Dubliners Themes and Motifs

Dubliners
In what concerns Joyce’s style of writing we can observe that he balances the objectivity – the attitude of “scrupulous meanness “ and sympathetic understanding of characters with the help of the stream of consciousness and epiphanies
Scrupulous meanness - ‘Scrupulousness’ is a crucial element both in Joyce’s use of language, and in the structure and form of the stories. ‘Scrupulous meanness’ refers to a most complex and heavily allusive style that determines the reading of Dubliners. From the minimum of words Joyce succeeds to extract the maximum effect. Joyce puts this style forward as a means to express his moral intent
The Sisters * “sensation of freedom as if [he] had been freed from something by the priest’s death “ * “desired to confess something. I felt my soul receding into something pleasant and vicious region […] I too was smiling feebly as if to absolve the simoniac of his sins” * “…I wouldn’t say he was exactly…but there was something uncanny about him. I’ll tell you my opinion…”(incomplete sentences of aunt) * “one of those …peculiar cases” * “scrupulosity in the Catholic Church is a very real, potentially paralyzing, mental disease”(Bremen)
Stream of consciousness - Depicts the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind.
Eveline
* “She had consented to go away, to leave her home. Was that wise? She tried to weigh each side of the question. In her home anyway she had shelter and food; she had those whom she had known all her life about her. Of course she had to work hard, both in the house and at business. What would they say of her in the Stores when they found out that she had run away with a fellow? Say she was a fool, perhaps; and her place would be filled up by advertisement. Miss Gavan would be glad. She had always had an edge on her,especially whenever there were people listening.”
Araby
* “What innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening! I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days. I chafed against the work of school. At night in my bedroom and by day in the classroom her image came between me and the page I strove to read. The syllables of the word Araby were called to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an Eastern enchantment over me. I asked for leave to go to the bazaar on Saturday night. My aunt was surprised, and hoped it was not some Freemason affair. I answered few questions in class. I watched my master's face pass from amiability to sternness; he hoped I was not beginning to idle. I could not call my wandering thoughts together. I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play, ugly monotonous child's play.”
Epiphany - an experience of sudden and striking realization.
Eveline
* “Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!'
“She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror. Escape! She must escape! Frank would save her. He would give her life, perhaps love, too. But she wanted to live. Why should she be unhappy? She had a right to happiness.Frank would take her in his arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her”
A painful case * “As he sat there, living over his life with her and evoking alternately the two images in which he now conceived her, he realized that she was dead, that she had ceased to exist, that she had become a memory. He began to feel ill at ease. He asked himself what else could he have done. He could not have carried on a comedy of deception with her; he could not have lived with her openly. He had done what seemed to him best. How was he to blame? Now that she was gone he understood how lonely her life must have been, sitting night after night, alone in that room. His life would be lonely too until he, too, died, ceased to exist, became a memory − if anyone remembered him.”
The dead * "His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
Themes
General/ Contextual themes - themes surrounding the entire narrative discourse giving it homogeneity .They deal with Dublin biggest issues that have a great influence in every character behaviour.In relation with each individual story they can be central themes or hidden after a detail ,an action ,an answer or a thought. * Poverty * Paralysis * Irish politics and religion issues

Central/Characteristic themes * Mortality * Escape * Isolation * Powerlessness * Alcoholism *