Dubliner's in winter : a study of Joyce's "Chapter of Moral History"

James Joyce called Dubliners "a chapter of moral history." This study will show how Joyce's moral intention can be illustrated through Northrop Frye's Mythol theory. The themes of the book correspond to the themes of the Winter Mythos. The motifs of Winter, specifically, degeneration, perversion and death, will be explored in Chapter One. Joyce uses irony and satire in Dubliners to expose the bleak reality that pervades the lives of the people in Dublin. Examples of irony and satire, the proper generic forms for the Winter Mythos, will be examined in Chapter Two. Chapter Three will discuss the significance of binding Dubliners to the Winter Mythos, how associating the spiritual condition of the people with the season of Winter dramatizes their moral bankruptcy. Joyce deliberately reveals a barren, wintry scene in order to jar his fellow countrymen into self-awareness. He felt that the first step in the "spiritual liberation" of the Irish people was their own recognition of the morally impoverished state of their existence as revealed In Dubliners