Not "too much noise": Joyce's "The Sisters" in Irish Catholic perspective - James Joyce

Twentieth Century Literature, Spring, 1993 by Thomas Dilworth

11 See Julian Kaye (23), William Bysshe Stein, "Sisters" (item 61); and Gerhard Friedrich (72). Connolly, debunking the worst absurdities of his predecessors, allows for the possibility of the priest's having actually committed the sin but cannot guess what it might be (195).

12 See Clive Hart (20); and Friedrich (72). Marvin Magalaner makes the point that before the 1909 revision of the story, the aunt and not the boy brought the snuff to the priest (77). Joyce apparently made the change to emphasize the boy's symbolic priesthood.

13 It would be improbable even to consider them as altar servers. If anything they would be sacristans, supplying the bread and wine, a job often performed by nuns or "sisters."

14 The liturgical significance of the day of death was first noticed by Walzl, "Sisters" (183-87); and Stein, "Sisters" (item 2).

15 Michael S. Reynolds refers to the word "blood" recurring throughout the Mass of the day (336)--but as an invalid Father Flynn would not have attended or celebrated Mass.

16 One was my wife's grandmother, Esther Mapother from Howth; another was Mattie Phelan, who used the expression not jokingly or casually, as Esther did, but fearfully because she superstitiously believed it might be true.

17 See Kenner (149-50). Thomas Staley recalls Spielberg's short essay (538). Connolly mentions Spielberg's insight only to dismiss it (194). So does Donald Torchiana (19).

18 Kennedy notices that the wake occurs on the Feast of the Visitation, but derives no significance from it, despite the suggestive quotation in her title, "Lying still" (363). In the original 1904 version of the story published in The Irish Homestead, the date of the death was July second, which placed the wake on the third of July. The change of date may have been motivated by a desire to set the wake on the feast of the Visitation as much as to set the death on July first, the Feast of the Precious Blood.

19 This may seem straining for significance, but the Irish had in the past six decades contributed more than anyone else to the population of the United States, which for that reason loomed large in Irish consciousness. Also, the United States was the only country that had successfully thrown off the yoke of British Imperialism, an act the Irish longed to emulate.

WORKS CITED

Albert, Leonard. "Gnomonology: Joyce's 'The Sisters.'" JJQ 27 (Winter 1990), 353-64.

Bowen, Zack. "Joyce's Prophylactic Paralysis: Exposure in Dubliners." JJQ 19 (Spring 1982), 257-73.

Brandabur, Edward. "The Sisters" in "Dubliners": Text, Criticism, and Notes. Eds. Robert Scholes and A. Walton Litz. New York: Viking, 1971. 337-43.

-----. A Scrupulous Meanness. Chicago: U of Illinois P, 1971.

Bremen, Brian A., "'He was too Scrupulous Always': a Reexamination of Joyce's 'The Sisters,'" JJQ 22 (Fall 1984), 55-66.

Connolly, Thomas E. "Joyce's 'The Sisters,'" College English 27 (December 1965), 189-95.

Friedrich, Gerhard. "The Perspective of Joyce's Dubliners." James Joyce's Dubliners. Ed. James Baker and Thomas Staley. Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth, 1969, 71-78.