Standard English 12
Mr. Huvane
Dubliners
by James Joyce
Group Project
Each student or group will cover a story from the novel. There are 15 stories that can be
divided into four sections:
Section I Childhood
"The Sisters" (11 pages)
"An Encounter" (11 pages)
"Araby" (8 pages)
Section III Maturity
"A Little Cloud" (7 pages)
"Counterparts" (13 pages)
"Clay" (9 pages)
”A Painful Case" (21 pages)
Section II Adolescence
"Eveline" (6 pages)
"After the Race" (9 pages)
"Two Gallants" (13 pages)
"The Boarding House"(9)
Section IV Public Life
"Ivy Day in the Committee Room" (20
pages) [research #5]
"A Mother" (16 pages)
"Grace" (28 pages)
"The Dead" (54 pages)
Each student or group will be responsible for reading his or her story. Students will be required
to provide the class a PowerPoint presentation outlining important points from the story as
well as themes and noted information I ask for below. We will focus on the ten bold-faced
stories above. I would like to do “The Dead”—the longest, arguably, the best story—together.
As students bring the information for their story together, there will be a need to bring each
section together so as to bring meaning to the text as a whole. As we bring each section
together we will give meaning to these stories as a whole.
The presentation has three parts: Part I: minimum six slide review of
your story (up to 30 points)
Part II: organize a discussion based on
a chosen research prompt (up to 20 points)
Part III: choose two questions/activities
that reach beyond the text (up to 30 points)
Date of Presentation:
Partner:
Part 1 (at least six slides with appealing imagery and appropriate format
For everyone, the following will need to be done for your project and not necessarily in this
order:
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Identify the characters in your story and a give a brief description for each.
Describe the tone and imagery given in the story in terms of the characters and their
story and the town of Dublin.
Give a brief summary of the assigned story. What is the epiphany at the end of your
story? Discuss whether it is positive or negative. Explain what this word epiphany
means to you? Provide an example from your own experience.
What is the theme of your story and how does this theme relate to the section it is in?
Provide a close reading of a passage (of about twenty to thirty lines) in the text taking note
of the word choices, quotes, use of dialect, images (such as light and dark, motion and
stillness, constraint and freedom), figurative language, and unfamiliar phrases to understand
Joyce’s style being used. Focus on the development of setting and characters. Note the
detail with which Joyce develops setting and characters as well as the overall picture of
Dublin created through both. Attribute your notes on language and style to the character
or setting Joyce creates. Trace the description of Dublin throughout the stories. What is
the ultimate picture that
Joyce wants to give his readers? What is Joyce's viewpoint of men in Dubliners? His view
on women?
Part II
Each presentation group will choose ONE of the following research prompts to analyze and
present. Please make a specific connection, during your presentation, between the story
you are presenting and the below prompt:
ACTIVITIES FOR SECTION I— Childhood: “The Sisters,” “An Encounter,”
“Araby”
Choose at least one of these questions to initiate a discussion in class. Please make
sure you refer to specifics from the text.
1. Joyce entitled this section “Childhood.” Its central theme is the young protagonists’
dawning awareness of the paralysis of adulthood. Compare and contrast the epiphanies
undergone by the narrators of the three stories. What enables each narrator to experience
his epiphany?
2. These stories are the only ones in the book written in first person. Why did Joyce do
this? How would the stories be different if written in third person?
3. Compare and contrast the dreams of the narrator in “An Encounter” to those of the
narrator of “Araby.” What purpose do the dreams serve in illuminating Joyce’s opinion of
Dublin and Ireland? How do the dreams lead to the boys’ understandings of the paralysis
of adult life?
4. In each of the three stories, religion in the form of a priest(s) plays an important part in
the narrators’ lives. Compare and contrast the roles priests play in the boys’ lives, and
discuss the role religion plays in the spiritual paralysis awaiting the boys in Joyce’s
Dublin.
5. Why did Joyce make the narrators in “The Sisters” and “Araby” parentless? Why is it
important that the boys live with an aunt and uncle rather than a father and mother?
