This six-page undergraduate paper discusses James Joyce’s use of epiphanies in Dubliners, most specifically in Eveline, Araby, and The Dead, and analyzes how these epiphanies are coupled with the frustrating awareness of the characters of their powerlessness to do anything about the sudden insights they have gained.
Epiphanies in Dubliners An epiphany occurs when “the soul of the commonest object . . . seems to us radiant,” (Joyce 213) when an object is seen and perceived so clearly that “we recognize that it is that thing which it is. Its soul, its whatness leaps to us from the vestment of its appearance.” These moments of sudden insight about the situation arise frequently throughout James Joyce’s Dubliners, which has been described and analyzed by critics as basically a series of fifteen epiphanies. However, the stories in the Dubliners actually go much beyond this. 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 James 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, such as in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, when “the soul is born” (Joyce 203) are seen as significantly illuminating, the fictional 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 becomes an epiphany for him. Most observers and literary critics consider Joyce’s highly acclaimed Dubliners a masterful sequence of multiple objective epiphanies, due to the manner in which Joyce reveals the city of Dublin itself, perceived as it is in the book in all of its troubling spiritual and ethical paralysis. Focusing upon a more specific analysis of the epiphanies in Dubliners, I will discuss in this paper the ambiguity of the epiphanies that occur in Araby, Eveline, and The Dead through the point of view that the epiphanies are precisely coupled with paralysis. 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 reaching 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, it is faithful to his themes, and portrays impotence,
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 stages, 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. In essence, The Dead marks the spreading-out of paralysis at every level to universal dimensions, depicted by the symbolism of the snow blanketing all of Ireland. Individually, the partygoers are physically alive but fail to live in any meaningful way. Politics, art, and religion are all presented as equally paralyzed. For example, Joyce suggests that politics is dead and has sunk to the parochial and fanatic nationalism of Miss Ivors. Religion is also but a shadow of its former self, devoid of power and life, as symbolized by the monks lying lifeless in their coffins. Art is portrayed as just as dead and uninspiring, represented in the story by the poor singing of Bartell D’Arcy. Interestingly, most of the Dubliners are badly losing their struggle with the minotaur of paralysis because they have never experienced an epiphanic revelation. Father Flynn and Eveline are perhaps the best examples of this. Father Flynn is of course the paralyzed Catholic priest, who has become spiritually crippled after failing in his vocation. He is a prisoner of his career choice and unable to cope with his duties. Because she is the only character who is offered a realistic and positive opportunity to leave, Eveline’s case is even more striking. She has all the potential to carry out her
decision and yet at the moment of breaking her ties with Dublin and her family she becomes “like a helpless animal.” (Joyce 3) In Dubliners, Joyce evokes in essence a fallen world that features sterile fragmentation and an abnormal isolation of the senses. The citizens of Dublin depend solely on the eye for comprehension but still do not see clearly. This is illustrated in The Dead, when “Gabriel’s eyes, irritated by the floor which glittered with beeswax under the heavy chandelier, wandered to the wall above the piano.” (Joyce 184) In fact The Dead, which is both the ultimate synthesis and the climax of Dubliners, seems to be offered by James Joyce as a single epiphany of multiple meaning, such as death in life, life in death, and evocation of the dead. Significantly, the Morkan party in The Dead takes place on January sixth, which is of course the Christian feast of Epiphany. This is a perfect choice for the final story of such a book. The irreverence of Joyce’s depiction of Epiphany Day is perhaps the most crucial element of The Dead, as well as a reminder that it is a spiritual death that is the very foundation of the paralysis of which the Catholic church is the main cause. Joyce offers a mock reduplication of the original Epiphany in The Dead. Gabriel Conroy arrives on a cold night from the east. The offer of gold is reflected in the coin that he gives to Lily. Such interesting parallels, whether or not Joyce intended them, are certainly sardonic. In effect, Christianity as a dynamic force has degenerated into a satire of itself. The events in Araby provide another example of this. In Araby the narrator loves books to such an extent that he behaves like the protagonist of a romantic novel safeguarding his love like a sacred chalice through the sordid underworld of Dublin. 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 32) 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. The point of this is the relationship between the protagonist and the epiphany of discovery and awareness triggered by the conversation. 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 33) 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 4) Shifting our focus to Eveline, Joyce suggests that Eveline is stifled by the dust of Dublin and overwhelmed in the same way as Father Flynn is when he passes out while reciting his daily prayers with “his mouth open,” (Joyce 5) literally suffocated by the abnormal point of view of the eye in isolation. The world enveloping Eveline is a
visually confined space which provides her a dimension of false security in which she takes shelter. On the other hand, the acoustic world embodied by Frank offers no real point of reference or specific perspective because it involves a simultaneous relationship and is so disturbing. Whatever is aural in Eveline’s visually partitioned environment is either broken or taken from her home. For example, Frank comes from “a distant unknown country” (Joyce 35) and the organ player is forced to go away. It should be noted that Eveline’s visual world is connected with the Catholic church and appears to encourage a limited visual understanding of the real world. What makes her dilemma even more poignant is that at the beginning of Eveline she has everything she needs to be the winner instead of the victim. All her senses are active and she can perceive both worlds. She is able to distinguish the visual, compartmentalized, inhibiting world of her home and family from the acoustic all-inclusive world of Frank. Yet at the end she rambles on like her own mother, who dies mumbling unintelligible remarks. Eveline ends up surrendering to the visual and her vacant stare reveals no real recognition at all, simply because there is no real dialogue at all. In conclusion, epiphanies in the form of moments of insight about situations arise frequently throughout James Joyce’s Dubliners. The characters constantly show a sudden burst of enlightenment, coupled with the frustrating awareness of their powerlessness to do anything about it. In Dubliners, most of the epiphanies are provoked by the clash of the visual with the acoustic.
Bibliography
Joyce, James. Epiphanies. Buffalo: Lockwood Memorial Library, 1956. -----. Stephen Hero. New York: New Directions, 1963. -----. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. London: Penguin, 1969. -----. Dubliners. Bibliomania. Online. Available: http://www.bibliomania.com/ Fiction/joyce/dublin/. 30 October 2000.
