This document provides an overview and analysis of patterns of paralysis in James Joyce's short story collection Dubliners. It discusses how Joyce uses the stages of life to represent the paralysis afflicting Dublin at the time. The stories are divided into sections representing childhood, adolescence, mature life, and public life, with each stage building upon the previous to show increasingly complex and "grown up" plots. Both the characters and their situations are symbolic of the Irish people and the nation's spiritual state. The document instructs students to organize into groups based on the life stages and prepare to present their analysis of how their assigned section represents paralysis in Dublin.

1. Pattern of Paralysis in Joyce’s
Dubliners
A Critical Analysis by Florence L.
Walzl

2. What is paralysis?
Physical:(Medicine / Pathology) Pathola. impairment or loss of
voluntary muscle function or of sensation (sensory paralysis) in a part or
area of the body, usually caused by a lesion or disorder of the muscles or
the nerves supplying them
b. a disease characterized by such impairment or loss; palsy

3. What ideas do the following terms
evoke?
• Mental paralysis
• Moral/spiritual paralysis

4. Structural Features
• 3 stories of Childhood
• 4 stories of Adolescence
• 4 stories of Mature Life
• 3 stories of Public Life
• “The Dead” is
considered a separate
coda of sorts
Notice the
symmetry and
balance of the
stories

5. Each Section has its own plot image:
• Childhood: disillusionment
• Adolescence: Entrapment
• Mature Life: Sterility
• Public Life: Corruption
Joyce uses the stages of life in order to progress the symbolic representation
of the paralysis of Dublin. As such, each section presumes upon and builds
upon the previous, with subsequent plots and narratives becoming more
complex and “grown up”, so to speak.

6. Plot and symbol tend to fuse.
• Each story is an image in itself, a symbol of
the central paralytic theme.
• Both characters and the action (or lack
thereof) are symbolic: the Dubliners
themselves are the Irish people as a whole,
and their situations signify the spiritual state
of the nation

7. Your task:
Organize yourselves into your groups:
Childhood
Adolescence
Mature Life
Public Life
Follow the directions on the packet in front of you. This activity is a two-day
activity. Today is a planning/ fact gathering day. The next class period, you
will prepare to present your findings to the class.