Paralysis in Dubliners Essay

Paralysis and the Dubliners

Paralysis is described as the failure to take action or make progress. In many stories from the Dubliners, a character has an aspiration, faces obstacles to reach it, then eventually concedes and stops all attempts to reach their ultimate goal, leaving them in a paralyzed state. This paralysis, shown by Joyce through the course of the Dubliners, expresses the inability for characters to change their lives and reverse the routines that hamper their desires. In Araby and Eveline the theme of paralysis is vividly evident and it is shown through the dull, everyday life in Dublin; the characters need for escape from their lives; and the eventual failed attempt to change their lives.

In both Araby and Eveline, the settings show the theme of paralysis. Setting played an important part in the development of the stories because it alluded us to climax and the falling actions of the stories. Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers (Araby) describes how sombre and paralysed Dublin was. The immobility of the boy surroundings helped with the theme of paralysis because it foreshadowed what was to come further on in the story. In Eveline, the main character recounts her childhood. Home! She looked round the room, reviewing all its familiar objects which she had dusted once a week for so many years, wondering where on earth all the dust came from. The dust refers to the motionlessness that reoccurs later in the story. The quotations from Araby and Eveline both demonstrate how the theme of paralysis was embedded in the two stories.

As the two characters accounts of their lives continue, a need for escape from their dull lives becomes unmistakable. The boy from Araby starts yearning for Mangans sister. His sudden love sickness has him thinking about her constantly. He states that every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen. When he sees her leaving , he follows behind her until when their paths finally go different directions, his pace quickens so that he can have one last glimpse of her before he must go to school. The boy craves to be with her, to escape to a world of Eden, with Mangans sister. He finally feels like he can escape when Mangans sister informs him of the Araby. The boy rejoices with the idea that he will finally please his love.

With no allies in her home anymore, Eveline is faced with the dilemma of leaving the home she has always wanted to escape, to one that ins new and frightening. Frank, her savoir or her devil, is the one that presents her with this choice. The life at her present home was explained as being not wholly undesirable life. Everything was easy, she knew what do to and nobody had high expectations of her. Whereas with Frank, she knew nothing, everything would be new and exciting, but scary at the same time. Escaping was Evelines ultimate goal, she needed to escape so she would not turn out the same way as her mother.

With a plan in motion and little to lose the boy from Araby and Eveline both proceed to escape from the paralysis in their lives. The boy longs through a tedious day to reach the bazaar. He is faced with the obstacles of a boring school day and an uncle that is taking forever to come home. When he finally achieves his goal of getting to the bazaar, he remembers with difficulty why he had come. The English accents and the unfriendliness of the store worker added to the No, thank you line that came after. I knew my stay was useless added to his epiphany and the overall realization of the paralysis of becoming an adult. Eveline is with Frank, on her way to the docks. The promise to her mother, her promise to keep the home together as long as she could, stuck to her. She was not scared to go, but the promise was overwhelming. The long mournful whistle blew and she knew that she could not go. She stood there, paralysed because she was trapped. She could not break her mothers promise and doomed herself to a life that was just like her mothers.

To fail, you must start out with hopes. In both Araby and Eveline, the characters started out with hope to escape the seemingly unavoidable state of paralysis. The setting, the need for escape and the failed attempt to escape their lives. The theme of paralysis is evident as the boy and Eveline are both condemned to a dull, melancholy life.