8. (11) A painful case Flashcards
Genre
“A Painful Case” is a modernist short story. One of the modernist qualities of “A Painful Case” is the way in which there is no clear moral lesson. While some of Joyce’s contemporary readers may have thought that Duffy was correct in his decision to end his friendship with the married Mrs. Sinico when she reached out for physical contact, Joyce hints that this is not necessarily what he was trying to communicate.
Joyce’s decision to have Mrs. Sinico indirectly die as a result of a broken heart invites readers to question if perhaps Duffy is to blame for Mrs. Sinico’s death. Still, there is no narrator communicating a clear takeaway or lesson here.
Readers must decide for themselves if Mrs. Sinico is to blame for her indiscretion, or if Duffy is to blame for his sexual repression and refusal to bend the rules of society in order to find connection with another person.
Mood
The mood of “A Painful Case” is primarily a bleak and depressing one, with small moments of reprieve. The dreary, dissatisfied mood comes across from the start of the story, when the narrator introduces readers to Duffy and his home.
This bleak mood continues for the first half of the story but disappears briefly as Duffy and Mrs. Sinico develop their friendship and Duffy feels, for the first time in a long time, that someone truly wants to know him and hear his thoughts and ideas.
Then—just a few paragraphs later—Duffy ends their relationship after Mrs. Sinico reaches out to touch his face in an intimate moment. After this, the story is quite bleak again, ultimately ending in an even sadder place than it began, with Duffy mourning Mrs. Sinico’s death and the fact that he is utterly alone.
Tone
The tone of “A Painful Case” is simultaneously judgmental and compassionate. The primary judgmental tone comes from Duffy, whose rigid and harsh views are communicated by the narrator.
Though subtle, there is a secondary judgmental tone in moments like this that comes from Joyce himself. In making Duffy so hyperbolically conceited and unaware (and therefore an unsympathetic character), Joyce is subtly suggesting that he does not approve of Duffy’s behavior and encourages readers to view him with this sort of negative judgment as well.
It is notable that, while these layers of judgment exist in the story, there is still an earnest and emotional tone that comes through, especially in the moments that Duffy is able to access his emotions and let down some of his walls. This tone is present when Duffy is developing intimacy in his relationship with Mrs. Sinico as well as when he grieves her death at the end of the story.
Style
The writing style of “A Painful Case” is characterized by Joyce’s frequent use of free indirect discourse. This is a writing technique that involves a third-person narrator channeling the inner thoughts and expressions of a given character (typically the protagonist), essentially merging with them in the process.
Another notable aspect of Joyce’s style in this story is his decision to include an entire article about Mrs. Sinico’s death. In this part of the story, his writing style totally changes, imitating that of a journalist, as seen in the following passage.
This is one of the many ways in which Joyce seeks to make his stories feel real.
Setting
“A Painful Case” is set in Dublin, Ireland at the turn of the 20th century. The short story collection in which “A Painful Case” appears is called Dubliners, a nod to the fact that Joyce is attempting to comment on the sociopolitical state of Dublin in the early 1900s through stories about various types of people living in the city.
Near the beginning of “A Painful Case,” Joyce writes that Duffy’s face “was of the brown tint of Dublin streets,” hinting that Duffy—as an alienated, lonely man—represents the dull, dispossessed state of the city itself.
Joyce’s own disillusionment with the Irish Nationalist movement comes across in the story via Duffy’s former involvement with a nationalist political party and subsequent abandonment of the group after it split into several smaller parties.
Another important element of the setting is Duffy’s house. Like Duffy himself, his house is on the outskirts of society and is described as “lofty” (signaling Duffy’s lofty, pretentious views). His home is also austere, containing many books but very little color or life. All of this combines to communicate his sense of alienation and lack of connection with people and the outside world.
Theme: Alienation and Connection
Modernist writers often explored the emotional lives of characters who are alienated in some way: estranged from others, society in general, and even cut off from themselves. In “A Painful Case,” Mr. Duffy and Mrs. Sinico are both alienated, for different reasons.
The story shows that even in the alienating world of the modern city, a chance encounter can lead to an authentic connection between people who may not have realized how much they needed it.
Duffy does show an interest in political reform and a desire to connect with others pursuing it, but his snobbish attitude alienates him from other political activists.
Like Duffy, Mrs. Sinico is isolated and alienated from human connection. However, in her case, she did not choose this way of life, but yearns for companionship. It is implied that Mrs. Sinico’s advancing age has caused her husband to lose interest in her. Though married, they have no real connection.
This unlikely pair come together in a deep connection that gives the other what they most need: Duffy gets to feel heard, and Mrs. Sinico gets to feel needed.
Theme: Sexual Repression
Modernist writers like Joyce often pushed the envelope in their portrayals of sexuality. In deliberate criticism of what he saw as Victorian prudishness, Joyce’s writing often features frank discussion of sexuality and criticism of sexual repression.
