JAMES JOYCE

A SUBJECTIVE PERCEPTION OF TIME

Joyce was a Modernist writer. The facts are often confused, explored from
different point of view at the same time and presented as ‘clues’. In Dubliners and
in Ulysses there are many geographical and sociological details. The author
collects and analyses the impression and thoughts that an event has caused in
the inner world of the character. His stories often open in medias res by
analysing a particular moment and when it comes to describing the portrait of a
character we can see more introspection rather than on description. Time is seen
as subjective. Furthermore the description of Dublin derived from the characters’
floating mind.

STRUCTURE AND SETTING

Dubliners consists of 15 short stories. All these stories lack of action but they
show human situations and intense moments, leading to a moral, social or
spiritual revelation. The opening stories deal with childhood and youth in Dublin
the others concern the middle years. Joyce was hostile to city life, finding that it
degraded its citizens. In fact, Dublin is a place where true feelings and
compassion for others do not exist. The stories are divided into 4 groups :
childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. The last story, ‘the dead’ was
added later and can be considered Joyce's first masterpiece. It summarizes
themes and motifs of the other 14 stories but it’s more like an epilogue.

CHARACTERS
For Joyce everyone in Dublin seemed to be caught up in an endless web of
despair. Even when they want to escape they are unable to because they are
spiritually weak. The woman in Evelin is an example because she chose to remain
in Dublin rather than going in Buenos Aires.

REALISM AND SYMBOLISM

The description in each story is realistic and concise,with a lot of details. The use
of realism is mixed with symbolism, since external details generally have a
deeper meaning. The name of certain objects is carefully chosen . Religious
symbolism can also be found and also the color symbolism is widely employed in
the collection: brown, grey and yellow this colors suggest the atmosphere of
despair and paralysis.