Study
Questions & Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. Joyce brings
the reader’s attention to everyday objects throughout his stories.
Discuss some examples and explain the significance of Joyce’s use
of them in the collection.
2. In the first
three stories of
Dubliners, Joyce uses first-person
narration, though for the rest of the collection he uses third-person.
What purpose do the two narrative approaches serve?
3. Discuss
the role of story titles in the collection. How does a given title
interact with its story and with the titles of other stories? What
is the significance of the collection’s title?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Of the fifteen stories in Dubliners,
Joyce focuses on women as protagonists in only four stories, but
women appear throughout the collection in various small roles, often
in relation to male protagonists. What is the symbolic role of these
latter women? Consider particular stories as well as the collection
as a whole.
2. As the title implies, Dubliners examines
the lives of people in Ireland’s capital, and Joyce provides ample
geographical details. Since not all readers are familiar with Dublin,
such details can be unfamiliar. What purpose, then, do these elements
serve?
3. Consider the number of deaths,
both literal and metaphorical, that occur or are referred to in Dubliners.
Which stories connect through the presence of death, and why is
this connection significant?
4. Do any stories contain moments
in which Joyce’s authorial voice and point-of-view seem to speak
through the narrators? Use the text to show how this occurs and
what Joyce expresses.
5. Some stories include a full
version of a text cited internally by a character. For example,
in “A Painful Case” the reader can examine the article about Mrs.
Sinico’s death that Mr. Duffy finds, and in “Ivy Day in the Committee
Room” the reader can review Hynes’s poem about Parnell. What sort
of relationship between reader and story do such forms create? What
might be Joyce’s aim in cultivating this relationship?
