A Little Cloud typical of Joyces maturity stories Essay Example for Free

A little Cloud typical of Joyces maturity stories quizRefer to themes, language and setting.A minuscule Cloud is the first of the maturity stories in capital of Irelanders, preceded by Counterparts, dust and A Painful display case. The story is archetypal of Joyces style and embraces on the whole the key themes of, class, materialism, escapism and above all the paralysis and cope of Ireland.The opinion that Ireland is a country lowly in comparison to the rest of atomic number 63 is enforced at the beginning of the story when Little Chandler says it was something to piss a friend like Gallaher because he worked for the London press. The emphasis present is on the great city of London and Little Chandler has immeasurable keep an eye on for Gallaher as he has escaped the paralysis of Ireland in favour of this thriving city.The environment Chandler lives in is lustreless and uninspiring, his writing tiresome the nurses he sees are untidy and the old men dozing on benches a re decrepit. When Little Chandler thinks of his situation in Dublin a gentle melancholy takes possession of him which he feels is useless to struggle against. In A Painful Case a number of adjectives are used to convey the environment, such(prenominal) as disused, sombre and shallow. Joyce has subtly emphasised the burden of being a Dubliner and in particular the hint of restriction which the characters are unwilling to challenge and from which they feel escape would be futile. There are go on references to the colour dark-brown (not just in the maturity stories) and Maria in Clay wears a brown raincoat, thus inadvertently resigning herself to the drab and motionless life of Dublin.Joyce contrasts two worlds in the story the domestic, insular and paralysed Dublin with the fast-moving, energetic, cosmopolitan London and Europe. Little Chandler desires to belong to the wider, modern world and begins to despise his life with his family in Dublin. By juxtaposing Little Chandler with the successful, exuberant Gallaher, Joyce sets up an antithesis between the two worlds which they represent.The Act of Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1800 abolished Irelands policy-making centre, resulting in Dublin being a city in limbo, without a clear purpose and with a confused identity. This is evident throughout Dubliners, with inhabitants such as Little Chandler and Farrington all feeling trapped by the narrowness of Dublin life. There is a pervasive feeling that to be glamorous, like Ignatius Gallaher, one has to discontinue Ireland. Little Chandler believes London to be the key to his dreams and that if you wanted to succeed you had to go away. You could do nothing in Dublin.The attitude of Little Chandler to social class is indicated throughout. He encounters children in the slums of North Dublin as he passes on his way to meet his glamorous friend, Gallaher. The children are described as a horde, grimy and populating the alley and depicted as vermin who crawled and squatted like mice. Little Chandler, like Duffy in A Painful Case feels himself to be superior to the people whom he passed, above the parochial, narrow interests of Dublin.He aspires to be a poet, love by the more affluent English people. Chandler is shallow and materialistic, obsessed with appearance and class, excited about termination to Corlesss because he knew the value of the name and the richly dressed ladies caught his eye. Gallaher says if he ever married, his wife must pay a good fat account at the bank otherwise she wont do for me. If he marries he intends to play his cards properly and secure one of the thousand of rich Germans and Jews. He dismisses the rite of marriage as just business that could go stale, emphasising the immorality of London.The maturity stories all contain the armorial bearing of impertinence in the main characters at the inevitable situation they have resigned themselves to living in. Joyce conveys Little Chandlers passion with a number o f adjectives such as trembled, burst, convulsively and a paroxysm of sobbing. His cheeks later suffuse with shame which gives way to tears of remorse at his failure not only to fulfil his dreams but for the gall he feels towards his family for thwarting his freedom. In Counterparts there is an established mood of anger with a bell rung, a heavy step and Farringtons spasms of rage.Joyce uses the symbol of the little cloud as an image of entrapment, not just forecast the little cloud of unhappiness hovering over his marriage to Annie, which restricts him from being the fun-loving bachelor like his idol Gallaher. Joyce incorporates the deception and captivation of exoticism and wealth in the dark Oriental eyeball of the Rich Jewesses. Similar to fantasies of the vitamin E Joyce uses alcoholism as a method of escape from the stifling lives of the Dubliners and this is particularly prominent in A Little Cloud. Gallaher states that he drinks his whisky neat and that Little Chandler, who drinks very little doesnt know whats good for him. Sobriety is here seen as the reason why Chandlers life is so inartistic and dreary in comparison to Gallahers.Ireland is derogate and viewed as an engaging absurdity by the English when Gallaher says theyve got a great feeling for Ireland and the English were define to eat him because he was Irish. Little Chandler wishes his name was more Irish-looking so as to endear the British with his book of account he dreams about publishing in London. This is ironic as Little Chandlers wishes to flee the restraints of Ireland yet feels hooklike on his heritage. The story is highly symbolic of Irelands historical state how the rest of Europe refuses to treat Ireland with celebrate symbolising Gallaher continually refusing Little Chandlers invitations to come for supper and to meet his family.Gallahers visit gives rise to an epiphany within Little Chandler, a feature Joyce includes in each of his stories, an anti climax when a charact er realises his escape to be defective. In the maturity series it is through the characters own face-to-faceity flaw they render themselves incapable of escaping the life they evermore bemoan. In A Little Cloud Gallahers visit evokes a dull resentment within Little Chandler he was useless, useless A prisoner for life and he feels acutely the injustice of his life is succeeding(prenominal) to Gallahers.Little Chandler believes the only way of escape is if he publishes a book in London, but he cannot complete this because the wailing of the child permanently permeates his ear. Little Chandler projects the resentment he feels at his lack of performance in comparison to Gallaher, onto his wife and he is repelled by her passionless eyes and fantasises of the dark Oriental eyes of the Jewesses which Gallaher mentioned earlier in Corlesss.Little Chandler begins to feel a little disillusioned and Gallahers accent did not enrapture him. London, which Gallaher hitherto represents, is now seen as gaudy and vulgar imprinting itself upon his original old personal seize and his vagrant and triumphant life upsets the equipoise of Chandlers sensitive nature. Little Chandler believes that Gallahers alleged friendliness to him is in detail patronisation just as he was patronising Ireland by his visit. He has been too consumed with his own anger and resentment at his own entrapment and the failure of his own dreams, to see through Gallahers version of an exotic, successful life.In A Painful Case Duffy becomes disillusioned with escaping, when Mrs Sinico caught up his hand passionately and similarly Little Chandler begins to wildly hesitancy Could I go to London?, is it too late? But Duffy bids his only distraction from the paralysis of Dublin Mrs Sinico, adieu and is blatantly scared of commitment. The reunion with a conceited Gallaher reminds Little Chandler of what he hasnt achieved and he feels resentment which he thus inflicts on those around him. A Little Cloud is an evident example of Joyces maturity stories in keeping with the aspect that binds them together, the characters comprehension that all endeavours to escape are fruitless.Little Chandler and Duffy lacked conviction and ignored the luck that was once given to them for escape, something they blame everyone but themselves for. The characters Joyce writes of do not appreciate what they have, mourning instead for what they do not. The Dubliners are, like the city, reluctant to change and yet are embittered by the injustice of their paralysed lives.Duffy does not appreciate until the shoemakers last of Mrs Sinico, that he will never have a chance of marriage, or to love, through which he could have forgotten the monotony of the city he cannot escape. Congruously, Little Chandler dismisses his family throughout A Little Cloud and when his personal epiphany dawns on him he realises his failure to his family, his cheeks suffuse with shame and he cries with tears of remorse as untold out o f guilt at the egocentric way he has behaved, as for his hopeless venture of escape.