Dubliners by James Joyce

   James Joyce’s collection of short stories Dubliners may not be as ambitious as his more acclaimed Ulysses or the almost schizophrenic Finnegans Wake. It is, however, an amazing piece of literature on its own and, like A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, is more indicative of the mind of Joyce than his later work.

   Dubliners has its roots in the 19^th century innovations in the short story as a serious literary form by the hands of especially the Frenchman Guy de Maupassant and Russian Anton Chekhov, both of whom revolutionised the short story. That being said Dubliners remains a highly original piece of literature that is marked especially by Joyce’s exceptional prosaic tempo and pacing, which makes the language flow in a remarkable way — an effect best experienced by reading aloud.

   The collection has no fixed protagonist per se but instead is composed of fifteen cross-sections in the life of various Dubliners. The stories are characterised by a dark atmosphere in which the sun never seems to rise on the isle of Ireland. A great example of this dark atmosphere is in the story Araby in which a boy, who has developed a romantic affection towards a girl, goes to the market to get her something and, in the darkness of the market, which he found closed, reflects:

   “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”

   The closing story The Dead is the highlight of the collection and stands out as the most ambitious of the stories. It details the celebrations of Epiphany, which is celebrated on the 6^th of January in Ireland, and follows Gabriel who is greatly anticipated by his aunts, the hosts. The events of the evening reinforce the main themes of the collection; id est: the themes of the mundaneness of life and routine, lack of passion, religion, politics, etcetera. Especially towards the end of the story when his wife reveals that she once loved a boy in western Ireland, who had wanted to die for her in the passion of his love, he has an epiphany: at first he was mad at his wife’s love for the boy but he soon realises his emotional ill is the sadness of not having experienced the love or passion that the boy felt:

   “Yes, the newspaper were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, further westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. … His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”

   Dubliners is a great introduction to the writing of James Joyce. And had he not written Ulysses I’m certain that Dubliners would still be revered and esteemed in English-language literature for its aesthetic merit and its excellent portrayal of Dublin, and Ireland, in a time of great social, religious, and political unrest and change.