Religion As A Captor
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Religion As A Captor
A collection of short stories published in 1907, Dubliners, by James Joyce,
revolves around the everyday lives of ordinary citizens in Dublin, Ireland (Freidrich
166). According to Joyce himself, his intention was to “write a chapter of the
moral history of [his] country and [he] chose Dublin for the scene because the
city seemed to [b]e the centre of paralysis” (Friedrich 166). True to his
goal, each of the fifteen stories are tales of disappointment, darkness,
captivity, frustration, and flaw. The book is divided into four sections:
childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life (Levin 159). The structure of
the book shows that gradually, citizens become trapped in Dublin society (Stone
140). The stories portray Joyce’s feeling that Dublin is the epitome of
paralysis and all of the citizens are victims (Levin 159). Although each story
from Dubliners is a unique and separate depiction, they all have similarities
with each other. In addition, because the first three stories – The Sisters,
An Encounter, and Araby parallel each other in many ways, they can be seen as a
set in and of themselves. The purpose of this essay is to explore one particular
similarity in order to prove that the childhood stories can be seen as specific
section of Dubliners. By examining the characters of Father Flynn in The
Sisters, Father Butler in An Encounter, and Mangan’s sister in Araby, I will
demonstrate that the idea of being held captive by religion is felt by the
protagonist of each story. In this paper, I argue that because religion played
such a significant role in the lives of the middle class, it was something that
many citizens felt was suffocating and from which it was impossible to get away.
Each of the three childhood stories uses religion to keep the protagonist
captive. In The Sisters, Father Flynn plays an important role in making the
narrator feel like a prisoner. Mr. Cotter’s comment that “… a young lad
[should] run about and play with young lads of his own age…” suggests that
the narrator has spent a great deal of time with the priest. Even in death, the
boy can not free himself from the presence of Father Flynn (Stone 169) as is
illustrated in the following passage: “But the grey face still followed me. It
murmured; and I understood that it desired to confess something. I felt my soul
receding into some pleasant and vicious region; and there again I found it
waiting for me”. The boy feels the need to get away from the priest, but this...
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