Dubliners Revelation, Sexuality, and Epiphany Essay

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A shameful consciousness of his own person assailed him. He saw himself as a ludicrous figure, acting as a pennyboy for his aunts, a nervous, well-meaning sentimentalist, orating to vulgarians and idealising his own clownish lusts, the pitiable fatuous fellow he had caught a glimpse of in the mirror. Instinctively he turned his back more to the light lest she might see the shame that burned upon his forehead."

Not all of Joyce's sexual revelations are as dark as "Araby" and "The Dead," however. In the Boarding House," the sexual revelation of the main protagonist is treated in a far more comic fashion -- sexuality becomes the crude vehicle of upward mobility for Mrs. Mooney, the owner of a boarding house. Mrs. Mooney's daughter Polly has been having an affair with one of the borders, Mr. Doran, and Mrs. Mooney manipulates Mr. Doran into proposing to the girl, even though he has little respect for her class and level of education. The implied prostitution of the arrangement is hinted at when it is said that all of Mrs. Mooney's boarders called her 'the Madam.' Sexuality, as in "Araby" is linked to commerce, and without money there is no real 'discourse' of a full sexual exchange. Mr. Doran fears losing his position if the affair is disclosed, and Polly and her mother use the young woman's sexuality as a means of upward mobility. Sexuality is displaced onto money and vice versa through the institution of marriage. Mrs. Mooney speaks of the loss of her daughter's virginity like an unpaid debt: "there must be reparation made in such case. It is all very well for the man: he can go his ways as if nothing had happened, having had his moment of pleasure, but the girl has to bear the brunt.

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Some mothers would be content to patch up such an affair for a sum of money; she had known cases of it. But she would not do so. For her only one reparation could make up for the loss of her daughter's honour: marriage."

For Joyce, sexuality throughout a person's life cycle is never merely sexuality -- sexuality is linked to many things: money, a desire for faith, a desire to know a person thoroughly, and it can provide the vehicle of revelation about deeper truths about the protagonist's selfishness. Sexuality can be the vehicle of personal revelation, like Greta's revelation of her past, chaste romance causes the egotistical Gabriel to understand how little he really knows about his wife. Sexuality can be a revelation of class differences, and class prejudices can be displaced onto sexual relationships as in "The Boarding House," where Mr. Doran realizes that even though he sexually desired Polly, he never truly respected her as a person, until he was forced to do so. Understanding the true, selfish extent sexual desire, and its commonness is an essential part of growing up, as seen most explicitly "Araby." For Joyce, sexuality is never merely a stand-in for something else, nor are financial and class matters a cover for sexual feelings -- instead sexuality is a natural and integrated part of all of the other imperfect parts of these Dubliners' daily existences and life journeys. It is not something to be idealized -- or ignored......

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