Analysis of James Joyce's "A Painful Case"

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Frankfurt (Main) (Institut für England- und Amerikastudien), course: Einführung in die Literaturwissenschaft, language: English, abstract: Though James Joyce's talent for words was not fully appreciated in his day, yet he was known for being a gifted writer with excellent narrative abilities. Literature experts agree that these skills were mainly shaped during the creation of ¿Dubliners¿, a volume of more comprehensible short stories published in 1914.

The genius of this collection revolving round the ill-fated lower middle class life in early 20th century Dublin is the lively description of the individual characters contained therein. Joyce accomplished these detailed characterizations by mainly using actual friends and acquaintances as well as enemies as models for his characters.

In ¿A Painful Case¿, the ¿most sophisticated and complex ¿Dubliners¿ story¿ (Adam Sexton), it is apparent that James Joyce himself serves as a blueprint for the main character of the story, James Duffy. Accordingly, this written work contends that "A Painful Case" is in reality a glimpse at Joyce¿s own personal life, and more particularly at the relationship to his future wife Nora Barnacle.