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You have all done a nice job of exploring the first four stories in The Dubliners. I sympathize with your feelings that the text is difficult. It is a misleading book. We tend to think of short things as easy things, but Joyce's stories are very thick and hard to work through. It will get easier, however. The stories are all related to one another and the themes will start to stick out for you more and more. I greatly encourage you all to look up any confusing references you see in the stories. It will help you a great deal. Also, pay close attention to any reference you see to the British, alcohol, iron railings, etc. Focusing in on these things will help you build connections between the stories. Remember, Joyce does nothing by accident. Every decision he makes in the text is deliberate. The Dubliners is a book filled with symbols.
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This week, I read two stories – ‘The Boarding House’ and ‘A Little Cloud.’ The former was actually quite enjoyable. For some reason it seemed a little bit modern, maybe because it started with divorce, something I usually don’t associate with older times or Catholics. I don’t know if it was just me, or a Joyce thing, but when it says that the people who live in the boarding house call Mrs. Mooney Madam, it made me think that Mrs. Mooney have her customers more than just room and board. But then when Polly sang her song, I put that assumption onto Polly, the ‘little perverse Madonna.’ When the news of the affair was brought up, I felt bad for Doran. I believe that Polly isn’t as innocent as she seems. She basically, and shamelessly, seduced him. Poor Doran was pretty much being forced to marry this girl who had gotten pregnant, not that he wasn’t to blame as well, but still, she seduced him. I did however catch the ‘cool iron bed-rail’ clue. While a bed-rail doesn’t look like a jail as much as an iron gate, there is still some resemblance. Maybe Polly was running away from a sometimes violent brother, I don’t know.
ReplyDelete‘A Little Cloud’ was gloomy as well. The big bad England changed Gallaher into a person Chandler thought was a little vulgar with a bad accent. There wasn’t much love for Ireland, especially because Gallaher talked so much of London and the immorality of Paris. It was sad when Chandler went back home second guessing his decision to marry Annie all because of what Gallaher said. Chandler’s life was seemingly fine until Gallaher, the cloud, came back (or in Joyce talk: Ireland was fine until England came). These two stories continue with the themes of not being able to escape (although she does marry Doran) and England’s contribution to Ireland’s troubles.
I agree with Kassie Ligore’s blog about the first stories in The Dubliners. When the boy was looking for the candle light and how people were always asking of her was okay, in the first story, I also thought that there was something going on with the priest and the little boy, which unfortunately only encourages the stereotype about priests and little boys. In ‘Araby’ it too was odd that he realized that his love for his friend’s sister was stupid in a bazaar of all places, instead of all the times when they didn’t talk to each other, which might have been more fitting. I also agree with the ‘Eveline’ situation. Eveline should have been swept off her feet instead of staying in a place that was harmful physically and emotionally. Would her mom really wanted her to be unhappy like she was?