ANALYSIS OF "A PAINFUL
CASE"

The text "A Painful Case" belongs to
James Joyce's novel "Dubliners". It's a short story which
deals with a sad event regarding to Mr. James Duffy's life. The structure of
the text is "circular": the story starts with the description certain
J. Duffy's habits and his house  and
proceeds narrating a secret  love story
between him and Mrs. Emily Sinico. In conclusion, before  the death of Mrs. Sinico, Mr. Duffy returns to
his old life with his old habits, permeated by E. Sinco's  remembrance.

The title of the text "A painful case"
help the reader to perceive by intuition what could happen in the story,
rousing curiosity and a sense of sadness. In addition, J. Joyce doesn't adopt
dialogues but he tells the story only which the use of narration in the third
person omniscient narrator. In this way the writer leave space to the
description of the two main characters and the description of Mrs. Duffy's
house, which constitutes the first part of the text. Moreover the setting is
different in every part of the story ( Chapelizod, E. Sinico's house, the
theatre "Rotunda", Earlsfort Terrace, ) because the two protagonists
meet in various places of the city, Sidney Parade.

In conclusion, Emily Sinico and James Duffy both are
introduced with a description which starts considering firstly all particular (
"A bookcase had been made in an
alcove by means of shelves of white wood. The bed was clothed with white
bedclothes and a black and scarlet rug covered the foot", "His face,
which carried the entire tale of his years, was of the brown tint of Dublin
streets. On his long and rather large head grew dry black hair and a tawny
moustache did not quite cover an unamiable mouth" ) arriving at general aspects ( "He had been for many years cashier of a private bank in Baggot Street.
Every morning he came in from Chapelizod by tram. At midday he went to Dan
Burke's and took his lunch--a bottle of lager beer and a small trayful of
arrowroot biscuits. At four o'clock he was set free." ).