Dubliners: Maturity
Dubliners: Maturity
Maybe there's another setting I have been missing: the bar and pub?
More than anything, I would consider this an extension of Dublin itself. I could argue (with myself, mostly) that the bar/pub adds an additional social element that forces interaction. This is seen heavily in "Two Gallants" as Lenehan is weary of the social pressure and avoids it, looking for peace and solace in the streets of Dublin.
The 'other,' 'far,' or outlying places (away from Dublin) reside heavily in this piece, much like in "Eveline." Little Tommy Chandler, much like Eveline from "Eveline," is swooned by a foreign entity. In this case, Gallaher represents that external force, an otherworldly seraphim coated in the aura of Paris and London and other foreign places that promise gay, exciting this have been done and that gay, exciting things are hovering in the next hour. Gallaher sways Tommy Chandler by existing as an antithesis to his moral conservatism, expressive identity, selfcentered behavior, acuteness to finances, and welltraveled existence (a character foil if there ever was one).
Yet, the main question lies in Joyce's portrait of each character. Joyce does not seem to be depicting Tommy Chandler's life as foolish. Instead, Chandler's overt romanticism of the life of Gallaher exists as his foolish quality. Gallaher is anything but admirable or heroic, engaging in the use and manipulation of everyone around him for his own means. Yet, Chandler views him as a heroic figure because of his freedom, a freedom that contrasts the freedom of his own life. Gallaher's frank willingness to sell himself to some rich German Jewess, as he claims to be able to do, is a secret, unfulfillable wish of Tommy Chandler and an immoral rebellion against the constrains and limitations of his life.
This desperate want of rebellion, in turn, dooms Tommy. Unwilling to accept his role in his life (unlike Eveline from "Eveline" or the Mooney women from "The Boarding House"), Tommy unleashed his frustration and anger against his own child, breeding hatred and distrust from his wife. His unwillingness to abandon his own identity and uphold the values and priorities of his family causes a cataclysmic reaction that will divide the family and eventually lead to destitution, poverty, and incompleteness.
He should learn from the women of Dubliners and accept his circumstances and live from them. Instead, he chooses to idolize the individuality and worldly selfishness of Gallaher, a triviality in comparison to the gravity and purposefulness of the family he could love instead.
"Clay" Performed by Dubliners: A Quartet