Full Title
Author James Joyce
Type of Work Collection of short stories
Genre Realist fiction; urban literature
Language English (with some Irish and Hiberno-English sayings)
Time and Place Written Early 1900s, Ireland and Italy
Date of First Publication 1914
Publisher Grant Richards
Narrator The first three stories are narrated by the main character of each story, which in all three cases is a young, unnamed boy. The rest of the stories are narrated by an anonymous third person who pays close attention to circumstantial detail though in a detached manner.
Point of View The first three stories, told from the first person, focus on the thoughts and observations of the narrators. In the stories told from the third person, the narrators detail objective information and present characters as they would appear to an outsider, but also present thoughts and actions from the protagonists’ points of view, giving the reader a sense of what the characters are feeling.
Tone Though told mainly by an anonymous narrator, the stories of
Tense Past tense
Setting (Time) Early 1900s
Setting (Place) Dublin
Major Conflict Various figures struggle with the challenges of complicated relationships and life in Dublin.
Themes The prison of routine; the desire for escape; the intersection of life and death
Motifs Paralysis; epiphany; betrayal; religion
Symbols Windows; dusk and nighttime; food
Foreshadowing The death of Father Flynn in “The Sisters” announces the focus on death in later stories like “The Dead”; story titles hint at events in the stories