Paralyzed!!

For my close reading I chose The Sisters mainly because I found it to be the most interesting story. The entire story is told through the perspective of a boy in the church, and it begins by him learning through the conversation of others that Father Flynn had died. He was angry at old Cotter because he considered the boy a child. He was finally persuaded of the Father's death when he saw his name on a telegraph and his day of death. The boy goes on to explain the teachings he received from the Father and he also mentioned how the Father thought all of his duties to be quite tedious. This foreshadows the priests paralysis and how he eventually has his epiphany. We then reach the point of when the sisters are talking of how Father Flynn eventually lost his mind. They talked first of how his death was peaceful, and then the eventual downfall of his sanity. During one service, he drops an empty chalice. At this point, the priest undergoes his paralysis. He stares at the empty cup and most likely sees that his life is empty and that he doesn't feel any fulfillment with what he has done in life. This goes back to the boy seeing all of the tedious acts that Father Flynn had to do for the church. The boy's aunt mentions how "He (Father Flynn) was a disappointed man," perhaps because of his lack of fulfillment. This paralysis leads to the priest wandering alone, and eventually one night he was found in his confession-box laughing to himself, causing others to realize that something had gone wrong with him. This was the priests epiphany. His empty life had finally hit him and made him realize that he was not happy with his life. Although the priest's thoughts are not known, we can deduce from the symbolism of the chalice he no longer feels fulfillment in his life.

Relating this to another Joyce story, Araby, we can see the strong effect of the paralysis-epiphany style. The young boy in Araby has quite the crush on another young girl that just so happens to be one of his friend's sister. He makes a journey to the bazaar where he said he would get something for the girl. While at the bazaar, a state of paralysis hits the boy when he sees how cheap romance is. He sees a lady flirting with two soldiers and we can feel that the boy feels cheated. The boy's paralysis hits and moments later he has his epiphany as he lingers into the darkness into the store. His epiphany is realized when he describes himself as "a creature driven and derided by vanity." He goes on to say that his "eyes burned with anguish and anger" showing just how frustrated he had become with his situation.

Both stories show a point where one of the main characters has a point where they see something that would have them learn a lesson, the examples being the chalice and the flirting girl. Their epiphanies came at the same point, which is right at the end of the story. Both epiphanies were fairly major, a priest who feels empty in his faith and a boy who no longer has faith in love. They show the negative side of life, a fairly common theme within Joyce's writing.