The short stories that make up the collection Dubliners were probably written between 1905 and 1907 and, after a long and frustrating delay, were finally published in 1914.To these stories Joyce ascribed a "special odour of corruption" and in a letter to the publisher added this comment: " My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to be the centre of paralysis."
Dubliners has been described and studied in various ways by Joyceâs scholars. Some see the stories as epiphanies revealing the frustrations and defeats of modern life. Others emphasize the theme of paralysis running through the stories. Some have, with perhaps excessive ingenuity, probed the stories for Homeric parallels.
Joyce cocks a penetrating, understanding yet ironic eye at the life he has rejected. He views the lives of those who have stayed behind, and delineates the paralysis, decay, and defeats of those lives. He imagines himself still in Dublin, and sketches in the frustrations that would have been in store for him. And over all the glimpses he affords us, we see one superimposed, central, and dominant yet always implicit image -the nets.
Perceiving the ubiquity of the nets in Dubliners will illuminate what has been a problem for some Joyce scholars -the motivations for the characters. If we keep the Portrait in mind, these motivations are painfully clear -they are the motivations of the trapped. Rebellion against the nets, resignation to them, unthinking acceptance to them, rationalization of them- these make up the motivations. And within the frame of reference that involves not only Dubliners but the Portrait, they are only too logical.
Although the stories of Dubliners are independently meaningful, they are, then, considerably enriched when viewed and interpreted through the Portrait. And Dubliners in turn gives meaningful background to the Portrait. We see in considerably more detail what Stephen is fleeing and why. The two works are mutually and organically concomitant.
* Givens, S. (ed.):James Joyce: Two decades of criticism, Vanguard Press, New York, 1948.
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Creada: 22/02/2000 Última Actualización: 07/03/2000