My top picks. 🐾

The Sisters.

A marvelous introduction to the collection that sets the tone for the remainder of Dubliners. A priest is dead, and his funeral processions and mourning are told through the perspective of a young boy with whom he may be implied to have had inappropriate relations with. The element of priesthood is brought down to an Earthly level, humanising religion in a very uncomfortable way.

Araby.

Reflects the working class from the perspective of children. A young boy in love with his friend's sister offers to venture to the Araby bazaar for her to bring her back a gift. As he arrives, he realises that the bazaar is not as fantastical as he had envisioned. He is starkly brought to reality by an empty and monotonous exchange, as he is further startled by the disgusting nature of his own sexuality.

Eveline.

This and The Sisters may be tied for my favourite shorts in the collection. Eveline is a young girl dreaming of an escape from her abusive father after the death of her mother. She is enchanted by a man named Frank, who offers to sail her away from Dublin. Eveline reflects paralysis in a way specific to women -- she must decide whether it is better to remain a daughter or to run away and become a wife. Whether Eveline is in love with Frank is left unsaid, with Joyce simply implying that he provides her a means of escapism (though one that may only result in another entrapment).

A Painful Case.

Joyce explores the platonic relationship between an isolated, possibly closeted man and a married woman. After Emily attempts a physical closeness with Duffy, he ends their meetings. Four years later, he reads an article in the newspaper that claims Emily had died, most probably of a suicide. His first reaction is to condemn her and claim her death had originated from a weakness, though realises that his rejection of her may have caused her loneliness and thus her death. He reflects on his own loneliness and mourns the relationship they had. Tragic and beautiful.

For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal.

- James Joyce.

Dubliners was a fantastic read and a devastating realisation that the paralysis that occurred in Dublin still occurs everywhere today. We are stuck, and Joyce believed that without literature like this, we may never realise it. Call it depressing, call it mundane, call it pointless. The ability to recognise the confines we are put it grants us the ability to escape them.