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“The grey warm evening of August had descended upon the city and a mild warm air, a memory of summer, circulated in the streets. The streets, shuttered for the repose of Sunday, swarmed with a gaily coloured crowd. Like illumined pearls the lamps shone from the summits of their tall poles upon the living texture below which, changing shape and hue unceasingly, sent up into the warm grey evening air an unchanging unceasing murmur.”
As is often the case with the short stories in Dubliners, Joyce opens “Two Gallants” with a detailed description of the Dublin streets. His attention to detail is important for this particular story because the entirety of the text takes place on various Dublin streets as the two protagonists meander through the city. The emphasis on the crowds is also significant because it puts the entire narrative in perspective by implying that Lenehan and Corley are just two meaningless individuals in a swarm of people.
“He walked listlessly round Stephen’s Green and then down Grafton Street.”
The “he” in this quote refers to Lenehan as he walks through the Dublin streets after parting ways with Corley. This is just one example of the many times that Joyce uses real Dublin street names in order to ground the reader in the Irish capital and make it impossible for them to imagine the story being set anywhere else. The use of the word “listlessly” is also important because it characterizes Lenehan as meandering through the streets with no real direction in mind.
“They talked for a few moments and then the young woman went down the steps into the area of a house. Corley remained standing at the edge of the path, a little distance from the front steps. Some minutes passed. Then the hall-door was opened slowly and cautiously. A woman came running down the front steps and coughed.”
This passage occurs at the very end of the text in which Lenehan watches as the maid brings Corley something from inside her employer's house. The wealthy house, which is the story’s only other setting besides the various Dublin streets, is meant to highlight the financial divide in Dublin. The posh estate with its walking path, front steps, and multiple entrances can be contrasted by the descriptions of poverty that litter “Two Gallants.”
