A Study Of The Artistic Features Of Epiphanies In Dubliners

James Joyce is regarded by most critics as the most brilliant prose stylist of the 20th century, a diligent language innovator. Joyce has been labeled as a great rebel and a forerunner of English literature. Dubliners and his first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, brought Joyce considerable attention from the critical world. His masterpiece Ulysses, which has been compared by some critics to be a parallel of Homer's Odyssey, won him acclaim and reputation around the world. His last novel, Finnegans Wake, is so rich with his innovative techniques that, unfortunately, even critics feel incapable to fully appreciate the work.Dubliners, which sets its backgrounds in Dublin, capital of Ireland, depicts the lives of middle and lower class Dubliners. The stories are entwined with a lifeless state of"paralysis"which is a common phase in the early 20th century Dublin. In those stories, Joyce's beautiful prose style is exemplified, as well as his deep thoughts. From the perspective of literary devices, Joyce employs"epiphany", a unique artistic device he has applied in all the stories.Each story in Dubliners is a unique and innovative application of epiphany. This thesis elaborately chooses six short stories from the collection,"The Sisters","Araby","Eveline","A Little Cloud","Counterpart","The Dead", which respectively represent the period of childhood, adolescence, and maturity. On one hand, through close reading and analyzing, it inducts from specific instances the characteristics and patterns of Epiphany, which falls into three types. On the other hand, it is expected, through close examination of the characters, to establish a new understanding of the people in Dubliners, that they may not be a people entrapped hopelessly in paralysis, but human being of the same true and sincere yearnings.With a thorough study of Dubliners'epiphany, the dissertation hopes to push forward the understanding of Joyce's purpose in writing the collection. He wishes to bring his fellow Dubliners to spiritual emancipation, waking them from their paralyzing and deathlike slumber, leading people to a closer look at his"dear, dirty Dublin".