Gabriel Conroy The Dead and Farrington Counterparts from Dubliners by James Joyce - Book Report/Review Example

Running header: Dubliners Dubliners (Gabriel Conroy “The dead” and Farrington Counterparts) Paper Introduction Like a myriad of artistic works of the 20th century, Dubliners by James Joyce is a deceptively simple work with through analysis compared his later fiction works like A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegan’s Wake. Dubliners is one of those which are easy to access, easy to follow and comprehend whereas other workers are not easy to understand and poses a challenge even most sophisticate readers across the globe. Dubliners gave Joyce an opportunity to build his writing muscles. Dubliners is played and worked at characterization and plotting, dialogue and description. Dubliner is logically set in the Dublin city of Ireland which was a less cosmopolitan compared to a number of other cities in Western Europe when the work was done. The city was not sophisticated when Joyce did the work. Joyce presents a number of stories in the book and the analysis in this paper will analyze and compare two characters in the play. The paper will analyze Gabriel Conroy “The dead” and Farrington Counterparts “(Joyce, 1926). It will also consider Eveline in analyzing the two characters in terms of social status, motivation, self-image, impression on (and of) others, family relationships, among other variables. Discussion Gabriel Conroy is one of the last protagonists found in Joyce work. He embodies some of the characters that are portrayed in other stories which include acute class, frustrated love, short temper, social awkwardness and consciousness. Gabriel is presented as a character with a number of faces, a loving family man who brings a lot of joy with a cheerful presence. He is involved in performing a number of masculine jobs. He is however unable to forge a reasonable connection and the attempts to do so become offensive and awkward. Through the conversation, he defenselessly stumbles through the entire conversation about the plan of going on with cycling. He is perceived as a man whose life mainly struggles to remain relevant with the world around him. He is presented as a social performer. His unease with unbridled thoughts and feelings is palpable though he is forced to face it throughout the story. He is a representation of intersection between personal confrontation and social isolation. Farrrington on the other hand is presented a one of the darkest characters in the story. He violently rebels against the daily boring life. His life involves a repetitive mechanical, paralyzing repetition on daily basis as a copy clerk with takes which are mind numbing with the uncompromising bosses who cause rapid rage over him. During the day of counterpart, he unleashes on the innocent beings of his world, the innocent children. His main problem started when he was unable to realize the maddening circularity that was defined his days. He has no boundaries between different parts of his life; his work life affects his family life and therefore his life becomes worse instead of making it better. In a number of incidences, he slips out of work, abuses the boss and engages in drinking alcohol. Despite the rebellion that he engages, his worst moments re-appears later which is usually exacerbated by the actions. The lack of a clear mind on the consequences of his actions later spillover to his life which he doesn’t have any reasonable control. (Joyce, 1926) In ‘the Dead’ Gabriel has a clear spontaneous honest speech which appears to be rare in other stories in the entire Dubliners. When he gets an opportunity to dance with Miss Ivors, the later interrogates him on his plans to travel other countries outside Ireland and why he is reluctant to stay in the home country. Instead of being gentle and responding in a reasonable good way, he says “I’m sick of my own country, sick of it!” (Joyce, 1926). In the entire book, he is the only character that voices his unhappiness with the life in Ireland. He pronounces his sentiments without any sense of remorse with regards to the hard life in Dublin which connects with the hardship faced by other characters. The explanation connects to the boring life and suffering that Farrrington is faced with. The purgative exclamation by the author helps the reader to connect the name Gabriel to the biblical angel Gabriel who informed Mary that God has picked her to be the mother of Christ. He is a character who neither suppresses nor rejects his revelation and places himself with a great perspective. In the last sections of the story, Gabriel is presented as having had a clear vision as a human being and tedious life as a man. (Joyce, 1926) Joyce presents Farrington as a very violent character, something that puts him apart from others who are in Dubliners. Most of the characters presented in the story have appreciated boredom and routine tasks and being part of their lives. They believe that there is nothing or every little they can do about it. Eveline for instance decides to choose her familiar daily routines instead of focusing on unfamiliar tasks despite the fact that the role she is performing with the routine tasks are more inferior as compared to what she is currently doing. Farrington is presented as almost being opposite to everyone given the fact that he opposes almost every idea that is supported and endorsed by other people. Unlike others like Eveline and Gabriel who believes that what others do and concerns override their actions, Farrington is an self centered person and his interest come first before any other. He is used by the author to explain what is likely to happen when life mainly comprise of mindless repetition. The author believes that when the trends of doing repetitive task continue, it is likely that violence will arise from the opposing groups. (Joyce, 1926) The two authors present unhappy group of characters in the story. With unique family backgrounds and social ties, they are used to explain the unhappiness that characters face. When reading a third story ‘Eveline’ the same trend of unhappy characters are presented. Eveline in the story just like other characters has no possibility of being contended with life and is faced with two main extreme options of either escaping to Argentina for marriage or remaining unhappy domestically. The main reality she is faced with is to remain kind and being true to the promise given to the father. The options presented here are similar to the dilemma that Farrington is facing; an option of always rejecting and temporarily being happy and being contended with the routine task and being unhappy still. In other words, there is no clear option and path for the characters. They face a lot of social life difficulties. The story of Eveline, sees the character pick an option of living unhappy life with the belief that there is little she can do about it. The story of Eveline compares well to the two characters given that she is the fist central female adult character in the study; therefore she expands the perspective of Dubliners. (Joyce, 1926) Conclusion A number of characters in Dubliners faced different harsh conditions. Both Farrington and Gabriel’s stories explains the conditions and situations of two people who face almost similar status. Boredom, harsh conditions defines the two characters. The motivation is to remain happy, however this change as life continues. The third story of Eveline compares well with the suffering of these people and the choices they are forced to make. Gabriel does not fear talking about his life perspective, just like Farrington, the only difference is right the former does not fear to explain his discomfort. In a nutshell, there are a number of similarities in terms of characters in the stories discussed by Joyce in the Dubliners. Reference Joyce, J. (1926). Dubliners,. New York: Modern library. Read More