Duffy: The Real ‘Painful Case’ Essay

In A Painful Case, by James Joyce, the central office is cold, intellectual, and emotionless. The narrator of this story adopts a pessimistic and scathingly negative perspective of the central character, Mr. Duffy.Duffy is, figuratively speaking, dead. He is dead to the world of passionate emotions that exact others alive, and he shuns most contact with other humans, especially emotional and allude contact. He argues that incessantlyy bond is a bond of sorrow, and uses this as justification for not engaging in any relationships of an intimate nature. He has neither companions nor friends, church nor creed. Duffys way of life is very telling of his personality as well. The lofty walls of his uncarpeted room were free from pictures (Joyce, 118). It is customary to put up pictures in ones home of ones family or friends, notwithstanding Duffy does not associate with either. He has no joyous memories to record in film and frame on his bedroom wall. His room mirrors the give in of his mind orderly and austere, uncluttered by anything resembling passion. In many regard Duffy is dead.The besides intimacy Duffy may put on ever felt in his life was with Mrs. Sinico, but thus far when she dies he initially observes nothing but disgust that he had shared intimate parts of himself with someone who card-playing herself with an alcoholic suicide.The whole narrative of her death revolted him and it revolted him to think that he had ever spoken to her of what he held sacred. She had a commonplace vulgar death. Not only had she degraded herself she had degraded him. He saw the squalid tract of her voice, sorrowful and malodorous. His souls companion (Joyce, 126-127)The extent of Duffys aloof solicitude of intimacy is such that even when Mrs. Sinico dies the only thing he faecal matter think about is how her death cheapened him.Eventually, Duffy realizes that he had withheld life from her, and he had sentenced her to death. He realizes that he, at least in lar ge part, had been responsible for her descent, alcoholism, and eventual suicide. He left her to loneliness when he stopped seeing her, and that loneliness was what prompted her death. at once that she was gone he recognize how lonely her life must have been, sitting night after night alone in that room (Joyce, 128).With the realization that he was responsible for Sinicos death, Duffy realizes that he too go out die someday, and, like Mrs. Sinico, become nothing more than a memory. The grounds why Mrs. Sinico left memories with Duffy is because she reached out and attempted to become emotionally intimate with him. Unlike Sinico, Duffy never made any such attempts, and recoiled when he realized that their relationship was becoming too close. Because of his lack of warmth and passion, when Duffy dies it is likely that no one will even remember him, and he realizes this.His life would be lonely too until he, too, died, ceased to exist, became a memory- if anyone remembered him He gn awed the rectitude of his life he felt that he had been outcast from lifes feast no one wanted him (Joyce, 128-127)However, even after Duffy comes to this painful realization he still has little hope of altering his lifestyle to be more passionate and alive. This is shown by Duffys thoughts of Sinico near the end of the story. Initially, he tail feel her presence. She seemed to be near him in the darkness. At moments he seemed to feel her voice touch his ear, her hand touch his (Joyce, 128). Later, he sees a goods calculate emerging from the Knightsbridge station, and imagines the laborious drone of the engine reiterating the syllables of her name. In this manner he personifies her spirit with the train. After the train leaves, so does his feeling that she is still in that respect next to him after the train leaves he feels utterly alone again. He listened again perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone. Duffy dismisses Sinicos spirit, and by dismissing her, he also dismisses a ny hope he had of learning to live.In this manner the narrator provides a pessimistic view of Duffy, while showing the reader how Duffy has little hope of learning to feel passion even after Sinicos death. The newspaper refers to Mrs. Sinicos death as a most painful case. However, the title of the story really refers to Mr. Duffy. He is, in fact, the real painful case.