Dubliners: Childhood
Dubliners: Childhood
How appropriately did Joyce introduce his readers to his career with this piece. The solemn, thoughtful tone (which Joyce abandons later in his career) establishes Joyce's weighty youth ravished by poverty and the realities of the Roman Catholic's parasitism on the Irish people. Father Flynn's death and the breaking of the chalice functions not as the simplistic symbolic death of religion, but as a representation for the devastatingly inconsiderate treatment of the faith toward the faithful.
Father Flynn's pious and devout dedication to his faith is only shaken by the anecdote of the broken chalice, an cultural symbol in the Catholic faith often associated with family and tradition (and often an heirloom). His funeral is small and without enough financial weight to support a fire. The young narrator, grappling for his own understanding of the priest's death, seems to be reflecting fondly on his relationship with the priest thus suggesting that the juxtaposition of these positive memories with the poverty of the Father Flynn's funeral would cause some internal conflict.
Ultimately, Joyce does not condemn or elevate the church, Catholicism, piety, poverty, or anything really. He, instead, crafts an image that highlights each individual. Those individuals are, in turn, placed into the larger scheme of Dublin, the Roman Catholic Church, family, and other larger constructs not explicitly explored or identified by Joyce; they are irrelevant and insignificant compared to the magnitude of individual human experience.
Continuing with an adolescent narrator, Joyce introduces themes of sexuality, lust, and sexual repression in this second story. Joyce removes himself from the confines of a single room and begins to explore the streets of Dublin in two juvenile's disobedient, though innocent journey away from a learning institution that dictates their modes of thinking.
The journey eventual leads them to encounter a greeneyed stranger, aged and seemingly empathetic. He expressed liberal ideas of sexuality associated with women ("girls") and their hair and soft hands. This is Joyce's soft sexuality, foreshadowing the tense conflict of sexual thoughts and Catholic prudishness in "Araby," but we'll get to that later.
The narrator proclaims that the man speaks about a topic "everyone knows" that is yet strangely taboo. This is Catholic Ireland's contradictory relationship with sexuality: simultaneously praising the beauty of women while condemning the thought in the first place.
The man, without the presence of Mahony, beings to contradict himself and his violent, condemning attitude toward Mahony and the soft sexuality he just expressed is finally revealed. Only then does the narrator notice the green eyes of the stranger. Collectively, Joyce seems to be representing Ireland's caustic attitude toward sexuality, expressing his own frustrations and the abusive nature of reprieve. Not finding much consolation in his own sexual feelings through the Catholic church, Joyce expresses these ideas early in his literary career, develops them fully in Portrait of the artist, then matures them in Ulysses.
One more quick note: Joyce establishes the theme of self hatred here, which he carries all the way through his career (see "Nestor" from Ulysses). When isolated, the boy admitted his own distaste for Mahony, but only after the old man expressed the sentiment out loud. When the old man expressed a sentiment the young man truly believed (his superiority of Mahony and his condemnation of character),he became ashamed of the reprehensible nature of this judgement and the violence of the old man's justification to "whip" the boy. The narrator, in turn, was forced to address the violent, judgmental nature within himself, suggesting a turn toward empathy after this adventure. The "encounter," consequently, is not an encounter with an old man, but with the contradictory, judgmental, violent, prudish, liberal, and sexual nature found within himself.
The first explicit foray into sexuality, "Araby's" narrator acts as a transitional piece from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. New readers (of Joyce and literature) often misunderstand the piece, arguing the narrator's love drives the boy out into the unknown of 'Araby' and the possibility of rejection. However, physical descriptions of Mangan's sister suggest sexuality and 'lust' to be more appropriate terms than 'love,' which would suggest a psychological and/or spiritual connection (absent from the text). Additional imagery associated with masterbation and the boys liberation in privacy further support this interpretation.
However, the most fascinating element lies in the conclusion, or the omission of it. The piece ends with the narrator's epiphany, where he belittles himself as a 'creature' motivated simply by 'vanity.' As an epiphany, it signals the resolution of a conflict and the climax of the piece. Yet, no further lines accompany the climax to fulfill the resolution or denouement. In fact, the ending poses more questions that the short story presents: what causes this shame and frustration? Will he continue to idolize and adore Mangan's sister?
The most revealing element of this piece is the conflict. The conflict lies between the boy and his Catholic faith (not Mangan's sister or the market or his uncle). The boy is forced to perceive his sexual appreciation of Mangan's sister as a sin that will be punished with the burning of hell, echoed by the eyes "burned with anguish and anger." Furthermore, the boy created a false idol of Mangan's sister, "bor[ing] [his] chalice safely through a through of foes" at the market. Fittingly, the boy is replacing his family and Catholic values (common symbols of a chalice) with the idolization and adoration of the girl.
All this pushed the boy into further isolation as he feels incapable of finding answers and resolution for his lust. Fittingly, Joyce omits a conclusion. Yet, does this piece seem to support Irish Catholic morality or criticize it? The boy, after realizing his sin, seems to return to acknowledging his faith and stops objectifying Mangan's sister. Seemingly, this is a positive outcome. However, the boy's self hatred has grown and there does not seem to be any indication that he will find any answers to his future lusts. Future relationships, even ones founded on true feelings of romantic love might still maintain these feelings of shame and burden and cripple his ability to connect with another individual.
Naturally, the answer is rather simple: Joyce is not a didactic philosophy, but a painter. No other author writes with such a critical and sharp edge when criticizing the Irish Catholic church and values. Yet, know one writes with such understanding and love about them, either.