The next example of social paralysis in Dubliners appears in the vignette “A Little Cloud,” a story in which family is the paralyzing element in the characters life. Chandler is a man who leads a good and stable life with his wife and new child. Chandler holds a steady job as a clerk but longs to flee from his weary and unsatisfying profession in order to pursue his true passion; poetry. He is excited at the prospect of a meeting with an old acquaintance, Gallaher, who leads a lifestyle seemingly abound with freedom, travel, and adventure. Chandler and Gallaher meet at a bar and Chandler is immediately transfixed by Gallaher’s recounts of exotic journeys and tales from the world, as well as being envious of his friends lifestyle. This meeting energizes Chandler, who realizes that he too can pursue his dreams of becoming a poet and breaking from his monotonous job. He returns home and begins to read poetry, but almost immediately the house and its surrounding serve as a reminder to the inescapable life he has resigned himself to. This is profoundly symbolized by his young child beginning to weep, the human representation of the leash that Chandler is bound to, “the wailing of the child pierced the drum of his ear. It was useless, useless! He was a prisoner for life.” In this moment chandler understands that escape is utterly hopeless. His dreams will become lost under the demands of family life; a life he despises yet is unable to alter. This form of social paralysis is extremely similar to Mr. Duffy’s in “A Painful Case.” Although the circumstances differ, the end result is the same. Both men trapped in conscious self-destruction, yet both resigning to the social standards that define their lives and those around them.

At the conclusion of the 19th century the city of Dublin was still strongly Catholic, an attribute that affected all facets of daily life. Joyce utilizes this fact in several of his stories as a debilitating factor in the lives of ce

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