Analyse af James Joyces novelle 'A Painful Case'

A Painful Case is written by James Joyce as part of his collection of short stories Dubliners and was published in 1914. The story centers around Mr. Duffy, a middle-aged man who leads a very lonely existent, but in an organized way, outside of Dublin. Mr. Duffy is introvert and has small pleasures in life, which is reading and writing, his days runs schematic working as bank clerk eating his lunch and dinner the same places day in and day out occasional indulging in going to a concert out of his love for Mozart. One day he meets Mrs. Sinico, which is a life changer for James Duffy, this encounter has an enormous impact on his life, for the first time he is intimate with another human being.

“He lived at a little distance from his body, regarding his own acts with doubtful side-glasses. He had an odd autobiographical habit which led him to compose in his mind from time to time a short sentence about himself containing a subject in the third person and a predicate in the past tense.”

James it not really in contact with his own feelings and likes to analyze himself in order to be in his own perception a descent man. He is not really living his life, but rather is observing himself and restraining his emotions and desires.