Counterparts/ James Joyce Essays - Counterparts, Dubliners

Counterparts/ James Joyce Strive To Do Nothing James Joyce has a very intricate way of writing his short stories. Dubliners is a book of short stories revolving around several totally different people from the city of Dublin, Ireland. Joyce puts these characters through a number of situations in order to show the moral characteristics of Dubliners. These situations inhibit many forms of human disturbances including: sexual frustration, escapism, self-identification, human unfullfillment, the struggle between the classes, and toiling with the characters sense of belonging. In the story Counterparts, Joyce uses a combination a psychologically challenging lifestyle and everyday sexual frustration to drive the main character, Farrington, to his breaking point. Farrington is the commonplace Dubliner with a pointless job and an everlasting need for a drink at the local bar. Reading the story, the reader can almost visualize this boring drunk moping around on the sad streets of Dublin. Farringtons job is one of repetition, being that he transcribes contracts all day, and his only excitement is the ten times a day he slips out of the office to run to the bar across the street. He cannot get motivated to do anything because he has no feeling of self worth. Farrington would probably rather be just a drunk who stays at the bar all day, but he needs the money to support his habit. Joyce describes several instances where Farrington is just sitting at his desk and cannot work which Joyce could be relating to either Farringtons stupidity or showing that Farrington is not doing what he wants because he is so conformant to society that he cannot figure out what to do with himself. In all of the Dubliners short stories, there is a struggle to succeed. The Dubliners seem to somehow always manage never to make any improvements in their lives and never succeed in anything that they Caplenor 2 do. Farrington wants to change but he cant because he does not have the means of doing it. The fact that the Farrington has already fallen so far behind at work, that there is no reason for him even to try to catch up serves as an analogy to the helplessness of Farringtons life and the pointlessness of life in Dublin. Farrington has almost a split personality between the bar and work. At the bar, he is respected as kind of one of the big men who is popular, yet at work, he is treated as he is a child and talked down to. Farrington has no idea who he is or what he wants out of life. He goes every day of his life without ever doing something worthwhile or meaningful. Farrington is challenged everyday and given some opportunities but he never cares, he never tries to fix anything, and he never attempts to advance the status of his life past the title of a drunk. In the beginning of the story, Joyce refers to Farrington as the man. It seems that Joyce makes this reference when Farrington is at work or at home. The only identification Farrington has is at the bar that he frequents. This negative environment at work and home forces him to do the things that cause his problems in the first place. Farrington cannot find a reason to change these factors because of the sense of helplessness in Dublin society. As in all the stories in Dubliners, Counterparts has a major erotic component. Women seem to be the only thing that motivate Farrington or any male Dubliner to take any initiative or think about what he is doing. Still it seems that Farrington cannot even achieve the recognition of any woman. Farrington misses his wife who had recently left him, and longed for someone to take care of him and give his life some purpose. Joyce tells of how Farrington can smell Miss. Delacours perfume from outside of the office. And when Mr. Alleyne scolds him in her presence Farrington defends him for the first Caplenor 3 for the first time out of years of being verbally battered by his boss. Joyce does not even say that Farrington is attracted to Miss Delacour, but he will still not let little Mr. Alleyne abuse him like that in front