COUNTERPART (KEY SYMBOLS, CONTEXT) Flashcards
Summarise ‘Counterparts” ?
- Humiliated by his boss (Mr. Alleyne) at the law firm in which he works, a copy clerk named Farrington pawns his watch and spends the money on a night of drinking in Dublin pubs.
- Afterward, he goes to his house in the suburbs, where he vents his rage by** beating** one of his five children (Tom).
What cluster is ‘Counterparts’ in?
- Adulthood
Key characters in ‘Counterparts’?
- Farrington: Alcholic copyist that works in a legal office. Symbolises the ‘everydayman’ crushed by modern bureaucracy, Irish paralysis and toxic masculinity.
- Mr Alleyne: Farrington’s overbearing boss. Symbolises oppressive authority, colonial control and a class stucture that disempowers/ humilates the working man.
- Farrington’s son (Tom): Symbolises ephermality of innocence in a morally depraved Ireland, generational suffering.
- Weathers: ” foil to Farrington as he represents the exuberance and vitality of youth
Key narrative techniques used in ‘Counterparts’?
- Omission of epiphany- (or the reader reaches an epiphany)
- Realism/Naturalism/ Symbolism
- Stream of consciousness- highlights his intractable anger.
- Cyclical narratives (in terms of ideology/atmosphere)
Prose/ Lexicon of ‘Counterparts’?
- Prose= Realist, stripped of sentimentality
- Lexicon= Plain, colloquial
What is the signficance of the title ‘Counterparts’?
- Refers to legal copies of documents.
- Explores the idea of doubling/duality (boss/ worker, Colonizer/Colonized, Abuser/Victim)
- Who is Farringtons counterpart? His boss (abuser) His son (victimised) or Weathers? (idealism) (All expose the ways he fails to measure up)
emphasizing cycles and mirroring roles in a power hierarchy.
Key Context of ‘Counterparts’?
The story critiques both external system that paralyse the Irishman but also his moral failures
Critic R. Bruce Kibodeaux argues that in Joyce’s fiction…
There are three nets which hold back the soul of an Irishman from flight. These are the nets of language, nationality, and religion
Overall structure of ‘Counterparts’?
Tri-partite structure
* Net of language (Farrington challenging his boss)
* Net of Nationality (Wrestling match)
* Net of religion (His son cries ‘Hail Mary’ whilst his father beats him)
How does Counterparts link to other stories?
- A Little Cloud’. Both feature fathers who take out their frustration on an innocent child, and are in turn bullied by their wives.
His wife was a little sharp-faced woman who bullied her husband when he was sober and was bullied by him when he was drunk.
Summarise the key symbols in Counterparts?
- Alcohol- symbolises escape and self-destruction
- Failed arm match- His impotency and by extention Ireand’s imptency
- “Bell rang furiously”- tension/ mounting frustartion (cyclical narrative that ends with the same internalised fury)
- Pawn Office/Selling of the watch- symbolises how he is selling time both literally and metaphorically to fuel his addiction.
- Fire Symbolism- Joyce’s implicit condemnation of Farrigton to hell/pugatory (Fallen/postlapsarian Ireland)
- Stick used to beat his son “said the man striking him vigrously with the stick”: Phallic image- attempt to regain his lost manhood by physically exerting himself violently on his son. Masculinity here is dominace by any means neccessary.
‘The man’ = the narrative distances itself from Farrington
