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Dublinersby James Joyce |
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| Home > Dubliners > Notes by Bob Williams > After the Race |
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After the RaceAn Outline CommentaryBob Williams - © 1999This is a brief story although longer than 'Eveline' by about thirty lines. Joyce disliked it and critics have not found much good in it. Tindall says it seems meager in comparison with the other stories and this is the kindest thing he has to say. "What Joyce knew about cars, yachts and triumphant butchers was nothing at all or less." Joyce A-Z, not greatly thrilled either, offers that Jimmy Doyle, for all his affluence and relatively higher class, doesn't do better than any other hapless inhabitant of Joyce's Dublin. The Irish Homestead, called The Pig's Paper for its large agricultural readership, accepted "After the Race' and paid £1 for it but asked Joyce not to submit any more since so many readers had complained about 'The Sisters' and 'Eveline.' When in Rome and too unhappy to do any serious writing, Joyce revised the two Dubliners stories that he considered weakest, 'After the Race' and 'A Painful Case.' It was the Gordon-Bennet motor race of July, 1903 that provided the story background.The narrative is objective throughout with focus mostly on Jimmy, especially in the gambling scene. The opening paragraph is, like the opening paragraph of 'Araby,' broad in its point of view but its conclusion is satirical rather than poetic. In one racecar are four young men. Joyce does not tell us its finishing position although we can deduce that it was either second or third. The two young men in the front seat are cousins and French but one of them is from Canada. This is another implied reference to colonialism, the first being in the opening paragraph. Charles Ségouin is happy because he has already received orders for the automobile sales agency that he is to open in Paris. André Rivi¸re is also happy because he is to be the manager of the agency. Villona is happy because he has had a good lunch but his companion in the back seat is too excited to be happy. (Joyce used the names of two companions from his first stay in Paris (1903). The real Villona was, however, French, not Hungarian. Eugene Routh, whose nationality is unknown, provided the last name for the Englishman who is to appear later. See Ellmann: p. 123 and Gorman: p. 100.) Joyce describes Jimmy's physical appearance and writes about Jimmy's father, a former Nationalist who for money and success has abandoned his ideals to serve the needs of Ireland's colonizers. Jimmy attended Dublin University but was a poor student, distracted by "bad courses." The "bad courses" are loose ways of living, not inferior scholastic offerings. He was at Cambridge for a term and continued his self-indulgent way of life. He met Ségouin at Cambridge and his father encouraged him to maintain the connection. The cause of Jimmy's discontent is his inability to hear the driver and his cousin. Between Villona's humming and the noise of the car he can hear nothing clearly. Joyce uses this feeling of physical inability as metaphoric expression of Jimmy's incomplete membership in the group. Jimmy has enjoyed the elite status of his position in the car. Sheltered by Ségouin's patronage he had shone before the foreigners and the native Irish. With his father's blessing and Ségouin's acceptance, he plans to invest in the Paris agency. Jimmy and Villona leave their companions outside the Bank of Ireland and walk to Jimmy's home where they are to dress for dinner with the cousins. Although his father takes pains to charm Villona, Villona is preoccupied with dinner and pays little attention. The two men join their friends and find that S&eactue;gouin has added an Englishman named Routh to the party. Jimmy does not know him but has seen him with Ségouin at Cambridge. Joyce has so far not lost the battle. All that he has done could go on to victory but from here to the end the contact with reality becomes very tenuous and, in a world where anything could happen, no choice will carry conviction. Another variation of this problem occurs in 'A Painful Case,' the other story about which Joyce had doubts. The quality of the dinner demonstrates to Jimmy Ségouin's refined taste. Ségouin guides the dinner conversation skillfully and, when Jimmy and Routh grow hot over politics, Ségouin pacifies them with a toast to Humanity and by throwing "open a window symbolically." After dinner the young men walk along Grafton Street and meet the Irish-American, Farley, an old friend of André and Villona. The young men now six in number, travel by car and train to Kingstown. As they walk to the harbor, they lock arms and sing Cadet Roussel. They travel by rowboat to Farley's yacht. Farley and Rivi¸re dance together as Villona plays a waltz. 'A man' brings them supper. They toast all their respective countries (but not Canada) and Jimmy gives a tipsy speech to much applause. He then sits down with the others, except Villona who is described elsewhere as poor, to play cards. He and Farley lose. He has a moment of speechless sorrow at his gambling away all his money, money presumably meant for investment in Ségouin's venture. He welcomes the stupor of drunkenness that will deaden his pain. Villona, who has been on deck, appears to announce daybreak. The other stories show that Joyce was able to bring parties to life or describe relationships but 'After the Race' shows no skill in either regard. Without demonstrating that any character in this story possessed any of the qualities that Joyce claimed for him, the reader must necessarily have a thin time of it. And it is not only the characters that are thin. In the other stories Joyce had a lively crew offstage that enriched the proceedings greatly. This offstage activity became an awesome business in the best stories and duplicated appealingly the way that in the real world everything interconnected, offstage with on. In 'After the Race' there is no offstage. The world of this story is all there is and it is not enough. The underlying themes - provinciality, internationalism and colonialism - are, since the characters and situations are underdeveloped, obtrusive bones sticking through an insufficiently fleshed body. It stands out in another way too. It doesn't show any strong links with the other stories except for the two women (they must be handsome ladies in this story) and a male companion, a combination that occurs, for example, in 'Two Gallants' and 'Counterparts.' The summary of actions is interesting if not particularly meaningful. Four men are in the racecar. Two men walk. Three (?) men visit. Five men dine, argue, are reconciled, walk, acquire a sixth man and they all go by car, train, foot and boat to a yacht where they dance, eat and gamble. The question about the "three men visit" arises from the uncertainty regarding Jimmy's presence while Mr Doyle attempts to charm Villona. It can readily be seen from this possibly silly description that the story is very communal. No one is ever alone and this gives it a claustrophobic effect. After the Races: Characters (*mentioned)
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