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Hema Sorry for this long delay. I seem to be on a very slow boat. The discussions are absolutely wonderful; sorry if I am repeating some of the excellent points already made by Zarqa, Chandra, Beth, Maureen, Vidya and others. I've been looking at "The Sisters" and have read this story several times before and did so last night and am still intrigued and yet blown away by it. Joyce's use of compresssion is pretty impressive. "The Sisters" is the first short story in the collection and seems to introduce the theme of paralysis which seems to be the dominant theme in "Dubliners." Ireland and the Irish are paralyzed due to several factors the chief being the Church, State and the Family. "Every night I gazed up at the window and I said to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficient and sinful being." Then the boy's stream of consciousness continues "It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it to look upon its deadly work." There is a lot of ambivalence here and the boy is both attracted and fearful of it -- still referring to "paralysis." What is causing this paralysis and what is paralysis? Joyce in his letters said that in Dubliners he wanted to hold the mirror up to Ireland so that the Irish can look at their own paralysis and that the story in Dubliners is their conscience. Here he makes a little boy his narrator and through him holds up the mirror. One of the most parlayzing influences on the Irish according to Joyce (besides colonial Britain) is the Church. And here he seems to be insinuating that the Church has not only paralyzed the mind of the priest, but maybe, even that of the child. So is there any hope for the future? There are so many insinuations in the story as Maureen, Vidya, Beth and Zarqa point out. A lot of it is left unsaid. There are so many nuances. The little boy might have served as the altar boy when this particular priest celebrated Mass. And, the reference to the chalice is, of course as others have already pointed out, a reference to his priestly duties where the priest during mass celebrates the birth and death of Christ and the wine and bread that are used during mass symbolize the blood and body of Christ replicating Christ's last supper with his twelve disciples. However, a Catholic priest can perform Mass only if he is "pure" and has not committed any "sins." If he has sinned he at least should have confessed and should not have celebrated mass till he has gone for confession. But a Catholic priest who vows to practice chastity, truth and poverty is sinflul if he sins and celebrates mass without going for confession. So there is something fishy here because we are repeatedly told that there was something wrong with this priest here -- he did do something wrong and as a result became "crazy" and was losing his mental capacity and, as Maureen put, it he was "queer." In fact one of the sisters says that there was "something queer coming over him latterly." The child as Vidya said in her email definitely seems to know something more about the priest. The child recollects " When he smiled he used to uncover his big discolored teeth and let his tongue lie upon his lower teeth -- a habit which made me feel uneasy in the beginning of our acquaintance before I knew him well." Is there more going on here? Is Joyce suggesting something sexual or leery or something that should not have been. If we go back to the earlier part of the story the very talkative Cotter says:' I wouldn't like children of mine ... to have too much to say to a man like that." And, when one of the sisters asks Cotter to explain what he means, Cotter says "What I mean is . . . it's bad for children" and there are those pregnant pauses, gaps and silences. The aunt does not give up and says "Why do you think it's not good for children, Mr. Cotter?" "It's bad for children . . . because their minds are so impressionable. When children see things like that, you know, it has an effect...." Again we get the gaps, silences and hesitations. Well, if children see a priest celebrate Mass and perform priestly duties then that is a good impression, right? So what is going on? What else was he doing that can be a bad influence and leave a bad impression on the child? The boy tells the reader that he was under observation and everyone was looking at him to see how he would react when they discussed the priest and his peculiar death. They all knew that he had a very special relationship with this priest. The boy also mentions the fact that "I felt even annoyed at discovering in myself a sensation of freedom as if I had been freed from something by his death." That is very powerful and we can feel the sense of weight on this boy and the sense of freedom as a result of the priest's death. But why this burden and what is this burden? Did the priest interact with this young alter boy in a way that he should'nt have, especially since he has taken the vow of chastity, truth and poverty, and this is a young boy? Further, did the priest make things worse by celebrating mass in this sinful state and without going for confession? Has the priest sinned doubly -- interacting with the boy in a sinful manner and then celebrating mass while he was committing a sin? Is that why he was sitting by himself in the confession box "wide awake and laughing-like softly to himself? Or, is the priest disillusioned with organized religion which makes inhuman demands on people and totally and insanely controls people's lives? Does the priest find the Church hypocritical? Or, is Joyce saying that we Irish love to gossip and all those gaps and silences are part of the narrative of gossip where things are half told or not told at all but surmised and rumours are spread around which at some point are not just rumours but vicious innuendos that might even destroy individuals -- here the priest and the little boy. Joyce then is playing on the familiar stereotype about the Irish -- the gift of the gab turned to mere gossip. Then the paralysis that afflicts Dublin and the Dubliners are due to the Church that controls their soul, the State (Britain) that controls their social and political lives and the Dubliners themselves who control their own private lives. Dubliners then need to look within themselves and outside of themselves (the Church and State) to see how they are not just victims of this paralysis but are also contributing to it. And, if there is any hope for Ireland and for the Irish it is in its future; here the children of Ireland. Therefore, the Irish need to look within themselves and stop the paralysis from spreading and afflicting the future generations. Joyce, of course never really draws definite conclusions, we as readers have to draw them. The epiphany is in the readers' process of reading and drawing conclusions. More on epiphany and "Araby" later. Sorry I am working backwards. But one of these days I hope to catch up with the rest of the gang! |
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