ACTIVITIES FOR SECTION II— Adolescence: “Eveline,” “Two Gallants, “ and “The
Boarding House:
Choose at least one of these questions to initiate a discussion in class. Please make
sure you refer to specifics from the text.
1. Compare and contrast the personalities and temperaments of Eveline and Polly from
“The Boarding House.” Look at the outside forces shaping their lives and the choices
they made. Make some predictions about their futures.
2. Compare and contrast the actions of Jimmy from “After the Race” to those of Eveline.
To what is each attracted and for what reasons are they attracted? How will each be
served by the choices they’ve made?
3.Compare and contrast the influence their parents had on Eveline, and/or Polly, and
Jimmy.
4. Describe Eveline's life as it currently stands and as it may have been if she had gone to
Buenos Aires with Frank. Why does she choose to stay in Dublin? Explain. Do you think
she chooses well, or should she have chosen to go with Frank?
5.How would each of the following characters react if they were in Mr. Doran’s position
in “The Boarding House”:
Jimmy Doyle, Lenehan, Corley?
6. Compare and contrast the ways in which women are depicted in
your story. Is Joyce celebrating the virtues of women who
should serve as models for future young women? Explain.
7. Compare Eveline's father with other fathers and father figures in the book, such as
Little Chandler of "A Little Cloud," Farrington of "Counterparts," and Mr. Kernan of
"Grace." What do you think were the social expectations for fathers in the Ireland of
Joyce's day? Do you think Joyce approves of such expectations? Explain your opinions
using examples from the text.
ACTIVITIES FOR SECTION III— Adulthood: “A Little Cloud, “ “Counterparts,” and
“Clay”
Choose at least one of these questions to initiate a discussion in class. Please make
sure you refer to specifics from the text.
1.Explain the meaning of the title of your story. Cite the text to support your discussion.
2. In the story “Little Cloud,” compare and contrast Dublin to the other capitals
discussed. What do the characters say about Dublin in comparison to Paris, London, and
Berlin? From their comparisons, how would you judge Dublin in comparison to the other
three capitals?
3. In the story “Counterparts,” why does Joyce make Farrington a large man? How would
the story have been different if he had been similar in physique to Little Chandler? Also,
is there any way to explain Farrington’s behavior in this story?
4. In the story “Little Cloud,” Little Chandler emphatically insists that Gallaher will get
married some day. Why does he defend the institution of marriage so strongly? Is he
arguing out of loyalty to his own marriage? Explain.
5.Compare and contrast the concept of love communicated in your story. Is there a sense
that with adulthood, romance becomes more of a responsibility? What other story
compares or contrasts with your story concerning the idea of love.
6. What was Mrs. Sinico’s cause of death? How is the cause of her death significant?
What effect does it have on Mr.Duffy?
7. Describe why you believe Joyce chose the title "Clay" for his story involving Maria
and her trip to visit her good friends. Support your arguments with evidence from the
story. Remember, you may argue any perspective that you believe to be true, as long as
you can defend it well; therefore, you should not hesitate to stretch your critical thinking
skills and consider subtle possibilities.
8.Discuss the male-female relationship in your story. Considering that Joyce apparently
had a happy marriage himself, why does he paint such a bleak view of marriage in these
stories? How does his view of marriage here reflect his view of Dublin?
ACTIVITIES FOR SECTION IV—Public Life: “Ivy Day in the Committee Room“ and
“A Mother.”
Choose at least one of these questions to initiate a discussion in class. Please make
sure you refer to specifics from the text.
1 The story “Ivy Day in the Committee Room,” is one of contrasts—contrasts between
modern Ireland (as represented by the political hacks in the committee room) and Ireland
past (as represented by Charles Parnell, the dead “Chief” whom Ivy Day honors).
Specific some of the ways by which Joyce makes the contrasts evident.
2.Compare and contrast the way political committees are illustrated in “Ivy Day in the
Committee Room” to the way Joyce describes the concert committee in “Mother.” What
might Joyce be saying about public organizations in Ireland?
3.What is the significance of the titles for the stories “Ivy Day in The Committee Room”?
