Contrast and resemblance in James Joyce's "Dubliners"

The purpose of this assignment is to do a brief analysis of James Joyce’s `Dubliners’.
It is a book that is divided into 15 chapters (the three firsts narrated in 1st person, the others narrated in 3rd person, the narrator being an observer), each one telling a different story about various people living in Dublin. We could say that the novel is composed of multiple pieces out of the life of different people.
Dealing with such a book, we may think that the task that seems more evident to carry out is to try to find differences and similarities between them, and that is actually the main aim of this essay.
I would not like to left too aspects out of study (though this is unavoidable), so I will try to mention all the features that seem more remarkable to me, which are mainly referred to the writing patterns (narration, description, dialogue etc.), the different choices that the author makes in relation with them, and their connection with the characters’ personality.

In general terms, the main differences that we can find are related to the predominance in some chapters of action, meaning narration, and inner feelings and thoughts of the characters, and of  speech, meaning dialogue, in others.
In chapters like, for instance, “Clay”, we observe an almost omnipresent narration (without forgetting the detailed description of weather and people), some indirect speech, narrative report, and a representation of the inner thoughts and feelings of Maria, the main character, fact that reflects the omniscience of the narrator and manifests his empathy towards her, making the reader feel more identified with her.
In contrast, there are very theatrical chapters that are structured upon dialogue, concretely direct speech. The best example is “Ivy day in the committee room”, in which we find characters coming in and out of scene and talking to each other. There are some moments in which the narrator seems to have disappeared and you think you are actually reading a theatrical play. That makes the characters appear trustworthy but quiet distant from the reader.

The similarities, which make the book a whole, are mainly referred to:
- The topics treated: religion (Protestantism versus church’s interests), politics (nationalism), alcoholism (there are many references to it), high-class entertainments: opera (there is a chapter dedicated to it), hierarchy in work , importance of marriage, etc.
- The personality of some characters who have a “rebel” nature though bearing it with resignation. They do not agree with all these values to which they are tied up, these values the book is showing (nationalism, married life…). Their hopes and wishes are repressed by society. And they are precisely the characters that are remarkable, the ones that the author have make the protagonists by means of accessing to their thoughts and feelings.
Little Chandler, the main character in “A little cloud”, is a good example. He is a frustrated poet who carry a romantic spirit, he is sick of his country and he would want to travel and know other places, he seems unsatisfied with his married life and dreams of knowing some exotic woman to give him the passion that his wife does not have.
There’s a great metaphor that illustrates his way of living: When he’s reading a Lord Byron poem, his son begin to cry and he can’t carry on with it.

“It was useless. He couldn’t read. He couldn’t do anything” (page  92)

Another example is Mr. Duffy, the main character in “A painful case”. He feels that he’s away from society.

“He had neither companions nor friends, church nor creed.” (page 121)

“No one wanted him; he was outcast from life’s feast.”  (page 131)

In order to conclude we could assert that the novel we are dealing with does not follow a constant rhythm, the idea of one single plot has nothing to do with that book, when we start to read a new chapter there is like a “reset”, we find many stories apparently different one from each other.

We also encounter a variety of writing modalities that affect the characters and the way the reader conceive them and certain characteristics that are common and noticeable throughout all the novel. And these are the characteristics that provide the reader with the necessary tools to build an idea, the image of these Dubliners that the book is trying to convey and which, after all, it seems the principal aim of it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Joyce, James. Dubliners. Penguin Popular Classics. Penguin Books. 1996