James Joyce

THE DUBLINERS (1914)

1. In what ways are characters in Dubliners paralyzed? What forces render them unable to act? Support your response by discussing and providing textual support from at least three of the short stories.
2. How is death treated in Dubliners; what different roles – both metaphorical and literal – does death play? Discuss “The Dead” and two other stories.
3. What different narrative voices does Joyce use? What different effects do these have? Draw on three different stories in your response.
4. In what ways is “The Sisters”a suitable beginning to Dubliners, and in what ways is “The Deada” suitable ending? Draw on three different stories in your response.
5. What role(s) does religion play in Dubliners? Draw on three different stories in your response.
6. Joyce wrote Dublinerswhilst he was in self-imposed exile in Europe. How do different stories deal with the theme of home and/or away? Draw on three different stories in your response.
7. Dublinersis often seen as paralleling the passage from childhood to maturity. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Provide evidence for your claims from at least three different stories.
8. Joyce brings the reader’s attention to everyday objects throughout his stories. Discuss some examples and explain the significance of Joyce’s use of them in the collection. Some critics argue that there are different levels of meaning in Dublinersand that everyday objects have symbolic significance. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Provide evidence for your claims from at least three different stories.
9. Some of the most confusing passages in these stories have to do with Irish history and politics. What role(s) does politics play in Dubliners? Draw on three different stories in your response.
10. How is Ireland depicted – both metaphorically and literally – in Dubliners? Draw on three different stories in your response.
11. How far can the structure of Dubliners help us to understand its meaning(s)? Look at Dubliners as a whole and also pick out two to three stories to discuss in more detail.
12. What is the function of children in the stories from Dubliners? The lives of children are an important part of Dubliners. This is especially true in the first three stories, but there are also kids in most of the later stories (think of Farrington’s son in “Counterparts” and the mischievous kiddos in “Clay”). Is it really important that all these children are growing up in the city of Dublin, or are their stories pretty much universal coming-of-age tales? Draw on three different stories in your response.
13. How important are parents in the stories from Dubliners? Draw on three different stories in your response.
14. To what extent does one’s birthplace determine one’s identity or destiny? Is individual freedom inevitably limited by the social customs of a particular place? Draw on three different stories in your response.
15. Even though Dublinersisn’t a novel, do the stories fit together to make a collection with rising action, climax, and denouement? Or is there a different system of organization? Is Dubliners really a single book, or just fifteen completely different tales? Draw on three different stories in your response.
16. A lot of the themes of this book are major downers. Did you find any excitement or happiness, though? What’s the most hopeful story in Dubliners? Was one story more disturbing to you than all the rest? Is there a middle ground? Draw on three different stories in your response.
17. Not much happens in a lot of the stories in Dubliners. They begin with elaborate descriptions, rather than with concrete facts (“Araby” and “Two Gallants,” for example), and then instead of suspense, there’s a lot of long conversation (“Ivy Day in the Committee Room” and “Grace,” for example). What’s the meaning of this? Can you have a good story without action? Draw on three different stories in your response.
18. So many characters in these stories want to leave Dublin, but no one ever gets out. Is this just a coincidence? What’s holding everybody back? Draw on three different stories in your response.
19. Joyce’s novel,Ulysses, was censored in the United States for over a decade because it was said to be immoral. One of the printers of Dubliners even refused to put some of its stories into print because of their sexual content. Which stories do you think are the most likely to be censored? Do you think they should be? Draw on three different stories in your response.
20. Some of the characters in Dubliners seem profoundly lonely and isolated, while others get into trouble with and because of their friends. After reading all of the stories, do you think isolation or peer pressure is a worse problem for the characters? Is one or the other more “Dublin” than the other? Draw on three different stories in your response.
21. There’s a lot of immaturity and stupidity at work in Dubliners, but there’s also a lot of sincere emotion. Do they ever go together? How do you respond to immature characters: Jimmy Doyle in “After the Race,” Eveline, Farrington in “Counterparts,” Mrs Kearney in “A Mother,” and Mr Kernan in “Grace”? Draw on three different stories in your response.
22. Discuss the role of story titles in the collection. How does a given title interact with its story and with the titles of other stories? What is the significance of the collection’s title? Draw on three different stories in your response.
23. In the first three stories of Dubliners, Joyce uses first-person narration, though for the rest of the collection he uses third-person. What purpose do the two narrative approaches serve? Draw on three different stories in your response.

Sources: Cliffnotes. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/d/dubliners/study-help/essay-questions; Crossref. http://crossref-it.info/textguide/dubliners/38/2815; Penguin Random House, A Reader’s Guide. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/321917/dubliners-by-james-joyce/; Shmoop. https://www.shmoop.com/dubliners/questions.html; Sparks Notes: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dubliners/study-questions/