Anxieties Of The Irish In James Joyce's Dubliners:under The Perspective Of Modernity

Dubliners,a collection of 15 short incisive stories,constitutes a coherent set of snapshots of Dublin,capturing multidimensional scenes of the city,the people and its aliments at the turn of the twentieth century.It is tacitly assessed as the most accessible book among James Joyce's abstruse works,but it is deceptively simple,and its deception resides precisely in the ambiguous implications in every story,for which readers may presumably reach a dead-end of the labyrinth.The thesis is about to deconstruct the conventional adjudication of its thematic paralysis and crack the conundrum with another point view.Penetrating into the prominent features of modernity in the collection—foreign intrusions,secularization and free lifestyles,the thesis establishes its research on anxieties of the Irish provoked by these indeterminate and ambivalent phenomena and attempts to propose a solution to releasing their anxieties,as well as to direct the way out of the dilemma in the light of Gabriel's epiphany.The thesis is composed of three sections: introduction,principal body and conclusion,among which,the principal body splits its elaboration into three chapters.The thesis commences with a comprehensive introduction of the research topic,relevant literature review,orientation,significance and its arrangement.On the basis of relevant researches at home and abroad,the thesis poses it will conduct its exploration from the perspective of modernity.Succeeded by the review of current explications of modernity,it can be generalized that the nature of modernity is renovation and alteration,which reveals the indeterminacy and ambivalence of modernity that can further produce the effect of anxiety.It corresponds to social reality in Ireland during the transitional period.Therefore,this thesis applies the symptom of anxiety to survey the dilemma of the Irish in the inchoate modern era.Chapter one explores the anxiety of the Irish in the dubious promise and peril under modernity.Irish society was experiencing modernization at the turn of the twentieth century,which is manifested as the intrusions of global commodities,foreign population and modern employment in the collection of Dubliners.These new alterations signify both promise and peril for Irishmen.There are a cluster of modern commodities intermittently popping out in every story,stimulating the Irish people's sophisticated reactions,both exclusiveness and worship.Proceeding with the interconnecting stories,the immigration of foreign population stirs the provincial nation,thus the local people at once betray their admiration and repulsion to foreigners.They aspire for the social and economic superiority of those foreigners while realizing their arrogance,immorality and worldliness.Moreover,a large number of citizens themselves are clerks in offices or firms.The modern employment grants them no absolute subjectivity,instead,casts them into ultimate frustration.Modernization brings both newness and challenges to Ireland and entangles its people in the maelstrom of these precipitate changes that tosses them greatly.Chapter two expounds the anxiety of the Irish in the presence of declining sanctification and ascending secularization.Secularization is an inevitable consequence of modernity,so religious faith was gradually externalized as a conventional ritual with the progression of modernization.The crisis in faith initially projects onto priests in the stories,and then pervades the massive plebeians.As prime representatives of the Catholic Church,these priests are impacted by secularization but beleaguered with Catholic doctrines.Their anxiety is suggested by the physical paralysis and mental deterioration.Meanwhile,the common Irish are largely lost themselves in the secular invasion.They become more and more inclined to a free worldly life but bilaterally ruled by inane Catholicism and superficial materialism.What agitates them not merely the vacancy of religious faith,rather,the vanity in spiritual sustenance.Both the priests at Church and its' adherents are the victims and embodiment of religious stagnation,as well as the passive participants of secularized world.Chapter three explicates the anxiety of the Irish in the contradiction of escape and entrapment.The pervading modernity generated the conceptions of freedom and individualism in the inchoate modern era.In the collection,the Irish people's immature self-consciousness is tempted by modern entertainments prevailing in their local country and the superior life overseas,so they attempt to free themselves from their current plight by temporal escape and spatial escape.Many frustrated characters indulge themselves in temporal pleasures through drinking,smoking,racing,gambling and other modern amusements so as to isolate themselves from the suffocating circumstance.Besides,there are more ambitious protagonists aspiring to escape overseas,nevertheless,they are vacillating upon making a determination and none of them successfully implements their scheme.The futility of temporary and spatial evasion necessitates spiritual escape.Thereupon,Joyce recurs to Gabriel's epiphany in the last story to announce the solution to releasing their anxiety,as well as the way out of the dilemma.In conclusion,it addresses these indeterminate effects produced by modernity jointly contribute anxieties of the Irish.Through this “nicely polished looking glass”—Dubliners,the Irish people can have “one good look at themselves” and their country.Herein,it becomes more perspicuous that Joyce calls the book a chapter of the “moral history” of his nation and he has taken the first step towards “spiritual liberation”.Furthermore,by delving into “the heart of Dublin”,Joyce also intends to unfold the universality suiting “all the cities of the world”.His cosmic visions have far surpassed the bondage of time and space.