Of course, the five short stories I read from James Joyce's 'Dubliners' tell different tales that have nothing to do with one another; however, I have to admit I got practically the same taste at the end of each of them. 'A Painful Case', 'Two Gallants', 'Eveline', 'Counterparts' and 'An Encounter' all feature the same feeling of melancholia, loneliness, and misery in at least one of their characters, whether it is and old single man, a young man that hasn't achieve anything in his life, a young girl that can't escape from her ugly and boring life, an alcoholic that lives frustrated with his life, or a schoolboy who despises his own friend. All the stories seem to me sadly realistic. I would like to say that Joyce is taking a too negative point on life in his stories, but he's only narrating some episodes that actually happen in the real world, nothing more; he's being too negative, nor too optimistic, he's just narrating life as it is.
The main characters of each of the stories have some characteristics I like, and some others I can rather despise. For example, Mr. Duffy can be said to be a honourable man that hasn't done anything wrong, but he's too miserable to let himself live happily; he was miserable and had a chance to change that, but he didn't want to change his nature at all. Corley is basically the type of man I've never liked, and Lenehan seems to me just a sheep following Corley everywhere, but at least he knows his life has no point by now. Eveline is critical thinker, and thinks about the implications of her actions; we could think that she's weak for not leaving her life and going to Buenos Aires with Frank, but maybe she was stronger for refusing to change a miserable life for a even more miserable life with a man that, at the end, she doesn't love. Farrington is a lazy and weak man that can't face life without drinking, and has nothing to look up to, but his problematic sense of humour. Finally, the arrogant schoolboy narrator who had been despising his friend Mahony the whole story regrets having those negative feelings towards him.
Overall, 'Dubliners' are some great realistic stories that can open more your eyes to what real life is.
It is true, "Dubliners" is a very sad book, although the last, longest story, "The Dead," does end hopefully. The plot of "Eveline" was interestingly re-used (with an entirely different spin) as a story arc in the great 1970s British television drama "Upstairs, Downstairs."
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