How should we interpret the last line of this story
4. Research the life and death of Charles Stewart Parnell. What were the planks in his
political platform? How did he plan to accomplish his plans for Ireland? What effect did
his political fall and ensuing death have on Irish politics?
5. Compare and contrast the actions of Eveline from "Eveline," Maria from "Clay," and
Mrs. Kearney from "A Mother." Which character most closely resembles Joyce's ideal
picture of femininity? Why? How does each character reflect the society of Dublin in the
early 20th century?
6) Describe Mrs. Kearney's actions in "A Mother" as relates to the social conventions for
the economic class to which the other characters belong. Then, make a decision about
whether she defended justice by demanding proper payment or whether she simply made
a nuisance of herself in polite company. Defend your conclusions.
PART III : The Text and Beyond!
The following questions attempt to connect the stories to something outside of the text,
including your life. Choose at least two of the questions/activities below and discuss.
Provide specific examples to support your response. Although you may use multimedia
to enhance your discussion, you must, at least, initiate—and hold—a discussion.
1) How is high school different from what you thought it would be when you were in
middle school? What is the most important piece of advice you would give to an
incoming freshman here at CBA.
2) How did you react the first time you discovered that someone you admired and looked
up to had “feet of clay”? How did this realization affect your view of the world?
3) Did you, or someone you know ever have a crush on someone older? What did you, or
that person, do in order to see them or be near them? At what point did you, or that
person, realize that the dream person was unobtainable? How did you, or that person
react to this knowledge?
4) Cast the movie of one of the stories from Dubliners. Consider both the physical
aspects of the characters as well as the actors’ recent work, and defend your casting
choices through examples from the story. Select a director for your film and
give reasons for this selection as well.
5) Find a song or poem that deal with issues related to childhood, adolescence or growing
older. Offer an analysis of the song/poem relating this to Joyce’s story.
6) Perform a dramatic monologue (or dialogue) in which you assume the role or roles of a
main character. Make sure you allow your audience to know that character’s emotions
regarding his/her environment, station in life, prospects for the future, as well as
his/her motivation for behaviors shown in the story. Consider costume, physical
movement, and voice patterns when planning your presentation.
7) Write, and perform, an “unseen” conversation between characters in your story. Use
dialect and attempt Joyce’s writing style as much as possible. Rewrite the scene with the
same characters set in modern America.
8) Research the role religion played in life in Joyce's Dublin. What effects has
Catholicism had on the Irish today and in Joyce's time? Discuss any recent scandals
regarding religion in Ireland. How has the country’s relationship to the Catholic Church
evolved?
EPIPHANY IN JOYCE’S
DUBLINERS
Joyce often ironically exposes his characters to moments of self-awareness or awareness
of the true nature of their environment. Joyce called these moments “epiphanies,”
adapting the religious term referring to the revelation of the infant
Jesus to the Magi. In Stephen Hero Joyce writes, “by an epiphany he (Stephen Daedalus)
meant a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or of gesture or
in a memorable phase of the mind itself” (188). It is the flash in which the essential
nature of a person, an object, or a moment is perceived, all at once. Joyce says, “its soul,
its whatness leaps to us from the vestment of its appearance.”
Joyce often recorded his own epiphanies, then later used the idea of epiphany in
Dubliners as a symbolic literary technique toreveal the paralysis of the city as well as the
faults and shortcomings of its inhabitants. Joyce also used the epiphany as a
structural device; rather than employing a traditional resolution, Joyce ends his stories
with the epiphany in the form of a speech (as in “The Sisters” and “Grace”), a gesture
(“Two Gallants”), or a “memorable phase of the mind itself” (“Araby” and
“The Dead”), because the reader’s revelation about the character’s condition satisfies
Joyce’s purpose in writing the story.
As a part of your presentation discuss the epiphany in your story. Discuss whether you
think it is a positive or negative epiphany. Finally, each presenter needs to present their
own epiphany. For example, when did you experience a brief moment when everything
seemed to just make sense, when you came to some deep realization about yourself for a
moment and you were, afterwards, forever changed. You can have multimedia
accompany you or just offer a monologue describing your epiphany