Resumo de Dubliners - James Joyce

The Dubliners, by James Joyce, is a collection of short stories, each centered around a character who lives in Dublin, and for whom Dublin is a central part of their existence. One might view the stories as a "broken" bildungsroman. In other words, the central characters, though changing with each new story, represent a moment in the life of an "iconic" Dubliner which Joyce was trying to represent with his collection of stories.
Beginning with the story "The Sisters," Joyce glimpses for the reader the life of a small boy in Dublin who is being forced to come to terms with the death of his friend, Father Flynn. This youth is the introductory character to the central theme in Dubliners of the dangers of monotonous routine. Each character within the stories of Dubliners is subject to a life of boredom and routine, which oftentimes leads them to depression, anxiety and most often loneliness.
One excellent example of the pervasiveness of the dull life of a Dubliner overwhelming the central character with loneliness comes in the story "Eveline." In this story a young woman is forced to literally stand at a train station and choose between a man who appears to be offering her everything she has ever wanted, an escape from her abusive father and her life of mundacity, yet she chooses to not leave that life. She accepts her monotonous fate as a Dubliner.
The inherent boredom can also lead to a life of depravity, not just self-punishment as in the case of Eveline. In the story "Two Gallants," Lenehan and Corley are two men whose activities are vague at best for most of the story until the reader learns toward the end that they are actually involved in the activity of "pimping" out a woman. This, it seems, is yet another activity born out of their monotonous lives.
Similarly, Mrs. Kearney, in "A Mother," essentially destroys her daughter's chances of making money and being successful as a piano player because she is so desperate to have her voice heard. She appears distraught and tired of always fighting to be recognized as a valuable citizen, perhaps because of her gender.
Where Joyce takes a turn is in the story "Grace" wherein Mr. Kernan begins the tale by taking a terrible fall at a local pub. Other men, men who carry him home, offer to allow him to come to a retreat which serves as part of the second section of narration wherein Mr. Kernan is "saved" with grace, hence the title of the story. However, this "grace" is tricky and it appears that there is more to being saved from his role as a Dubliner than just the church or "grace."
Joyce's final story, "The Dead", is perhaps the most meaningful story of all within this book. The story takes place at a dinner party where Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta are treated as very important guests by members of family and friends. The events at the party illustrate more firmly than ever before the monotony of the lives of Dubliners. Semantics and drama circulate the table which might bore even the most avid reader of Joyce. It is, however, the end, when Gabriel hears the story from his wife about a boy she had loved when she was younger, and his death and how he had such great passion for her and she for him. Gabriel appears unable to cope with the knowledge that great passion had existed in Gretta's life before he entered it. The moment it poignant as Gabriel stares out a window, as snow begins to fall, as he faces away from the city of Dublin which is casually being washed in the whiteness of winter, cleansed and fresh for the next day's monotony.

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