Epiphanies in the Dubliners

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The Dubliners by James Joyce features stories of local people dealing with struggles, celebrating triumphs, and learning about life. Each story centers around a main character facing reality and eventually, finding truth in an epiphany. The epiphanies in the stories are always different and always representing an important aspect of life. The epiphanies are both creative and destructive at the same time. The characters in the stories realize something beneficial, but by realizing, hope is lost, innocence is lost, and instead that hope is replaced by a slap of strong and cold reality. Most often the character gets stuck- stuck in Dublin, stuck with their family, stuck with loss of love. Epiphanies being both destructive and creative are especially found in the stories “Araby,” “Eveline, “and “The Dead.” In the story “Araby,” the main character is a young boy. The story is told from his point of view and the reader is given a direct insight to his innermost feelings. He is completely captivated by a young girl from down his street. He barely knows her but he holds an innocent desire to have her as his own. He only slightly realizes that he is in far over his head. He shares, “...my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.” When asked by her to get something for her at a festival, he thought this was going to finally be his chance to show her his worth. But on his trip and during his time at the bazaar, he confronts the reality of his “love.” He can’t find anything to get her and his frustration grows and through the frustration, he sees the pointlessness of his actions. It says, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” He finally sees that he’s been consumed and obsessed with this girl, but it was never love. His dreams are

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