Upon reading “The Dubliners” I have noticed a theme that is similar in each story. The stories all have their own epiphanies in the end, but each story is very dark and dramatic. My personal preference is the complete opposite of Joyce’s choice. If the stories were happy upbringings then I think that Joyce wouldn’t be able to get her point across about Ireland. My favorite story this week was “A Mother”. The mother in this story, Mrs. Kearney, seems to get what she wants most of the time but this time it only increases her own anger. First of all, she marries her husband just to be married, not for love. Then Mrs. Kearney goes about by taking her daughter, Kathleen, out of the concert she was to perform in, annoying everyone in the audience. Also, her mother had ruined Kathleen’s musical career. As I read this story I started to question myself about Mrs. Kearney’s circumstances. I also read, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”. Ivy Day represents nationalist politician, Charles Stewart Parnell, who is remembered on this day. As I read this story I found myself very confused for most of the story. The reason for my confusion was because there were so many different characters. Joyce talked about these characters like we should have known who they were. Just like the rest of the short stories in “The Dubliners” this story represents problems that are occurring in Ireland.
-Ashley B
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At the end of this week we finished Dubliners. In my opinion, this collection of short stories provides a lot of insight for the reader about the condition of Ireland in 1910. Many of the stories made me feel pity for the people of Ireland. Joyce portrays his characters as helpless people with the inability to see past unimportant minor details enough to fix the real problems that stop them from living peaceful and happy lives. I found it somewhat amusing but at the same time sad that many of the characters in Joyce’s stories were more concerned with drinking than accomplishing the tasks they needed to complete in order to earn a living. While most of the stories were entertaining, there were some that left me feeling very confused after I had finished reading them. For example, I had no idea what the significance of Ivy Day was and its connection to the story Ivy Day in the Committee Room. Also, I did not pick up on the fact that the character Gabriel from The Dead was inspired to live a more fulfilling life due to the influence of Michael Furey, who was dead at the time. I found more irony in the last few stories in this book. The story Grace was an interesting title, because one of the main characters, Mr. Kernan had fallen from grace and never regained it. The last story, The Dead, which I expected to be the most depressing, actually ended on a somewhat positive note. In response to Ashley B’s post for this week, I also found that A Mother was a very interesting story. The title of this story was ironic for me because the actions of Mrs. Kearney are exactly the opposite of my mother’s. Mrs. Kearney’s behavior shocked me, and it made me kind of mad that she ruined an important opportunity for her daughter.
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