It is easy to see that Joyce believed himself to be an artist or an ambassador whose responsibility it is to show the life of the people of his home: Dublin, Ireland. In Morris Beja’s book, James Joyce: A Literary Life, Beja recalls a letter from Joyce to Constantine P. Curran in which Joyce says, “I call the series Dubliners to betray the soul of that hemiplagia or paralysis which many consider a city.” (32)

Epiclesis is another term that Joyce uses to illustrate how the people of Dublin desire a transformation from their current lives into something greater, and yet, like the Church, these people will never attain what they desire. In definition, the word “epiclesis” is used to describe the miraculous transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ in the Catholic Mass. Each story within Dubliners involves some aspect of religion and Joyce argues that it is partially this obsession with the Church that makes the citizens of Dublin as unsuccessful as they are.

In Joyce’s book Dubliners Joyce captures the essence of the citizens of Dublin and in turn writes about their paralysis. The term “paralysis” can be defined as the state of being trapped or unable to change. Joyce tells the stories of many Dubliners who are bound by their own ideas of religion and what is right. They are stuck in their religion as well as their opposition to change. Joyce believes that the people of Dublin are caught in a vicious and self-destru

Some topics in this essay:
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