Literary Analysis Essay -- Essays Papers

Literary Analysis In James Joyce’s Dubliners, Joyce writes about difficulties and hardships of the Irish people during the 19th century. In the stories â€Å"The Sisters† and â€Å"The Dead,† the separation of an individual from the rest of society is portrayed through many occurrences of eyes and visions. There are many examples that run though out these stories that can be interpreted. Some of these examples can range from being on a symbolic level to an emotional level within the characters. In â€Å"The Sisters,† there are many emotional changes that are a result of visions through certain objects. After the little boy in â€Å"The Sisters† sees the flowers in the store, he goes through a rollercoaster of emotions (3-4). He begins to realize how his feelings are different from all of the other people about the death of the priest. The boy feels a sense of liberation due to the death of the priest (4). He is upset and annoyed by this and does not know what to do with this emotion. Being put through the death of his best friend the priest, he would change his view on life. He started out in the beginning of the book as just a normal boy, but towards the end he took a new perspective on everything. During the story â€Å"The Dead,† the vision Gabriel has at the end of the story makes him go through an emotional change. In the story, after the main character Gabriel learns about his wife’s past love (221-222), he looks out the window and stares at the snow for a little bit and then starts to cry. His emotions have taken over him as he is now thinking differently about everything he had every thought of. The previous feeling of how lovely his wife is and how he was looking forward to being with her... ...ead,† Gabriel questions many things including himself. After hearing his wife explain her sadness about her past, Gabriel looks out the window to see the dark snowy night. He questions his own role as a husband to his wife. He questions his role in society also. He does not have any answers for these questions. So he then goes to bed as his soul fades away. All of these examples show the separation of an individual from the rest of society. Joyce words stories so well that the separation can be shown through simple visions throughout the stories in â€Å"Dubliners.† To recognize these themes in the stories gives the reader a better understanding of what is going on. They can actually connect with what the main character is feeling or at least have an idea of what is unfolding. These themes bring the sad truth to us in a beautiful well written manner.