The Sisters

As the first story in Dubliners, “The Sisters” sets the tone for the collection. The stories in the collection pass broadly through the various stages of life, and “The Sisters” focus on the narrator’s youth reflects its placement as the first story. It also introduces several of the themes and Modernist literary techniques that recur throughout it.

The use of narrative perspective in “The Sisters” exemplifies the importance of this device in the collection: While some stories are told in the first person and some in the third, all include James Joyce’s characteristic use of Modernist narrative perspective techniques. Those told in first person, like “The Sisters,” tend to involve stream of consciousness and interior monologue, techniques that enable the reader to glean unique and experiential insight into the narrators’ thought processes. Similarly, the stories told in third person often include the use of free indirect discourse, when characters’ thoughts are blended into third-person narration. In “The Sisters,” the first-person perspective creates intimacy with the narrator and highlights the presence of the narrative voice as a device that both reveals and withholds information from the reader. The creation of a “real” narrative self is a key part of literary Modernism, as is a self-conscious narrative that highlights its own construction to the reader.

The theme of paralysis (both physical and moral/social) is a central concern of “The Sisters” and Dubliners as a whole. “The Sisters” mentions paralysis directly and includes the Layered Notion of Paralysis: Illness and Stasis as a key theme. In a letter discussing the idea for Dubliners, Joyce wrote that he named his collection Dubliners to “betray the soul of that […] paralysis which many consider a city” (Joyce, James. Letters of James Joyce, edited by Stuart Gilbert. The Viking Press, 1957, p. 55). This shows that Joyce considered paralysis to be a representative metaphor for Dublin, and that he sought to emphasize this in Dubliners. As well as referring to physical paralysis as a symptom of stroke, of both real and metaphorical significance, “The Sisters” includes several references to stasis and stagnation, including descriptions of nonaction and idleness. Paralysis in the story forms an essential part of Joyce’s critique of Dublin society, especially what he saw as apathy, religious sentimentalism, and moral turpitude.

Paralysis is also relevant to the gradual pace of “The Sisters” and its lack of dramatic incidents. Joyce begins “The Sisters” in medias res, meaning that it begins in the middle of a chain of events rather than with an introduction to the setting and situation. The story does not include exposition; instead, the reader learns of plot details only when the narrator thinks of or learns them himself, or when they appear in conversation. The lack of extraneous detail here makes the image of paralysis central to the story and to the mysterious characterization of the dying man. When the first line of the story refers to his impending death—“There was no hope for him this time” (1)—the reader is not aware of his identity. This is withheld until the later conversation with Mr. Cotter.

In this way, Joyce creates an experience of disorientation for the reader as they piece together plot details. The nature of the narrative is reflective of Joyce’s Modernist focus on the realistic voice and stream of consciousness narration style, omitting anything that does not form a naturalistic part of their internal monologue. As a result, there are very few plot events in “The Sisters”: Most of the story’s interest is driven by dialogue and internal monologue rather than action. The key event, Father Flynn’s death, has already happened when the story begins, and the key plot points in “The Sisters” are ostensibly banal responses to the event of Flynn’s death: a conversation about the priest’s death and the narrator’s relationship with him; the narrator’s walk to see the death notice posted on the door; the narrator and the aunt’s visit to Flynn’s wake, and the conversation they have with the sisters after viewing the body. This mundanity is part of Joyce’s deliberate wish to portray the everyday lives and experiences of the middle classes in Dublin at the turn of the century.

Despite the lack of overt action, “The Sisters” does involve increasing suspense throughout the progression of the story, as the reader becomes more invested in understanding the narrator’s relationship with Father Flynn and more curious about the details of the priest’s decline and mental state. The thematic climax of the story is its ominous concluding anecdote about Flynn “sitting up by himself in the dark in his confession box, wideawake and laughing-like to himself” (297-99). The story includes rising action in the form of the gradual reveal of details, and a climax with the disturbing image of Flynn laughing in the confessional. Rather than falling action, “The Sisters” ends abruptly, in the middle of a sentence. Joyce therefore leaves the reader with a sense of unfinished business that is fitting considering the ambiguous nature of the story’s message and meaning.

The story’s reliance on dialogue rather than exposition also increases the reader’s sense of empathy for the narrator, as they experience events along with him. The narrator is characterized purely by his thoughts, and Joyce creates intimacy by using internal monologue and stream of consciousness. Such techniques enable Joyce to provide visceral descriptions of shared human experiences, like grappling with a disturbing image while trying to drift off to sleep: “I drew the blankets over my head and tried to think of Christmas. But the grey face still followed me” (75-76). The narrator’s experience of disturbing thoughts and mental processing after a death are relatable but also mysterious. The lack of explanation makes the image more unsettling and sinister and forces the reader to guess at the emotional significance of this image and its cause for the narrator. This simultaneously creates closeness and distance between the reader and narrator, a feature of Joyce’s Modernist style.

Religious imagery is prevalent throughout the story, and “The Sisters” focuses specifically on the theme of the Psychological Effect of Religious Ritual through descriptions of the emotional response to religious acts. These effects are shown to be intense, but the story displays deep ambivalence about whether they are a positive or negative influence. The omnipresence of religion in the story reflects Dubliners’ sustained exploration of the historical and cultural weight of religion and its interrelation with politics in late 19th- and early 20th-century Ireland. Perspectives on religion are purposefully ambiguous, and the narrator and Flynn have complex views on the subject, possibly reflective of Joyce’s own criticism of religion, the Church, and its role in Ireland. As the first in the collection, “The Sisters” emphasizes the deep-seated influence of Catholicism in society and the individual psyche in order to establish its significance in culture and to the book’s critique of attitudes and behavior in Dublin.

Joyce employs narrative ambiguity throughout the text, with many plot and character details being hinted at but never revealed. This produces a sense of anticipation, frustration, and even unease for the reader, who must draw their own conclusions and supply their own suppositions. The reader’s experience of discomfort at not having access to relevant details that would help them understand the story is related to its theme of Uncanny Representation of Knowledge. The uncanny is an eerie or fearful feeling of familiarity, often created by the juxtaposition of familiar and strange elements, or by incongruity. By representing the uncanny using stream of consciousness, Joyce alters the previous literary tradition in his Modernist writing. In “The Sisters,” the uncanny representation of knowledge appears implicitly in the ominous suggestions about Flynn and in the disturbing image the narrator experiences as he drifts off to sleep. The absence of details about Father Flynn’s character and mental state creates foreboding about what that missing knowledge might reveal, hinting at a dark secret. The use of the uncanny also contributes to the mood of “The Sisters,” which is largely bleak, due in part to its focus on death. Images of physical death are often uncanny, combining aspects of the familiar (a well-known person, ordinary life experience) with the strangeness of the body in death, alienation, and mystery. In addition, Joyce uses gloomy imagery, descriptions of negative thoughts and mental illness, and slow pacing to create the dark mood and tone of the story. This mood forms part of Joyce’s critical portrayal of Catholicism and its influence on the health of the individual and society.