James Joyce's Dubliners and Brian Moore's the Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

This essay will consider how social conditions are the cause of unhappiness through a close textual analysis and comparison of James Joyce's Dubliners and Brian Moore's The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne. From the Irish writers we study, they suggest that the social conditions can cause unhappiness to people living within the city. Both Joyce and Moore left their homes in Ireland, which consequently impacted their perspective on Irish society. Moreover, both authors offer differing perspectives in relation to expectations of the Church and the pressures of both familial and socio-religious institutions. James Joyce had written Dubliners to reflect to how the Irish people were oppressed and paralysed by religion with “his nicely polished looking glass.” (Inventing Ireland, Kiberd p.333) On the other hand Brian Moore hoped that his novel Judith Hearne would “open the eyes [of] Belfast to the inequality of family and religion.” Essentially the difference between Joyce and Moore is the expectations of the Church and pressures of family and Religion. Both authors acutely utilise a form of Hiberno-English throughout their stories, revealing the Irish background in the characters and their development, such as the ‘West Brit’ comment in the dead, which reveals the distaste in English culture within some characters of ‘The Dead’.

Joyce's short story, with its expansive range of characters, can be said to offer a more objective, bird’s eye view of social conditions with his use of “scrupulous meanness”, whereas Moore's novel concentrates on central characters, offering a more in depth, but equally narrow understanding of Irish society. With that being said, however, both narratives paint a morbid and depressing picture of social conditions. City life is depicted as bleak, grey and miserable. This is most evident in following lines “daylight fought its way down to the room past grey buildings…” the atmosphere encouraged by the “guests sat in a [semi-silent gloom].” The entire development of city can be seen as a progressing and oncoming tragedy, in ‘Eveline’ when her friends left and their ‘playground’ was demolished to build new houses, Eveline herself looks back to say they ‘seemed to have been rather happy then.” This can be compared to Judith's small group of 'friends' like Dan Breen who “moved to Dublin, never a word out of him or his family.” What we can evidence from both these examples is a shared sense of alienation and solitude, stemming from city life.

Furthermore, 'The Dead' shows further evidence of the depressing state of city life insofar as the characters' continual referral to holidays. This is evidenced by Gabriel who contemplates “the time had come for him to set out on his journey westward”. This is in reference to the west of Ireland, outside of main cities and obvious British rule. Ellman, R., states how “the time had come for [Gabriel] to set out on his journey westward”; towards death, a cliché running through the story.  Life within cities revolve around superficiality and the need to impress others. For example “goloshes” and how “everyone wears them on the continent“, they attempt to impress the hostess with new items. However, their life isn’t as impressive and as happy as they suggest, in fact their “path through life strewn with bad memories.” Perhaps it can be said that Joyce and Moore were also unhappy with the 'West Briton' culture, and this is maybe why they abandoned their birth place.

Further evidence of personal alienation within a city setting can be found in Joyce's ‘A Painful Case’, in which Mr. Duffy living, or in fact surviving on the outskirts of the suburbs. Whilst he is almost out of the city, his constant aversion to city life and its people reveal he still feels isolated from the population. This is enhanced via his attitude of mind overall, which could be why he excludes people from his day to day activities and images his own adventures, for example robbing a bank. However once he overcomes this and finds someone as deluded, they can be found happier in “her little cottage outside Dublin.” In addition, Judith Hearne can be seen in a similar situation, moving around the city as she looks for place to ‘feel at home’ since her aunt’s death, when she essentially lost her place in society. Heaney, L., states that throughout Moore’s works, “this sense of displacement is a frequent theme.”  (p. 231)

Another example of how the social conditions cause unhappiness could be seen through the rooms of Mr. Duffy and Judith Hearne. The structured plainness and planning of their room can be used to show an attempt to structure life. Judith’s ritual pictures of set up of the Sacred Heart and her aunt in comparison to Mr Duffy's plain room, demonstrates the differences between Moore and Joyce. Whilst Judith’s room reveals her oppression from family and religion, Mr. Duffy’s seems bland, yet they both seem to be stuck in aimless paralysis. Moore’s focus on family and religion, the two oppressive forces in her life is used as a means to emphasise Judith’s loneliness. Meanwhile, Joyce, through his collection of short stories, demonstrates oppression in multiple contexts, operating within multiple socio-economic settings. For example, in "The Sisters" women are subjugated, specifically in the case of Nannie, which is revealed when she offers crackers to the boy. Her disappointment in the offer reveals a yearning for interaction and could be seen as how she values being needed and interacted with, serving others being the social norm of her existence.  

The interaction of characters throughout the stories increases the plot development, and in some cases such as Judith’s meetings with Father Quigley, in particular her drunken encounter is a vital turning point. Both authors use a series of imagery throughout their narratives; throughout Dubliners, Joyce has various symbols revealing oppression through social norms in the Irish culture. For example, “the odour of dusty cretonne, in ‘Eveline’ symbolises how she is surrounded by death, emphasising how her, brother mother and friends have left in some form. The “abortive attempts at freedom” (Kiberd, p.330) theme throughout Dubliners is most obvious here as Eveline turns back on her plans to run away with her ‘lover’; this is akin to Mr. Duffy in ‘A Painful Case’ whom turns back on himself, “back the way he came”.  Joyce does this to show how the power of the dead affects these characters; Eveline is haunted throughout the attempt at escape by the memory of her deceased mother. The remembrance of Eveline’s mother assimilates part of Joyce’s aim, and embodies the Family oppression seen through Dubliners as Eveline strives to compete with what she was expected to do. In combination with her father’s patriarchal role as head of the house, without being a typical ‘bread winner’ reveals how family values are forced upon her, being “treated as her mother had been”; emblematic of Irish families anthropological mind set. Within James Joyce’s Dubliners shore story of ‘Eveline’, her personal desires are in contention with what society, and more importantly, her father, expect her to do. This is demonstrative of how socio–political and religious expectations are forced upon her.

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