The Dubliners The Significance Of Ireland - 1322 Words

The Dubliners – The Significance of Ireland By: Adam Pasternak 250796941 Dr. Donaldson The Dubliners is collection of short stories by James Joyce where all of the stories occur in Ireland, mostly in the capital of Dublin. These stories take place in the early years of the 20th Century. These stories depict the typical Irish middle class life. During this time period, there was a very negative morale. England was still in control of Ireland and the people of Ireland were very bitter. The Irish people had difficult lives and struggled with their responsibilities to support their families or to simply find happiness. The stories demonstrate the desire for the characters to escape their lives in Ireland for a more desirable life somewhere†¦show more content†¦Indian battles out of a magazine. The narrator in the story wanted more of an escape. The narrator describes this desire, â€Å"real adventures do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad.† (Joyce, 21) The boys skipped school to explore the ships along the wharf and the Pig eon House (the power plant in Dublin). When they were walking, they encountered an elderly man. The man was clearly very â€Å"old-school† as he told the boys that any boy seen talking to a girl should be whipped, and that he would be happy to do it himself. The boys immediately turned back, frightened. The adventure was a disappointment to the boys. This story could be interpreted in such a way that we can see that the boys clearly were not physically trying to escape, but that they were mentally trying to escape. Instead of reenacting the battles of the Romans, they pretended to be cowboys in America. The boys were physically in Ireland, but their minds were elsewhere. Ireland was very depressing at that time and the country was largely guided by religion. It was very hard to live the typical life we see today. Everyone was somewhat miserable in Ireland and in The Dubliners, while most would not admit it, everyone was thinking of the possibility of a happy life somewhere else, except no one actually left. If they did leave, they ended up coming back to Ireland. It is almost as if the characters were paralyzed, in the sense that they could not move away and leave Ireland.