James Joyce’s collaboration of short stories each have their own tale to tell, as each character have a monster lurking in the shadows of their lives. None so much more stands out than the two plays The Sisters and The Dead. In this essay I will discuss the valuable points of haunted silences which play an important part in the narrative technique which sometimes leaves the reader to surmise or ponder for themselves. Perhaps these characters are haunted by something sinister or simply the tragic victims of a repressive society. The question I pose is what are these silent gestures and incomplete sentences trying to tell me? For Joyce put his pen to paper to inspire freedom not imprisonment.



The use of the narrator, being the nameless boy aids Joyce in writing the moral history of Ireland, choosing Dublin for the setting because the city seemed to him “the centre of paralysis”. His use of a nameless boy shows us a paralysis of words as embolic of the Dublin of the time and the lives of the people living there. We see and indeed are involved in the relationship with the deceased priest Fr. Flynn and this boy though narrated through the eyes of this a naïve young child. Though difficult to decipher the true relationship yet he says, “I knew him well”. We are challenged to figure out exactly what is the meaning, I quote “ -three nights in succession” therefore we concur it had not occurred. We are introduced to the minor characters of the mother, father, yet learn the greatest things from the deceased priest sisters. The Sisters contains an air of ambiguity or absences. That silence itself becomes a character in this story which we feel is an excellent narrative technique. The epiphany of this tale lies within the ‘solemn and copious’ heart of Fr. Flynn and perhaps as Old Cotter says, maybe it is “hard to say”.



The descriptive words like paralysis, gnomon and simony are particularly relevant to the story. These give the story relevance and I quote, “Every night I gaze up at the window to paralysis”. Paralysis Joyce refers here to is a spiritual, cultural, social, political and historical ossification which gives meaning to a meaningless story. We see motifs of paralysis intermingled in The Sisters. Dialogue is represented by gnomons in the plot, making it impossible for us to arrive at stable interpretations yet involves the reader; the symbolic aposiopesis gives us ownership of the story. As we never see what went wrong with Fr. Flynn. “-It was the chalice he broke…” much of the dialogue is rhetorical alike Old Cotter who always fails to elaborate. A great narrative technique is how Joyce places us in mid-conversation to make us complete the ellipses in conversations. To involve the reader the language is middle class Dublin. Dialogue is quiet vague and haunted by silences in parts, yet overall the accessibility is easy to read and deceptively straight forward. The linguistic use of slang such as ‘ stirabouts’ and ‘to box his corner’ appeases to the reader.





These silences transcend every play, casting a shadow over all characters even thirteen short stories later we see in The Dead like, The Sisters, each of the characters submersed by a silence which allows space for an ostensible truth to be told, yet faithfully represents material reality. The scene is set at the Morkam’s Christmas party with the characteristic silence, as seen in The Sisters; we find no mention of any kind of Christmas ritual, perhaps due to the presence of “the other persuasion” the protestant Mr. Browne. The narrative technique is carried by the third person narrator who tracks Gabriel’s thought’s which expresses him as the main character. I quote Gabriel’s silent narcissistically thinks, “Was she sincere?” regarding a conversation with Ms. Ivors. Seeing the story through Gabriel’s psyche makes us biased until Joyce brings his unique narrative technique transforming the narrator into an objective narrator giving a clearer view. The haunted silences in The Dead like The Sisters, indicates a fear of sorts, as the narrator informs us, “As the subject grew lugubrious it was buried in a silence of the table”. It is an arduous task to understand if the silences are of death and dying or a reflection of their own personal enigma.



The language in The Dead serves many allusions of death, hence the title.. The variance of Irish styles of writing makes it idiomatically Irish, I quote Aunt Kate, “as right as the mail”. The words used are dialectal and mostly slang serving a haunted silence concealing the true meaning, when they fear Freddy Malins may turn up intoxicated, they instead hide these words and use slang, I quote ‘might turn up screwed’ and fear embarrassing Mary Janes Students . The humouring use of oxymoron, I quote, Aunt Kate, “must be perished alive”, adds a touch of brightness to the dialogue. As revealed through the descriptive style ,every characters is secretly paralysed by their past, Aunt Julia is still gadulating an unknown tenor named Parkinson, Freddy is immovable by alcohol and Ms Ivors is still rallying for independence for Ireland, yet each one holds this within the haunted silence. We fully understand the haunted silence notion when Ms. Gretta Conroy breaks the silence and speaks to Mr. Conroy of a lost love, after which I quote, Gabriel “looked towards the window in silence”. We see the contrasting haunted silence that still exists in Gabriel not Gretta who conquered her silence and replaced with words. The Epiphany is that Gabriel’s narcissistic attitude is mediated by Gretta telling him of Michael Furry the young love that died for her sake. For ‘generous tears filled Gabriels eyes’, and finally Gabriel saw unconditional love , and a world beyond Gabriel Conroy.



The Sisters and The Dead exemplify the haunted silences reverberated throughout Dubliners, painted by pleasantries are secretly girdled by these eerie silences yet we see in the final story The Dead where Gretta breaks the silence then her paralysis haunts her no more. Firstly we realise that the silent gestures or aposiopesis are a symbol of the character’s paralysis, secondly we learn this paralysis is self inflicted. For behind these silences their hides a humanly fear, perhaps they wait for an absolution, a response, an acknowledgement or even recognition for their wisdom .These would come to them in the same manner expressed, within the sound of silence. The publishers scorned Joyce for his truthfulness, yet we praise him for being the man that held the ‘polished looking glass’ up to society for the first time.