Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
The Prison of Routine
Restrictive routines and the repetitive, mundane details
of everyday life mark the lives of Joyce’s Dubliners and trap them
in circles of frustration, restraint, and violence. Routine affects
characters who face difficult predicaments, but it also affects
characters who have little open conflict in their lives. The young
boy of “An Encounter” yearns for a respite from the rather innocent
routine of school, only to find himself sitting in a field listening
to a man recycle disturbing thoughts. In “Counterparts,” Farrington,
who makes a living copying documents, demonstrates the dangerous
potential of repetition. Farrington’s work mirrors his social and
home life, causing his anger—and abusive behavior—to worsen. Farrington,
with his explosive physical reactions, illustrates more than any
other character the brutal ramifications of a repetitive existence.
The most consistent consequences of following mundane
routines are loneliness and unrequited love. In “Araby,” a young
boy wants to go to the bazaar to buy a gift for the girl he loves,
but he is late because his uncle becomes mired in the routine of
his workday. In “A Painful Case” Mr. Duffy’s obsession with his
predictable life costs him a golden chance at love. Eveline, in
the story that shares her name, gives up her chance at love by choosing
her familiar life over an unknown adventure, even though her familiar
routines are tinged with sadness and abuse. The circularity of these
Dubliners’ lives effectively traps them, preventing them from being
receptive to new experiences and happiness.
The Desire for Escape
The characters in Dubliners may be citizens
of the Irish capital, but many of them long for escape and adventure
in other countries. Such longings, however, are never actually realized
by the stories’ protagonists. The schoolboy yearning for escape
and Wild West excitement in “An Encounter” is relegated to the imagination
and to the confines of Dublin, while Eveline’s hopes for a new life
in Argentina dissolve on the docks of the city’s river. Little Chandler
enviously fantasizes about the London press job of his old friend
and his travels to liberal cities like Paris, but the shame he feels
about such desires stops him from taking action to pursue similar
goals. More often than offering a literal escape from a
physical place, the stories tell of opportunities to escape from
smaller, more personal restraints. Eveline, for example, seeks release
from domestic duties through marriage. In “Two Gallants,” Lenehan
wishes to escape his life of schemes, but he cannot take action
to do so. Mr. Doran wishes to escape marrying Polly in “A Boarding
House,” but he knows he must relent. The impulse to escape from
unhappy situations defines Joyce’s Dubliners, as does the inability
to actually undertake the process.
The Intersection
of Life and Death
Dubliners opens with “The Sisters,” which
explores death and the process of remembering the dead, and closes
with “The Dead,” which invokes the quiet calm of snow that covers
both the dead and the living. These stories bookend the collection
and emphasize its consistent focus on the meeting point between
life and death. Encounters between the newly dead and the living,
such as in “The Sisters” and “A Painful Case,” explicitly explore
this meeting point, showing what kind of aftershocks a death can
have for the living. Mr. Duffy, for example, reevaluates his life
after learning about Mrs. Sinico’s death in “A Painful Case,” while
the narrator of “The Sisters” doesn’t know what to feel upon the
death of the priest. In other stories, including “Eveline,” “Ivy
Day in the Committee Room,” and “The Dead,” memories of the dead
haunt the living and color every action. In “Ivy Day,” for example,
Parnell hovers in the political talk.
The dead cast a shadow on the present, drawing attention
to the mistakes and failures that people make generation after generation. Such
overlap underscores Joyce’s interest in life cycles and their repetition,
and also his concern about those “living dead” figures like Maria
in “Clay” who move through life with little excitement or emotion
except in reaction to everyday snags and delays. The monotony of
Dublin life leads Dubliners to live in a suspended state between
life and death, in which each person has a pulse but is incapable
of profound, life-sustaining action.
