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“Mr. James Duffy lived in Chapelizod because he wished to live as far as possible from the city of which he was a citizen and because he found all the other suburbs of Dublin mean, modern and pretentious. He lived in an old sombre house and from his windows he could look into the disused distillery or upwards along the shallow river on which Dublin is built.”
These are the opening few lines of “A Painful Case” in which Joyce explains where Mr. Duffy’s home is located and why he chose to live there. Here, the text’s setting aids in Mr. Duffy’s characterization. Mr. Duffy’s desire to live far away from Dublin, and his disgust at the other Dublin suburbs, characterize him as a judgmental, borderline misanthropic man. The use of the word “sombre” is also crucial because it sets the tone for the rest of the short story.
“The lofty walls of his uncarpeted room were free from pictures. He had himself bought every article of furniture in the room: a black iron bedstead, an iron washstand, four cane chairs, a clothes-rack, a coal-scuttle, a fender and irons and a square table on which lay a double desk. A bookcase had been made in an alcove by means of shelves of white wood. The bed was clothed with white bedclothes and a black and scarlet rug covered the foot. A little hand-mirror hung above the washstand and during the day a white-shaded lamp stood as the sole ornament of the mantelpiece. The books on the white wooden shelves were arranged from below upwards according to bulk.”
In this passage, Joyce provides a detailed overview of Mr. Duffy’s impersonal, uninspiring house. Joyce’s short, clipped sentence structure conveys a sense of disinterest and boredom. The same sentence structure will be used to describe Mr. Duffy’s dull job and commute to showcase that all aspects of Mr. Duffy’s life lack any personality or excitement. The repetitive, apathetic descriptions of Mr. Duffy’s home also suggest the depth to which Mr. Duffy has closed himself off to self-expression and the world around him.
“He went often to her little cottage outside Dublin; often they spent their evenings alone. Little by little, as their thoughts entangled, they spoke of subjects less remote. Her companionship was like a warm soil about an exotic. Many times she allowed the dark to fall upon them, refraining from lighting the lamp. The dark discreet room, their isolation, the music that still vibrated in their ears united them.”
Here, Joyce describes Mrs. Sinico’s cottage and the joy that Mr. Duffy experiences when he is there. Joyce’s tone while describing Mrs. Sinico’s cottage is starkly different from the tone he uses to describe Mr. Duffy’s house. The cold, impersonal language used to characterize Mr. Duffy’s home (“lofty,” “white,” “uncarpeted”) is contrasted with the cozy, inviting language used to characterize Mrs. Sinico’s home (“cottage,” “warm,” “music”). This tone shift suggests that Mrs. Sinico has a sense of kindness that she is slowly teaching to Mr. Duffy.
