Paralysis? Epiphany? What does this all mean???

In each of the three short stories that we read from James Joyce’s Dubliners, Joyce grants each main character a “paralysis” and follows this up with the main character having an “epiphany” at the end of each story. Joyce gives both these qualities to the main character, which he uses the idea of “paralysis” as the inability to act, and an “epiphany” as a sudden realization. He does this for instance in his short story Eveline. Joyce introduces a character named Eveline who seems to be plagued by the idea of still living with her father at her hometown. This plagues Eveline because her father threatens her more than he did when she was a child, because she is the only one left in the house and her mother is no longer alive. Eveline’s father also does not trust her enough to even give her any money, because he believes that she will spend it unwisely. Therefore, Eveline’s inability to leave her house is due to her connection to her home and mostly because her father does not truly allow her to leave the house to live on her own, especially with Frank. This is the paralysis that Joyce grants to Eveline. However, as the story progresses, Eveline figures that she can escape her hometown if she marries her lover, Frank, secretly. He would support her and take her all the way to, the unfamiliar location to her, Buenos Ares. Although this seems like an easy resolution to her problem of her dad’s continuous threats and to stop the palpitations that her father gives her each night, Eveline’s epiphany at the end of this short story prevents her from taking this path to escape it all. When she is about to leave with Frank on the boat to Buenos Ares, she freezes and cannot get on the boat. She suddenly feels like Frank is drowning her at that moment when he encourages her to get on the boat. She looks like a “helpless animal” and she exclaims to Frank that she will not go (41). This moment of her being terrified of leaving her hometown made her realize that she could not leave this town all behind her. She has a sudden realization here that she does not want to leave because everything at her hometown is familiar. She has gained happiness from the familiar hometown and from the people there at the town at one point in her life. Also, she realizes that she cannot leave because she remembered what her mother told her before she died, which was to keep their home together as long as possible. Ultimately her own epiphany resulted her in the same situation she was in before, which is being stuck at her hometown and living with her dad once again. However, now she realizes that she could not and does not want to leave her hometown. She has chosen her path.

Joyce also uses “paralysis” and “epiphany” in the same way as in Eveline in his other short story Araby. The boy in this story, who is not given a name, finds true adoration for Mangan’s sister. He seems to be shy in conveying his feelings towards her though, for he does not ever tell her his feelings and seems to only follow her around without ever talking to her and constantly thinks about her. When Mangan’s sister finally speaks to the boy, she asks him if he was going to the Araby, which was a bazaar that was only there for a short time. She had told him that she wished that she could go to it, but she had to go on a retreat with her convent that day. So at this point, the boy makes the effort to try to make it to the bazaar that Saturday evening and get her something that would reveal his true feelings for her. But as the day approaches, the boy’s uncle does not come back until later, which the boy cannot leave to the bazaar unless he gets money from his uncle for the trip there. This is the paralysis that he experiences, which is the inability to go to the bazaar because his uncle is not there to provide him with the money and permission necessary for him to leave. This is yet another adult figure that is the paralysis. Due to his uncle’s tardiness, when the boy got to the bazaar, mostly everything had closed. He was too late to experience the entire bazaar and found nothing for him to buy for her. However, he went to a particular stall, which granted the main character his epiphany, and revealed his true paralysis. After going to one of the booths at the bazaar and seeing the lady, who was running a particular stall, was flirting with the two soldiers, he realized that his purpose for being at the bazaar was due to “vanity” (35). By saying this, he reveals that he realizes that everything comes at a price, which in this scenario, it was buying a gift for the girl for her to like him. He expresses that his “eyes burned with anguish and anger” at realizing this, which actually reveals the boy’s true epiphany (35). He realized at this moment that if he got a gift here at the bazaar for the girl, he would not reveal to her that he adored her, but it would only be an item to her. The boy had not built a relationship enough with her as well for the girl even to think that this gift meant anything. His paralysis then was that he was unable to act and think reasonably about this adventure that he undertook at the bazaar because he was blinded by his own desire to please the one he adores.

Even though these two short stories have different characters and different locations, Joyce seems to use the paralysis and the epiphany in the same manner for each story. Each of the main characters’ paralysis had been driven by their heightened emotions. Eveline’s paralysis was created by her fear of the unfamiliar and unknown, and the boy’s paralysis was created because he was too shy to reveal his feelings to the girl. These two also had outside influences that gave the main character the solution they wanted at the start of each short story, but by the end of them, due to their epiphanies, they could not accept their offerings. Eveline rejected the escape that Frank was providing her, because she realized she wanted to be there instead of Buenos Ares. The boy could not buy anything from the lady when he realized his epiphany. Therefore, both of their epiphanies made them realize that they were better off in the situation they started out as, then what they were about to put themselves into.