INTRODUCTION Dubliners, published in 1914, is made up of fifteen short stories. All of them were written before 1905 except for the last and longest one, The Dead , which was added in 1907. Together they offer a suggestive portrait of the lives of ordinary people in Dublin, mixing realistic descriptions with the search for deeper meanings through the use of symbols. IBSEN S INFLUENCE When Joyce began to plan the collection, he was under the influence of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, who had shown that it was possible to make provincial life the subject of serious art. Ibsen also showed that art could tell the truth without sacrificing itself as art and could be a diagnostic instrument to show the evils of a diseased society. Joyce s short stories are therefore meant to reveal the truth about Ireland. They portray situations which reveal the oppressive effects of political, religious, cultural and economic forces on the lives of lowermiddle-class Dubliners, leading them to moral and psychological paralysis. In Joyce s own words, he sought1 to write a chapter of the moral history of Ireland and chose Dublin as its setting because that city seemed to me the centre of paralysis . THE NOTION OF PARALYSIS Paralysis is the key theme in all the short stories, illustrated first through the eyes of people in different phases of life (from childhood to maturity), then in the context of public life. A feeling of stagnation pervades Dublin and its inhabitants, whose lives are dominated by frustration, inertia, alcoholism, poverty and the conformity encouraged by the Catholic Church. The resulting picture is one of afflicted humanity, trying to escape from and change its destiny but always failing. 1. sought: (seek-sought-sought) tried. Sackville Street, Dublin (1905). 4