Religion and politics on dubliners by james joyce

From his narration, the reader can see a bit of his evolution (Chubb, 10). For instance, he fails to mourn extremely for his friend the priest in the story “The sisters” although he knew very well that he should grieve for him. He is annoyed by this weakness, and via this annoyance, the reader can view a boy who is weighing himself against what is projected of him in this new understanding. The narrator reveals the dream he dreamt after he learned about his friend and this portrays the way the experience shocked him especially when he saw his priest friend moving his lips as if he was about to declare something. This weird dream shows the way the boy suspected the past of his friend showing that the past of the religion is questionable among the believers.

From the story, it is clear that Joyce was the most pleased artist during the governing of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Triste. As his literary profession grew, art for Joyce progressively turned to be a way of challenging the rule of the country and that of the church. This is evident when he indicates that to "challenge the authority of my home, my fatherland and my church" and the statement was resonating something he wrote in high school that "the grab of royalty or democracy are but a shadow that a "man" leaves behind him"(Joyce, 90). The theoretical specters are in Ulysses portrayed as a suitable strategy for royal power. Encouraged by his argument with Weiss and his reading of the radical Benjamin Tucker and the philosopher Ernest Renan who, indicated that in some instances Jesus was a rebel because he did not have an idea about civil government, Joyce has bloomed the idea of a state, criticizing the big notion of motherland and community into a simple spatial concept.

On the other hand, Joyce depicts religion in his story “Dubliners”. In this story, religion was an essential part of Ireland at the time of modernist, tightly woven into the social fabric of its citizens. At this period the Catholic Church was the longstanding tradition of Ireland. During the modernist spirit of breaking away from the powers that introverted growth, the church took part in being the major obstacle (Nazarieh, 104). This is evident because the Catholic Church acted as the controlling force of its followers as portrayed in James Joyce “Dubliners”. The narrators of the story refute the argument, but any disagreement on his part would only be utilized by old Cotter to reinforce his argument. In his story, Joyce was fascinated by the overwhelming spiritual authority devoted by the Catholic Church in its priests who bears unbelievable spiritual duties.

The church believes that via the priest as a middleman between them and God, in itself is atoned for. The priests under Catholic leadership are treated like the custodians of men's souls and leaders of most ambiguous and mysterious information of Catholic doctrine. However, the psychological problem of the priest in question has made him seem totally human and defenseless because his mind was once regarded as the source of information about numerous ideas of theology and customary, but it has collapsed into remnants. The deterioration of the priest's thoughts functions as a metaphor that stands for the degeneration of Catholic theology and rule. This is because what was once regarded as a sensible and coherent structure has revolved into the devil in the minds of a priest; metaphorically, Catholic attitude has moved from a reputable system to the quest of understanding into an inappropriate and mysterious structure of thought that only refer to itself.

The degeneration is evident in other features of Catholic life sine catholic of the time when Joyce was writing were viewed as being incredibly irrational, and in this narration, all the allegedly principles of the Catholic church are pushing aside by Father Flynn's sister in the indulgence of good old formed awful delusion. Instead of looking for a coherent description of her brothers' insanity, she ends up into superstition when she indicates that his madness started when he unintentionally broke a holy vessel that was utilized during mass. The Father's sisters are simple, good and humble but the illustration about their brother's mental illness is self- misleading and unreasonable. This is to bring out that the religious leaders had powers to settle even family issues that are as a result of a misunderstanding between the couples.

In most countries and communities such cases would not be solved by religious leaders, but this could be entrusted to the civil courts that would use civil laws in its determinations. The incidence of Mrs. Mooney going to see the priest for her domestic issues and not a civil attorney portrays that the residents of Ireland considered the church and the religious leaders to be the head figure of Ireland and not the government. This factor makes Ireland to be perceived as a less successful nation because most people believe that the constitution should govern a prosperous nation. This shows the way Joyce tried to understand the political stands of his country. In the same story, Joyce depicts the role of religion in Ireland.