing about it; he rejected Christianity, his family and Ireland, his country. In 1904, James left Ireland to live in Switzerland where he began to write Dubliners. James also rejected Irish literature and subsequently his favourite writers were Chekov, a Russian writer, Ibsen, a Norwegian writer and Zola, a French writer. James' hero was Charles Parnell, who was an Irish politician; James liked the idea of Home rule for the Irish but sadly, for him Parnell did not achieve Home rule. All of the streets mentioned in 'Araby' are real streets in Dublin. James Joyce begins 'Araby' by saying that North Richmond Street is 'blind', when you enter a cal de sac there's no escape, your trapped in, James Joyce implies that there's no vision on all of Dublin's streets and that there's no escape from them. The Christian Brother's School mention in 'Araby' is a school for poor children, 'set the boys free', James says that the children are imprisoned in the school; again Dublins people are trapped in. All of Dublin's streets are made to sound dirty and derelict. The empty house was

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Dubliners, Counterparts

Counterparts . The main character of the story is Farrington, an alcoholic who works as a clerk, and is bullied and verbally abused by his boss, Mr. Alleyne. Miss Delacour plays the role of a wealthy client. Mr. Shelley is the head clerk at Farrington's office. The characters Nosey Flynne, O'Halloran, Callan, Paddy Leonard are the men whom Farrington spends his evenings with, drinking at pubs. Weathers is one of the younger men who meet with him at the pubs, in this story he beat Farrington at arm wrestling. Tom is Farrington's son who, at the end of the story, is beaten by his drunken father. 2. "He had done for himself in the office, pawned his watch, spend all of his money; and he had not even got drunk" (95). Farrington's life is repetitious, working as a clerk and producing copies all day long is the type of repetition that adds to his misery. Alcohol plays a key part in his depression and is the highlight of his day, it is the reason for him to pawn his watch and spend his remains on alcohol. Similar to his repetitious life in the office, drinking with his friends is a part of his daily routine as well. Every evening Farrington and his friends take turns buying rounds for each other, spending and consuming, again and again. Weathers is a character that plays a significant role in Farrington's realization about how his routines and traditions do not benefit him,

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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In what ways is ‘A LittleCloud’ typical of Joyce’s ‘maturity’ stories?

In what ways is 'A Little Cloud' typical of Joyce's 'maturity' stories? Refer to themes, language and setting. 'A Little Cloud' is the first of the 'maturity' stories in Dubliners, preceded by 'Counterparts', 'Clay' and 'A Painful Case'. The story is archetypal of Joyce's style and embraces all the key themes of, class, materialism, escapism and above all the paralysis and struggle of Ireland. The opinion that Ireland is a country lowly in comparison to the rest of Europe is enforced at the beginning of the story when Little Chandler says "it was something to have a friend like [Gallaher]" because he "worked for the London press." The emphasis here is on "the great city of London" and Little Chandler has immeasurable respect for Gallaher as he has escaped the paralysis of Ireland in favour of this thriving city. The environment Chandler lives in is lacklustre and uninspiring, his writing "tiresome" the nurses he sees are "untidy" and the old men dozing on benches are "decrepit". When Little Chandler thinks of his situation in Dublin "a gentle melancholy [takes] possession of him" which he feels "[is] useless to struggle against". In 'A Painful Case' a number of adjectives are used to convey the environment, such as "disused", "sombre" and "shallow". Joyce has subtly emphasised the burden of being a Dubliner and in particular the feeling of restriction which the

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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A Portrait of Stephen Dedalus as a Young Man

A Portrait of Stephen Dedalus as a Young Man A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is above all a portrait of Stephen Dedalus. It is through Stephen that we see his world, and it is his development from sensitive child to rebellious young man that forms the plot of the novel. There are many Stephens, often contradictory. He is fearful yet bold, insecure yet proud, lonely and at the same time afraid of love. One Stephen is a romantic who daydreams of swashbuckling heroes and virginal heroines. The other is a realist at home on Dublin's most sordid streets. One Stephen is too shy to kiss the young lady he yearns for. The other readily turns to prostitutes to satisfy his sexual urges. One is a timid outsider bullied by his classmates. The other is courageous enough to confront and question authority. One devoutly hopes to become a priest. The other cynically rejects religion. Stephen loves his mother, yet eventually hurts her by rejecting her Catholic faith. Taught to revere his father, he can't help but see that Simon Dedalus is a drunken failure. Unhappy as a perpetual outsider, he lacks the warmth to engage in true friendship. "Have you never loved anyone?" his fellow student, Cranly, asks him. "I tried to love God," Stephen replies. "It seems now I failed." The force that eventually unites these contradictory Stephens is his overwhelming desire to become an artist, to

  • Word count: 830
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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