The social and political paralysis of late 19th century Ireland as seen through James Joyce’s ‘Dubliners’

Abstract

In this dissertation, I analyse the interrelationship between the series of short stories, 'Dubliners' by James Joyce and the historical, social and Joycean context that they were written in, specifically through the theme of paralysis. James Joyce’s own paralysing experiences as a man living in Dublin gave him all the inspiration he needed to write these short stories. He wanted to give his fellow Dubliners a realistic portrayal of the paralysis they were all experiencing. This was achieved by looking into the many published letters that James Joyce sent to those close to him and by studying his biography, consequently, finding many links between the 15 short stories and Joyce’s own personal life. Apart from the Joycean context, I focus a lot of my research on the history of late 19th century Ireland. All the short stories in 'Dubliners', were all instigated and driven by the dominating political and social issues that were causing a lot of problems all over the country but most specifically the city of Dublin. In relation to these short stories, the main social and political topics I will be discussing are emigration, which wrecked the Irish population to its core. Another topic which caused extreme paralysis and was heavily featured in 'Dubliners' was that of the interrelationship between the Irish Cultural Revival and British imperialism. Religion and its corrupted politics also played a big part in this. Many Dubliners were also constantly living in a life of chosen ignorance as they wanted to escape into fantastic illusion and ignore their own social and political charged reality. All of these issues are seen in many of the protagonists in 'Dubliners'. I also go on to analyse how the Dubliners could have got out of their paralysis but chose not to. This a topic many critics do not argue about. The social institution of the family was also a great instigator for paralysis. In most analysis of 'Dubliners', this social institution of family is overlooked. In Chapter 3, I explain how the institution of the family was a great facilitator for paralysis, through marriage, exploitation and the portrayal of women. The study sheds light by giving a better insight into the short stories of 'Dubliners'. It thoroughly explains the many aspects that drove this realistic portrayal of these protagonist into such paralysis and lethargy.