Religious Captivity in James Joyce’s Dubliners’ The Sisters, An Encounter, and Araby by Debra Crocker for Irish Lit. 4/2/01 Dubliners, a collection of shorts stories, by James Joyce, is centered around the everyday lives of ordinary people in Dublin, Ireland. According to Joyce himself, his intention was to “write a chapter of the moral history of [his] country and [he] chose Dublin for the scene because the city seemed to [be] the center of paralysis” (439). …showed first 75 words of 1395 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1395 total…freedom that came with the death of Father Flynn. In An Encounter, it is expressed with his desire to “break out of the weariness of school-life for one day at least” (21). In Araby, this craving for freedom is not realized until the narrator’s epiphany when he finally understands the hold the church has had on him. Because the three stories use religion as a prison, they can be seen as a set. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**