Dubliners - Whats the story about "THE SISTERS"??

Question

I've read the a few paragraph but not fully understanding about it, can you help??

Dubliners - James Joyce book..

He wrote so many but i've only just read a wee bit of THE SISTERS and I'm not understanding it very well. Have you read it??

Answer 1

The Sisters tells the story of the relationship between a boy without a name and an infirmed priest Father Flynn. The priest who has been relieved of his priestly duties acts as a mentor for the boy in the clerical duties of a Catholic priest.

The story starts with the boy contemplating Father Flynn's illness and impending death. He is fascinated with interpreting signs and symbols, and their meaning.

Later, while the boy eats his dinner, his aunt, uncle, and old Cotter have a conversation in which the boy is informed that the priest has died. The conversation focuses on the priest and his relationship with the boy.

That night the boy is haunted by images of the priest, and he dreams of escape to a mysterious land.

The next day the boy goes to look at the announcement that the priest has died, and then wanders about, further puzzling about his dream and about his relationship with the priest.

That night the boy and his aunt go to the house of mourning. They view the corpse with Nannie, and then they sit with the sisters Eliza and Nannie. They are offered food and drink, and then Eliza and the aunt carry on a conversation that reveals that Father Flynn had apparently suffered a mental breakdown after accidentally breaking a chalice. The dialogue then trails off.

The Sisters was the start of a series called Dubliners.In summer of 1904, George Russell of the editorial department of the weekly paper The Irish Homestead wrote Joyce a letter in regards to a section of the journal called "Our Weekly Story" asking him to write something simple which could be inserted not to shock the readers. He was offered £1 for this short story.

The Sisters was published on August 13, 1904 using the pseudonym Stephen Dædulus. The Sisters was the start of a series called Dubliners which he hoped the Homestead would continue to publish. In fact, Joyce would write two more stories for the Homestead, Eveline and After the Race, before complaints stopped the paper from publishing any more of his stories. Joyce, nevertheless, continued to add more stories to the collection. But, he had great difficulty getting Dubliners published, and it wasn't until 1914 that the first edition of the book came out.
The reason the story is so difficult to interpret may be that during that decade The Sisters went through a number of revisions:


The two published versions ( from the August 13, 1904 issue of The Irish Homestead, and "The Sisters" (1914) – from the book Dubliners) have essentially the same plot. The diction, however, was transformed from a romantic style to a wholly modernist text.

The Homestead version spelled much out for the reader. In the 1914 version, on the other hand, Joyce dropped the nonessential commentary leaving the facts to speak for themselves, a style Joyce called "scrupulous meanness." Readers are left to interpret and feel the bare facts for themselves. The style demands a greater engagement by the reader who must now provide more interpretation of the facts.

Other changes where made to characterization and relationships. In particular, Joyce severely strengthened the relationship between the priest and the boy making it stand out as the major spectacle.

Hope this explains your difficulties. Perhaps you could find an original Homestead version online to download.

I am a great James Joyce fan. Good luck.

Answer 2

Dubliners has many themes but the overriding one is that of paralysis. All the major characters in the stories are in some way paralysed into being unable to do what they might , if they were to be in some way successful. Many books have been written on Joyce, who is probably the greatest author of his time. Don't always expect a story though.

Answer 3

Hi. In "The Sisters", a young boy is truggling to understand the death of an old priest that he has been very close to - close in an unhealthy (probably sexual) way, the character Cotter is suggesting. The boy has been part educated by the priest and this seems as sisnister to the ordinary folk as anything! With his aunt, the boy goes to view the body where it is lying in the coffin for friends and family to see (an old Irish custom). The boy listens as the mysterious behaviour of the priest is discussed by his two surviving spinster sisters with his aunt - but it seems that nobody really understood the priest at all. The boy cannot grasp the truth of death, but innately tries to show respect - respect that is curiously missing from the adults. The young do not understand adults in the way adults think, they struggle to reach their own understanding and this is always different to adult ways of thinking.
Hope this helps, Steve.

Answer 4

'the story Of The Hare Who misplaced His Spectacles' - Jethro Tull 'Illinois Enema Bandit' - Frank Zappa 'Wondrous memories' - definite 'Poke Salad Annie' - Tony Joe White 'The typhoon' - Bob Dylan 'The Boxer'-- Simon and Garfunkel 'great White Buffalo' - Ted Nugent 'Say hi i like You' - Michael Franti and Spearhead --------------

Answer 5

I love that band too! My favourite song is 'Whiskey In The Jar'