James Joyce "Dubliners"

Dubliners

A painful case

The story of a painful case is a story of Mr. Duffy who is a middle aged solitary guy who lives a very boring rutine life meets at a concert a married women called Emily Sinico. At first, they only met by accident, 3 times in fact. But they Mr. Duffy asks her to go out and meet somewhere. 

This then, becomes regular and they see each other regularly which is no problem because Emily's husband is nauve and doesn't think that his wife would be attractive and he thinks that Mr. Duffy is interested only in their daughter. 

But they always met in hidden or obscure places and Mr. Duffy didn't like this so he invites her to his house.

As time passes and they see each other very regularly, they become close and one day Emily takes Mr. Duffy's hand and presses it to her cheek because she thought he was very lonely. They both freak out and they don't meek for about a week and then they decide that they should meet no longer.

So then, Mr. Duffy's rutined life begins again. 

But one day, reading the newspaper, he sees an article which shocks him. An article about Emily's death.

He thinks a lot about how he could've done more to help her and that his life will continue to be the same, boring and lonely until he dies. He imagines she is there walking besides him and that he can hear her voice. Then he stops to rest under a tree, and he stops hearing her and he is all alone.

In my opinion this is a great story. Its just so tragic and I love it when a story doesn't have the most common and boring happy ending but instead a tragic and shocking one. Mr. Duffy's lonely life could've been fixed by Emily. But the same way, I think because her husband was never there, Emily was even lonelier and they could've done something more. Also, it is pretty dumb that Mr. Duffy will simply carry one with his boring and lonely life when he has seen where it leads.

Two Gallants

This story is about two yound men walking besides each other down a hill in Rutland Square called Lenehan and Corley. Corley is telling Lehenan a story. This story if about a girl who works as a housekeeper.

Corley is telling Lehenan how they met and how much fun he has had being with her. But most importantly talking about girls and sex. They mention that a 'slavey' girl is the best to have for a number of reasons. But Corley's hosekeeper girl is engaged in prostitution. And Lehenan constantly asks if he can 'bring it off'.

Corley meets with the girl and after a while Lehenan meets with him.

This story wasn't interesting to me, it was a bit boring and I didn't like it. I must be honest I skipped some parts because I wanted to move on.

Eveline

This is a story about Eveline who has been living in Ireland in the same house since she was a young girl taking care of her two siblings. But now time has passed. Her father is old a bitter. One of her brothers is dead and the other one is constantly away on business so she has to take care of her dad and she had promised her deceased mother that she would keep the house for as long as she could.

But her dad was mean and often violent. He sometimes was nice to her but not generally and she was tired. She worked all day and gived everything to the family and to the house to receive nothing.

She was planning to leave Ireland for good. She was going to leave Ireland and go to Buenos Aires with a sailor called Frank. Although, her father disliked Frank she loved him. He treated her like she deserved and told her interesting stories about him traveling around the world.

Everything was se and they were already getting on the boat to leave Ireland and never come back. But she is haunted by the thought of leaving his father to himself at such old age. She runs off the boat and runs. Frank follows screaming. Then she turned to him and looked him very indiferently, like a stranger, "[...] no sign of love or farewell or recongnition."

This was a very short story and I liked that. Because everything sort of happens a bit quickly and it is a big decision and it could be difficult but because it happens so fast you can feel the pressure. Also, the ending is very interesting and it makes you want to keep reading or at least know what she was thinking. I also love that type of endings and in general I enjoyed this story.

Counterparts

The story is a bout a man called Farrington who works for Mr. Alleyne who is a little bald and pink man who abused on Farrington and was always yelling at him and complaining about his work. 

He is told by Mr. Alleyne with a very short deadline to write a contract. But he goes out for a drink. And on the way back to work the chief clerk runs to him and tells him that Mr. Alleyne wants the copy of the correspondance of the Delacour case. Delacour is a middle-aged women with money and Mr. Alleyne was said to be "sweet on her or on her money".

Farrington give the correspondance hoping that he will not notice that the las two letters are missing. Then he gets back to work but he drifts of to thinking for a few and he is interrumpted by Mr. Alleyne screaming at him. But, he answers incorrectly or inapropiately to a rhetorical question and he now must apologize to Mr. Alleyne.

He paws his watch and goes all night drinking with friends and collegues. Later, they are introduced to a man called Weathers. Who arm wrestles with Farrington beating him and making him very angry and making him look bad. 

On his way home his anger grows and grows and when he gets home, his wife is not there and he orders his son Tom to cook him dinner but when he sees that the fire in the kitchen is out he chases the boy and beats him with a stick and the kid screamed "I'll say hail mary for you pa, if don't beat me".

This is a very interesting ending of the story because it even mentions that he wasn't drunk or anything. In my opinion it was all a sum of his anger because of Mr. Alleyne abusing on him all the time, his povery and the anger when Weather beat him and made him look band when he had been the star of the night by saying that to his boss, although, he didn't mention the apology part.

But still, what fault did his son have and also, even if being very angry and all that the son was very obedient so there was no reason to hit him. 

I didn't like this ending too much because it is very inconclusive, but not like in Eveline, this feels inconclusive literally. Also I didn't like how the jump from one place to another and then to another place and so on.

An encounter

An encounter is a story about Joe Dillon who introduces the wild west to their friends and he and his brother would invite several kids to play together. But Joe was too rough for the other boys and his band always won the battles.

But then the narrator doesn't get the same thrill about the wild west and wants to experience a real adventure. He does this with Leo, Joe's brother and a boy named Mahony to look for a real adventure.

They meet at the Canal bridge but Leo doesn't show. And they wander thought the streets and different neighborhoods, they eat lunch and they cross a river using a ferry.

When wandering in another neighborhood, Mahony chases after a cat to a field. By this time they had to go back home to avoid getting caught so they cross the field to take a train but they encounter a strange old man. The man asks them and talks for a while and then Mahony runs chasing the cat leaving the narrator with the old man. Scared, the narrator is pleased when he returns.

I didn't like this story that much. It is interesting and quite amusing to imagine the boys on a real-life adventure and all they went through but it still isn't the type of story I'm usually into.