The city of Dublin in each story is seen as a sort of oppressive element to the characters lives, therefore casting a dark and gloomy tone on each of the stories except for perhaps, The Dead which portrays a Dublin home as not prosperous, but comfortable nonetheless, but a few people create uneasiness in the main character’s life and stability. In An Encounter, however, a priest in a Dublin school is horrified when a boy is found reading a western story of adventure, which portrays Dublin as oppressive to imagination. The young men who ignored Maria in the tram on her way to Joe’s show Dublin as unapprecia

Though it doesn’t take much to make a story seem to have a dark background, James Joyce not only integrated subtlety and plot manipulation into his bleak selection of stories, he also created a gloomy setting for the characters to have their epiphanies in, which clearly expresses Joyce’s tone and mood.

The use of epiphanies in Joyce’s stories in Dubliners is apparent, and is the driving element in each story. In The Dead, the main character, Gabriel sees himself as a successful and happily married family man, who can seem a little smug at times. During a dinner party at his Aunt Julia and Aunt Kate’s home in Dublin, he is in a cheerful mood to begin with, but as soon as he speaks with Lily, his mood is shaken. He didn’t mean to make Lily rebuff, he was merely joking with her, but as Dublin is seen as dark and oppressive in the other stories, it is still oppressive in The Dead as shown by Lily who complains about the men in the city, which in turn ruins Gabriel’s mood. His mood is also wavered by his fellow teacher which a narrow view of nationalism whom accuses him of being a “West Briton” just because he was a journalist. He first snaps at his wife who wants to go to Galway when they were invited and suddenly feels bad for it. At the end of the party, as his wife was liste

Some topics in this essay:
Aunt Kate’s, Galway Gabriel, Encounter Clay, Mahoney Mahoney, Joe’s Dublin, James Joyce, , city dublin, Dublin Ireland, sense adventure, song sung d’arcy, clay main characters, portrays dublin, main character, song sung, sung d’arcy, james joyce, experiences epiphany, clay main, main characters,