At the end of “Counterparts,” Farrington beats his son
for forgetting to keep the fire going.
As he is being beaten, the son cries, “ Don’t beat me, pa! And I’ll…
I’ll say a Hail Mary for you… I’ll say a Hail Mary for you, pa, if you don’t
beat me… I’ll say a Hail Mary…” (79).
While we have seen many examples of paralysis throughout the collection,
the kind shown in this passage differs from the rest. The beating of the little kid by Farrington causes a
physical paralysis. The fear that
the father causes onto his son results in the son starting to stutter and also
repeat the phrase; “I’ll say a Hail Mary for you”. So here Joyce is suggesting that the older generations are
holding back their children from properly maturing, as evident throughout the
novel but in different ways.
Also
the boy perceives that saying a Hail Mary will be able to save him from the punishment
of his father. Joyce might be
suggesting that the youth still believe that religion and the Church will be
able to save them from the paralysis, but it is the fault of the parents for
causing the lack of trust since Farrington does not stop beating his son.
Another
thing I noticed was that in the second to last paragraph, the boy “clasped his
hands together in the air and his voice shook” (79). This seems very similar to
“Araby” when the boy “presses his hands together until they trembled”
(21). What are we to make of the
different views of religion and the Church that Joyce seems to be giving to
us? Also the wording seems way to
similar to be a coincidence by Joyce.
I might just be looking wishfully at nothing but can anyone find any
significance in the difference between the boy’s voice shaking versus the boy
in “Araby” shaking his hands? Could this possibly relate back to my first
question?
No comments:
Post a Comment