How Does Joyce Present Death In Dubliners

The Ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.” Death is an important part of all people’s lives and societies. It is a piece of the culture and how people deal with it is often a reflection of the society. Irish people and Irish society are no exception. These phenomenons and rituals surrounding death are pervasive and often leak into the mainstream literature of the time. James Joyce used his book Dubliners to express the rituals and cultural ceremonies of the time in Ireland. One major theme that is present in his book is death and how people act and treat death. In Dubliners, Joyce uses the stories “The Sisters”, “A Painful Case” and “The Dead” to show how death is viewed and treated within Irish Society. Throughout these stories, he shows how Dubliners act once people are gone, how it makes them question their
lives, as well as showing the odd dichotomy of how the living and the dead share a world. In death, the livings actions are always a strange representation of the situation at hand. In the short stories “The Sisters”, “A Painful Case” and “The Dead”, Joyce shows how the several different characters deal with death. In each story, a character of a different life period attempt to cope with death and perform the normal rituals. In “The Sisters”, the narrator, a young boy finds out the town priest has died. The young boy had viewed the priest as a mentor and role model. When visiting the body, the young boy recalled how he had acted after seeing the body. Joyce writes, “She pressed me to take some cream and crackers also but I declined because I thought it would make too much noise eating them” (5). In this scene, the boy is timid to make any noise as if to disturb the dead priest. He is cautious and ginger in his actions. His apprehension shows that he is unable to fully comprehend death. This is an understandable response from a young boy who is perhaps not fully comprehending the concept of death. This portrait of an ignorant child is important to Joyce in showing the innocence of youth and the development of a person. It is also important to show in this scene how a young child observes the cultural practices of viewing the body and paying respects.
The shallow understanding of an innocent child is sharply contrasted with the last short story of Dubliners, “The Dead.” In “The Dead”, Gretta recalls a story how her first love Michael Furey died to her current lover Gabriel.
Once she recalls the story “She stopped, chocking with sobs and, overcome by emotion, flung herself face downward on the bed, sobbing in the quilt. Gabriel held her hand for a moment longer, irresolutely, and then, shy of intruding on her grief, let if fall gently and walked quiety to the window” (159). This emotional outburst by Gretta and how Gabriel responds is an important contrast to how the young adult copes with death according to Joyce. Gretta is overcome with emotions, while Gabriel’s actions are unsure and almost passive. He does not remain with Gretta in her grief, but leaves it behind to be on his own. His actions are passive in dealing with the death. Gabriel’s actions then spiral in to a existential moment where he contemplates his life and death itself. This scene is a sharp contrast to how the narrator from “The Sisters” deals with
death.
In “A Painful Case”, the main character, Mr. Duffy find out about the death of his ex-lover Mrs. Sinico. The reaction Mr. Duffy has to this is one where he finds himself entirely alone and is paralyzed by the death. Joyce describes how “he halted under a tree and allowed the rhythm to die away. He could not feel her near him in the darkness nor her voice touch his ear. He waited for some minutes listening. He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone” (84). In this moment, he is paralyzed by the mortality of humans and the how real death feels. This paralysis is important in representing how Mr. Duffy’s life had been. Mr. Duffy lived a methodical life with routine and little pleasure. His life could be described as a paralyzed life and therefore, how he deals with death is a representation of his life as a whole. This change in how a character deals with death is in contrast with both the young boy, Gretta and Gabriel. Mr. Duffy is the oldest of the characters and represents how Joyce views a mature adult to be handling death.
Not only do the actions that each character goes through, represent how they are able to cope with death, but the death causes the characters to question their own life and mortality. In both “A Painful Case” and “The Dead”, Mr. Duffy and Gabriel question their life, love and mortality. Mr. Duffy “felt his moral nature falling to pieces” (84). Mr. Duffy was questioning life and the decisions that had led him to where he was in the moment. A similar process occurs when Gabriel is thinking about the death of Gretta’s lover. Gabriel begins to question love, “Generous tears filled Gabriel’s eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman but he knew such a feeling must be love” (160). Gabriel in this moment is also having an existential moment, where he is questioning his life, much like Mr. Duffy. Joyce uses these moments to show how death impacts people and makes them question their life.
The last important motif that Joyce uses in the stories “The Sisters”, “The Dead” and “A Painful Case” is when Joyce compares the land of the living with the one of the dead. He uses the juxtaposition of how the living and dead occupy the same space. They are in the same realm. This collocate is present within “The Dead” and “The Sisters”. In “The Sisters”, the narrator talks about the physical dead body and how it is awkward death is. The priest is described as having “big discoloured teeth and let his tongue lie upon his lower lip - a habit which had made me uneasy in the beginning of our acquaintance before I knew him well” (4). This scene shows the awkwardness that the narrator feels about the body and the discomfort that accompanies a dying person. This interaction between the body and the narrator is showing the juxtaposition of the dead and living interacting. Throughout “The Sisters”, in addition to the scene above, there is language that is used to show the feeling of awkwardness and unease about death. Portraying death in this way is important as to not normalize it or make it feel too familiar. This motiff is also seen in “The Dead” at the very end. The last line of the story and of the book is “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” (160). This scene is showing how the snow covers all of the living and all of the dead. It is showing the point at which these two worlds collide. This imagery is important in describing death and how it is around the living at all points. The concept of death is an important theme and motif throughout “The Sisters”, “A Painful Case” and “The Dead” in James Joyce’s Dubliners. Exploring death within literature can be an important moment that allows the reader to connect with not only their humanity, but the humanity of the writer and other humans. Having this connection allows the reader to feeling of connection is important, especially when considering death which can be a lonely experience. The unifying moment allows for the readers to find comfort and belonging, which is all humans crave. Joyce’s manipulation of these emotions and feelings is important in making Dubliners a powerful piece of literature in Irish society.