The Erotic in Joyce's A Painful Case The characters whom inhabit Joyce's world in "Dubliners," often have, as Harvard Literature Professor Fischer stated in lecture, a "limited way" of thinking about and understanding themselves and the world around them. Such "determinism," however, operates not on a broad cultural scale, but works in smaller, more local, more interior and more idiosyncratic ways. That is, the forces which govern Joyce's characters are not necessarily cultural or socioeconomic in nature, but rather, as Prof. Fischer stated, are "tiny," and work on a more intimate level. In any case, as a result of such "forces", these stories often tend to be about something, as Prof. Fischer said, that doesn't …show more content…
The first instance of this occurs when Joyce writes, "The dark discreet room, their isolation, the music that still vibrated in their ears united them" (111). As with the description of "mental eroticism," (i.e. "thoughts entangling"), Joyce couches "auditory eroticisim" in physically erotic terms as well. It is through sound, in this case "music," music which we are told "vibrates," that the two are brought together, "united." The setting, "a dark discreet room", the way in which the music is described, "vibrating" and the use of the phrase "united," all suggest a kind of romantic, physically erotic union. Similarly, Joyce later describes how Duffy "seemed to feel her voice touch his ear..." (118). By describing a voice as "touching" an "ear," Joyce again suggests a physical act of eroticism. Unlike, however, the "touching of their hands," which Joyce says Duffy imagines as well, the idea of a "voice touching an ear" suggests not only external "touching", but because a voice enters one's body and soul, also connotes images of penetration. A voice, unlike hands, penetrates; committing the most erotic act of all. It is not, however, until the end of the story that we are able to understand not only how "sound" and "voice" functions in a "auditory erotic" fashion, but how such eroticism is responsible for Duffy's, albeit impermanent, self-transcendence. In a passage which Professor Fischer would
"She could only just recognise the tune for what it had once been. Not that coarse parody, stilted and mechanical, a tin brashness, a gaudiness of noise." Unpleasant and irritating sounds and noises suggest the lady's discomfort, as if the song was
Carol Ann Duffys use of word choice, structure and imagery, creates a sinister atmosphere is created throughout the poem of "the devils wife". The reader is left with a chilling, dark
In the early twentieth century, Ireland, and more specifically Dublin, was a place defined by class distinctions. There were the wealthy, worldly upper-class who owned large, stately townhouses in the luxurious neighborhoods and the less fortunate, uneducated poor who lived in any shack they could afford in the middle of the city. For the most part, the affluent class was Protestant, while the struggling workers were overwhelmingly Catholic. These distinctions were the result of nearly a century of disparity in income, education, language, and occupation, and in turn were the fundamental bases for the internal struggle that many of Joyce's characters feel.
What draws Mr. Duffy to her initially is her general disposition; she acts very calm and natural, and she isn’t too shy or awkward. She points out the numerous empty seats around them in the concert hall, but makes no fuss over it whatsoever. He also detects her intelligence and sensibility, both of which are important facets of Mrs. Sinico’s personality. To him, the most important of the traits he sees is her vulnerability. This is revealed briefly as her pupils momentarily “swoon” into the irises, indicating that she is open to his influence in ways she has not verbally stated. This is significant to Mr. Duffy because he knows that if she is vulnerable toward him, he can be dominant over her. The suggested attraction she has leads him to believe later on that “he would ascend to an angelical stature” in her eyes. He believes that this vulnerability is in fact a weakness in her character, and that she would hold him in a much higher esteem than anyone else in her life.
1. The narrator, Ray Bradbury is saying the words. He is comparing the soft fluttering of a fly’s wings in ones ear to the vibration that occurred in Montag’s ear when Faber
In the fourth line, Longfellow states that it’s “A voice” from the “silence of the deep”. Here, the reader once
All of these literary elements are portrayed in Joyce’s “The Dead”. His story depicts aspects of everyday life in the Irish capital of Dublin. Joyce portrays the parochialism and piety as well as the repressive conventions of everyday life. Joyce’s characters dream of a better life against a dismal and impoverishing background where the cumulative effects of life are full of despair and hopelessness. Through Joyce’s modernist approach to narrating he uses a structure of symbolic meanings and revelatory moments called “epiphanies”. Joyce viewed Dublin as the “Centre of Paralysis” in Ireland (Puchner, Martin 177). Joyce viewed Dublin as a city of blunted hopes and dreams that were lost in the sea of misery. A city Joyce viewed that was filled with poor who were desperate to move out of the slums that they spent their entire lives living in. Dublin’s population was constantly growing and not enough jobs
The setting of the story, Dublin, has been written in such a way that only
The poem suddenly becomes much darker in the last stanza and a Billy Collins explains how teachers, students or general readers of poetry ‘torture’ a poem by being what he believes is cruelly analytical. He says, “all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it”. Here, the poem is being personified yet again and this brings about an almost human connection between the reader and the poem. This use of personification is effective as it makes the
James Joyce wrote Dubliners to portray Dublin at the turn of the early 20th century. In Dubliners, faith and reason are represented using dark images and symbols. James Joyce uses these symbols to show the negative side of Dublin. In “The Sisters,” “The Boarding House,” and “The Dead” dark is expressed in many ways. James Joyce uses the light and dark form of symbolism in his imagination to make his stories come to life.
Symbolism is a powerful tool used by people every day to force people to look past the obvious and find the deeper meaning. Symbolism is used by authors, musicians, priests, and many others. James Joyce, a well-known Irish author, uses symbolism repeatedly throughout his collection of short stories published in 1916. In these stories, titled Dubliners, Joyce uses symbolism not only to enhance the stories, but to also show the hidden, underlying message of each story without coming out and saying it directly. Joyce’s stories are centered on the problems of Dublin and through his use of symbolism Joyce is able to focus attention on what problem each story is addressing. James
Dubliners (1914), by James Joyce (1882-1941) is a collection of short stories representing his home city at the start of the 20th century. Joyce 's work ‘was written between 1904 and 1907 ' (Haslam and Hooper, 2012, p. 13). The novel consists of fifteen stories; each one unfolds lives of the different lower middle-strata. Joyce wanted to convey something definite about Dublin and Irish society.
Dubliners revolves around the everyday lives of men, women, and children n the Irish capital of Dublin and is based on real people and places that were part of Joyce's life.
When Joyce applies personification to the setting, he creates the mood of the story, and directs the reader to the double meanings found in the personified setting. As an example of mood, winter brings with it the connotation of impending gloom, as the narrator claims, "...the houses had grown sombre...the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns" (379). This idea of Winter casts itself as the mood, where the feeling of awkward introspection is predominant. The lamps like the people of Dublin, have grown weary of there own, during Ireland's own battle with identity. In the broader scope of Joyce's imagery for the short story, it may be said Ireland itself is like the adolescent struggling to find its way. Joyce's messages of "complacency" during the tremendous social and political upheaval are encapsulated in the stories like "Araby," that collectively represent the book "Dubliners."
Religion in James Joyce's Dubliners Religion was an integral part of Ireland during the modernist period, tightly woven into the social fabric of its citizens. The Catholic Church was a longstanding tradition of Ireland. In the modernist spirit of breaking away from forces that inhibited growth, the church stood as one of the principal barriers. This is because the Catholic faith acted as the governing force of its people, as portrayed in