“A Painful Case” shows that strict adherence to sexual moral standards leads to sexual repression, with tragic consequences. Both Duffy and Mrs. Sinico are celibate and pursue a platonic friendship. Then, their relationship is destroyed when Duffy panics over a perceived sexual overture from Mrs. Sinico.
In this plot trajectory, the story shows that conformity to strict sexuality morality and fear of sexual expression can be destructive of authentic human connection.
Duffy ends their relationship completely in a moment of sexual panic, thinking that Mrs. Sinico wishes to defy social norms and have an adulterous sexual relationship with him.
Duffy’s sexual prudery, repression, and insistence on conventionally correct moral standards leads to the end of what has been a meaningful, authentic connection, and Mrs. Sinico dies a few years later. Ultimately, the story suggests that a sexual affair between the two, though forbidden by moral and social conventions, would have been preferable to the life of isolation, tragedy, and death that results from Duffy’s sexual repression, prudery, and conformity to social scruples.
Theme: Questioning Conventional Morality
Modernist narratives tend to unsettle moral frameworks. For example, at the end of most of the stories in Dubliners, readers are faced with either a moral problem that defies judgment or shown a character having a sudden epiphany, but it is not clear what they have learned.
In its portrayal of Mr. Duffy and Mrs. Sinico’s relationship, the story questions moral conventions regarding love, marriage, and sexuality. Additionally, the story muddies the waters with respect to Mrs. Sinico’s death, leaving its cause ambiguous and questioning Duffy’s responsibility.
Finally, the story refuses to say if Duffy has had a profound realization of his lost opportunity with Mrs. Sinico or if he will simply revert back to his contented alienation. In raising these moral questions but deliberately leaving them unanswered, Joyce forces his readership to question conventional morality and grapple with their assumptions surrounding it.
it is revealed that Mrs. Sinico had taken to drinking, so it is probable that in her drunkenness, she stumbled or did not see the train coming. Other evidence hints at suicide, however. Mrs. Sinico could have avoided a slowly moving train. The doctor’s finding the death due to “sudden failure of the heart’s action” suggests that symbolically, Mrs. Sinico had given up on life.
The newspaper article describing her death ends saying, “No blame attached to anyone.” Ironically, the rest of the story narrates Duffy’s coming to blame himself.
The ending of “A Painful Case” is bleak and evocative, raising many questions but providing no answers. Did Mrs. Sinico die accidentally, or did she kill herself? Did Duffy’s rejection of her prompt her slow decline? Is he responsible for her fate, or is he wallowing in guilt? Does Duffy now feel lonely, having finally understood what he threw away? Or has this passionless man experienced a few hours of emotion and now gone back to his typical disconnection? In raising moral questions but not clearly answering them, the story forces readers to engage with the plot directly, questioning their own assumptions and standards for judgment.
Symbol: Duffy’s House
The detailed description of his house and its furnishings symbolize Duffy’s sense of superiority, his rigid, austere personality, and his sexual repression.
Duffy’s sexual repression is further symbolized by two fleeting references to the color red, traditionally used to represent passion and sexuality. The foot of his bed is covered by a “black and scarlet rug.” The presence of a small amount of red on Duffy’s bed shows the presence of some passion, but revealed almost accidentally or as an afterthought.
Moreover, when his desk is opened, “a faint fragrance escape[s]” from “an overripe apple which might have been left there and forgotten.” This image hearkens to the biblical Garden of Eden and the forbidden fruit of sexual consummation. However, like this apple, Duffy’s sexuality has withered from its containment.
Allusion: Irish Socialist Party
In the early 20th century—when Joyce wrote Dubliners—the famous Irish nationalist and labor union leader James Connelly founded the Socialist Party of Ireland. As Duffy describes in the story, the Party did indeed split off into multiple factions due to internal disputes, thereby limiting its political power.
Duffy’s involvement in the Socialist Party is significant because it communicates that, at some point in the not-so-distant past, he had hope for Ireland’s political future and also sought connection with others (who shared his views). In other words, he was not the alienated and isolated man that readers are introduced to at the start of the story. It is notable that, while Duffy again opens up to connection (with Mrs. Sinico) in the story, he ends up isolated and alone once more.
Allusion: Duffy’s Books
Near the beginning of the story, as Joyce is setting the scene, he mentions by name some of the books on the shelves of Duffy’s house, alluding to the writers William Wordsworth, James Butler, and Gerhart Hauptmann in the process.
Taken together, these three different allusions paint a portrait of Duffy as a well-read intellectual interested in many different types of literature—Wordsworth wrote emotional Romantic poetry, while Butler (author of the Maynooth Catechism) published dense religious texts, and Hauptmann was known for his realist, socially critical plays.
The inclusion of Wordsworth’s work is particularly notable here, as Duffy does not lead a particularly emotional or romantic life—in fact, he lives almost like a recluse with little interaction with the outside world.
