Epiphanies In Dubliners Essay Research Paper Most

Epiphanies In Dubliners Essay, Research Paper

Most observers and literary critics consider Joyce s Dubliners a masterful sequence of multiple objective epiphanies, due to the manner in which Joyce reveals the city of Dublin itself, perceived in all of its troubling spiritual and ethical paralysis. An epiphany occurs when there is a sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something, when a moment of insight about a situation arises instantaneously with great magnitude. Epiphanies, moments of sudden insight about situations, arise frequently in Dubliners, which has been described and analyzed by critics as a series of fifteen epiphanies.

However, the stories in the Dubliners actually go much beyond this keen insight about a particular dilemma. The characters constantly show a sudden burst of enlightenment, coupled with the frustrating awareness of their powerlessness to do anything about it. In Dubliners, one of the ways these epiphanies are provoked is by the clash of the visual with the acoustic. This is a common technique of Joyce. Throughout his works, from Dubliners to Finnegan s Wake, Joyce developed his themes through a series of epiphanies, a series of related moments of sudden insight and understanding. The core meaning of Joyce s works is provided primarily by his constant portrayal of a certain universe in a certain order. Sudden experiences are seen as significantly illuminating, and the character of the story realizes the truth about himself and the situation he is in. But that is not all: the reader is shown the whole process, which ultimately becomes an epiphany for the reader.

Focusing upon a more specific analysis of the epiphanies in Dubliners, I will argue that most of the epiphanies, coupled with frustration, are provoked by the clash of the visual with the acoustic.

Interestingly, in Dubliners Joyce utilizes the metaphor of the labyrinth of the eye. Minotaurs prevent the Dubliners from perceiving what they are, with the exception of rare epiphanies when the eye collides with another of the senses, such as the ear. At that moment the minotaur is metaphorically slain, resulting in a dramatic alteration of the visual perception of the character and a sudden, insightful awareness of their real predicament. But frustratingly, this is always accompanied by paralysis.

Joyce enhances the labyrinth metaphor by creating a sense of darkness that haunts the whole collection of short stories in Dubliners, suggesting total confusion. This technique is accompanied by the aimless and symbolic wandering of characters in the evening through the twisting Dublin streets, which all too often lead nowhere or result in the wanderer driven and derided (Joyce 35) into a dead end, as happens in Araby.

As noted briefly, paralysis, a living death or complete deadening of the senses, is a dual element along with epiphany, and seems to be the existential condition of Dubliners. Like most of Joyce s stories, this paralysis is faithful to his themes, and portrays impotence (in the form of weakness and sexual hesitation), frustration, and ultimately, death. His city is the soul of moral, spiritual, and intellectual paralysis, and everyone is a victim. Paralysis is present in Dubliners from beginning to end and becomes gradually more powerful and universal: it begins as individual paralysis through a triad of states, childhood, adolescence and mature life, before expanding to collective paralysis in the three stories of public life so as to pervade the artistic, religious and political cultures of Dublin.

The events in Araby provide an example of the clash of the visual with the acoustic, resulting in a sudden moment of insight. In Araby the narrator loves books to such an extent that he behaves like the protagonist of a romance novel, safeguarding his love like a sacred chalice through the sordid underworld of Dublin. Her image accompanied [him] even in places the most hostile to romance (Joyce 31). He carries this innocent vision of the world with him, derived from the romantic novels of Walter Scott, but he too is destined to realize that the fervently pursued world of his dreams is an illusion. In the fair scene, for example, the boy overhears an inane exchange: O, I never said such a thing! O, but you did! O, but I didn t! Didn t she say that. Yes. I heard her. O, there s a fib (Joyce 35)! This brief reported conversation resembles some of Joyce s earlier epiphanies even though it is not included in the collection. It is worth noting, however, that this is much more than simply recorded conversation, because it reveals so clearly the improvement of the author s artistic skill, as well as his maturity at the time he wrote Dubliners.

Triggered by conversation, an epiphany of discovery and awareness instantaneously altered the boy s sense of perception. In other words, the boy realizes the vacuity of the speakers as well as the aimlessness of his own expectations. He suddenly understands, but is helpless to do anything about it. Interestingly enough, this epiphany takes place when the light was out (Joyce 35) suggesting that at the moment of the acoustic confrontation, literal sight is replaced by insight. The narrator is altered at this moment into a paralyzed creature driven and derided by vanity (Joyce 35).

In Eveline, Joyce suggests that Eveline is stifled by the dust of Dublin and overwhelmed in the same