Stories of public life

Ivy Day in the Committee Room

A study in the paralysis of Irish political life following Parnell’s death, conveyed by contrast between times ‘when there was some life’ and the present situation when no-one is worth fighting for (see O’Connor symbolically burning Tierney’s card to light a cigarette) and no ideal is left.

An indictment of present-day Ireland living in the dark, without thought: ‘Mr Crofton. . . . was silent for two reasons. The first reason, sufficient in itself, was that he had nothing to say . . .’, real spirituality (Keon is perhaps not even a priest at all); social or political choice; interested only in elementary desires: drink (note the derisive ‘poks’ which punctuate the conversation), money and petty scandals; desiring nothing higher than respectability; snobbish; apt to betrayal to the point of welcoming the King of England and forgiving him-see ‘he’s a bit of a rake’-worse behaviour than that which brought about Parnell’s fall; the victim of slavery all around.

This is perhaps Joyce’s most unified story (unity of time and place, unity of theme) although the setting was provided for him by his brother.

A Mother

Although the setting is Dublin, the capital city, this is a scene from provincial life where so-called ‘cultural’ activities are second-rate and bear witness to the paralysis of the arts.

A post-mortem on Joyce’s own dead singing career

A satire on Irish tastes at the turn of the century (the revival of the language, romanticism. . . .).

A social satire on bourgeois values, the cult of money, pretension, social climbing, snobbery.

A comedy of character with an indictment of the dominant female and the subdued male, and of girls’ education and its inadequacy to real life.

With ‘Grace’ (the last story of ‘public life’), the most patently sneering of Joyce’s tales of Dublin life.

Grace

This is the last story of public life, with religious paralysis as its subject, religion appearing in Dublin as debased by its utilitarian aspect and its closeness to superstition.

The story is one of Joyce’s most successful sets of parodies (The Divine Comedy, learned dialogues, sermons, mock-heroic presentation of the lavatory episode, etc).

It is the best example, in Dubliners, of the author’s ambiguous attitude to his masters, the Jesuits, whom he at once revered and longed to ridicule.

It is a story in which the point of view throughout is Joyce’s and he intervenes continuously with ironic comments on persons and situations.

It is a story which announces Ulysses, and is akin to it through mood and characters, and yet links up with the very first title in Dubliners through the theme of simony.

© Librairie du LIban.

York Notes, James Joyce Dubliners, notes by Patrick Rafroidi. Longman York Press, Beirut 1985.