A Painful Case of Paralysis

Duffy's impersonal and sombre room

Joyce introduces Mr. Duffy as careful and unadventurous. The description of Duffy’s home – “an old sombre house . . . [with] lofty walls [and an] uncarpeted room . . . free from pictures” and his daily routine of traveling on the same tram and eating at the same places leads the reader to see Mr. Duffy as an uninteresting and paralyzed character (87). Mr. Duffy has nothing to live for; he has no passion, and everyday is identical to the one that passed. Even love in the form of family and friends is nonexistent in Duffy’s life, as he has separated himself from the rest of humanity: “ He lived his spiritual life without any communion with others, visiting his relatives at Christmas and escorting them to the cemetery when they died” (88).  

Duffy lives his life as if he were dead until Ms. Sinico awakens his emotions. However, even during their friendship, Duffy believes that he is destined to be alone, as “he heard the strange impersonal voice which he recognised as his own, insisting on the soul’s incurable loneliness” (90). As their companionship grows and Duffy bonds more closely with Sinico, Duffy is faced with the uncomfortable thought that maybe he is wrong – maybe it is possible to love someone. This thought that could possibly evoke passion and disorder, frightens Duffy and leads him to throw away his love and return to his cold, empty house of loneliness.

After four years of solitude, only the tragic death of his almost-lover leads Duffy to notice how he wasted the only chance at love he ever had. He despairs over his missed opportunity as he exclaims, “One human being had seemed to love him and he had denied her life and happiness; he had sentenced her to ignominy, a death of shame” (96). Duffy realizes how wrong he was when he pushed Ms. Sinico aside just because she may have wanted an intimate relationship with him. He sees that his roughness and lack of love ultimately killed his friend, as the reader finds out that she died of a broken heart and fallen spirit. Although Duffy recognizes his wrongdoing he doesn’t do anything about it: “He began to doubt the reality of what memory told him. He . . . allowed the rhythm to die away. He could not feel her near him in the darkness nor her voice touch his ear. . . He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. . . He felt that he was alone” (96).  Instead of trying to remember his emotional connection with Ms. Sinico or trying to release his emotions by reconnecting with society, Duffy is centered on his loneliness. Duffy allows the spirit Sinico awakened in him to die. The story ends in the same way as it begins as he returns to his cold, impersonal home and continues his lonely life. Duffy remains paralyzed both emotionally and socially.

Is Joyce leading the reader to infer that Ireland is falling out of contact with the rest of the world? Will it be able to reconnect?