In 'The Sisters,' for example, physical death is not entirely bad, as it frees Father Flynn from what sounds like a miserable life. Joyce's attitude toward death is complex. The third theme is death, whether that death be physical or merely spiritual. Because corruption prevents progress, it is closely related to the theme of paralysis.

Later, Father Flynn will be referred to as a simoniac, one guilty of this offense.

In the second paragraph of this story, the narrator (storyteller) mentions the word simony, the selling of blessings, pardons, or other favors by the Roman Catholic Church to its members. The second theme that Joyce introduces is corruption. Father Flynn, in turn, lives on Great Britain Street and dies on the anniversary of England's victory over Ireland in 1690. The time spent with the priest prevents the boy from having fun with his peers. And of course, the gray face in the boy's dream that 'had died of paralysis' is that of Father Flynn himself.Ĭlearly Father Flynn represents the paralyzed Catholic Church in this story - and the church's ability to paralyze others. In fact, it may have been a stroke that resulted in the scandalous dropping of the chalice revealed near the end of the story. In the first line of 'Sisters,' Father Flynn has suffered a third and fatal stroke - a malfunctioning of blood vessels in the brain that can cause paralysis, if not death. The second was England, which had conquered Ireland in the seventeenth century and resisted granting the country its independence until 1922. The first was the Roman Catholic Church, the teachings of which most Dubliners of Joyce's day adhered to passionately. James Joyce believed that the Irish society and culture, as well as the country's economy, had been paralyzed for centuries by two forces. This, the first story in Dubliners, introduces many of the themes and motifs that will recur throughout the book, linking its component parts together into something that is not quite a novel but more than a mere collection of short stories. He sees the body of Father Flynn lying in an open casket, after which the boy's aunt and the priest's two sisters converse cryptically about the deceased, implying that he was mentally unstable for some time before dying and that he may have been involved in some scandal or other. That evening, the boy's aunt takes him on a formal visit to the house of mourning. He feels less sad than he would have expected in fact, the boy experiences 'a sensation of freedom' as a result of his mentor's death. The following morning, the boy visits Father Flynn's house and finds a card displayed outside announcing the man's death, but he does not knock on the door. The two men share the opinion that spending time with Father Flynn was unhealthy for the boy, who should have been playing 'with young lads of his own age.' In bed later, the boy tries to understand why Old Cotter and his uncle would not want him to associate with Father Flynn then he imagines or dreams about the priest trying to confess something to him. Family friend Old Cotter is telling the boy's aunt and uncle that the boy's mentor, Father James Flynn, has passed away after a third stroke. It is 1895 in Dublin, Ireland when an unnamed boy comes down to supper one evening.

A story about my uncle list of numbers