Friday, June 27, 2014

In James Joyce's, The Dubliners (in the story 'The Three Sisters'), give four characters in the short story and a brief description of each of them.

You must mean "The Sisters" in James Joyce's Dubliners.
 In this story there are several characters that deserve
attention:


(1) The narrator who was a friend of the Father
Flynn, the priest who died--He had a close relationship with the priest, who had taught
him many things about the church and the Catholic doctrine.  Through the narrator we see
a boy's reaction to death and to the adults who influence him--positively or
negatively.


(2) Father Flynn--the priest who dies when the
story begins.  He is as the sisters proclaim a "conflicted" man.  It seems that the role
of the priest never truly suited him, and he longed for escape.  His dream of taking a
ride back to his childhood home represents his need to escape the confining role of
priesthood.  Flynn's decline begins when he drops the chalice and begins laughing
uncontrollably in the confessional.


(3) The sisters--Much
of what we know of Father Flynn comes from the sisters.  The sisters are caught in the
daily routine of caring for Father Flynn, but they worry about his aberrations.  Their
worry, however, does not cause them to act.  When he dies, they proclaim that he is a
"beautiful corpse."  They seem to turn away from major issues and seek comfort in the
daily routines of life.


(4) Old Cotter- Old Cotter is the
first adult to cast doubt on the narrator's relationship with the priest, proclaiming
that the boy should be out playing with boys his own age.  At first the narrator resents
Old Cotter, but later puzzles over his words.

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