"A Painful Case" by James Joyce

"A Painful Case" by James Joyce  (1914, 11 pages)

James Joyce

Irish Short Story Month III
March 1 to March 31

James Joyce

Event Resources

Please consider joining us for the event.  All you need to do is complete a post on any Irish Short Story or related matter and let me know about it.  I will publicize your post and keep a master list.  Please contact me if you have any questions or want to guess post.

The legacy of  James Joyce (1882 to 1941, Dublin) does not just dominate Irish literature but towers over all of the literature of  the world.   Irish Short Story will always include one of his magnificent short stories from The Dubliners (1914), fifteen in all.   In the event that I am able to conduct this event for 12 more years, I will start again.   Many consider "The Dead" the greatest short story ever written and some say the power of this story causes the other stories in The Dubliners to be read less than they should be.  

I am currently reading a very good book that is helping me understand the Irish short story, Occasions of Sin-Sex and Society in Modern Ireland by Diarmaid Ferriter in which he explains the very emotionally reticent nature of the Irish in regards to those of the opposite sex.  He details the layers of guilt the church has produced in the minds of even people with no religion like the main character in "A Painful Case", Mr. James Duffy.  He is a clerk in a private bank, lives in a rooming house where he has bought all the furniture in his room and everything is precisely arranged.  He hates anything which "betokened physical or mental disorder...his face, which carried the tale of his years, was the brown of the Dublin Streets".  He has lunch every day at the same pub and he dines in an eatery "where he feels himself safe from the society of Dublin's gilded youth". His only indulgence was an occasional Mozart opera.   "He has neither companions nor friends, church nor creed".  He visits his relatives at Christmas and he escorts them to their graves.  He meets a woman at the opera and they strike up a completely chaste friendship.  Her husband, often away as he is a sea captain, encourages him to take his wife out so she will have something to do.  One day the woman grabs and squeezes his hand.  He is revolted by this behavior and he ends his relationship with her.

I want to tell the rest of the story but that is not fair to those who have not yet had the pleasure of a first read of "A Painful Case".  The title is deeply ironic and the ending shows extreme emotional intelligence.  

You can download The Dubliners for free lots of places.

Besides "The Dead" what do you think are Joyce's best short stories?

Mel u