The Erotic in Joyces A Painful Case - 1861 Words

The Erotic in Joyces A Painful Case The characters whom inhabit Joyces world in Dubliners, often have, as Harvard Literature Professor Fischer stated in lecture, a limited way of thinking about and understanding themselves and the world around them. Such determinism, however, operates not on a broad cultural scale, but works in smaller, more local, more interior and more idiosyncratic ways. That is, the forces which govern Joyces characters are not necessarily cultural or socioeconomic in nature, but rather, as Prof. Fischer stated, are tiny, and work on a more intimate level. In any case, as a result of such forces, these stories often tend to be about something, as Prof. Fischer said, that doesnt†¦show more content†¦The first instance of this occurs when Joyce writes, The dark discreet room, their isolation, the music that still vibrated in their ears united them (111). As with the description of mental eroticism, (i.e. thoughts entangling), Joyce couches auditory eroticisim in physically eroti c terms as well. It is through sound, in this case music, music which we are told vibrates, that the two are brought together, united. The setting, a dark discreet room, the way in which the music is described, vibrating and the use of the phrase united, all suggest a kind of romantic, physically erotic union. Similarly, Joyce later describes how Duffy seemed to feel her voice touch his ear... (118). By describing a voice as touching an ear, Joyce again suggests a physical act of eroticism. Unlike, however, the touching of their hands, which Joyce says Duffy imagines as well, the idea of a voice touching an ear suggests not only external touching, but because a voice enters ones body and soul, also connotes images of penetration. A voice, unlike hands, penetrates; committing the most erotic act of all. It is not, however, until the end of the story that we are able to understand not only how sound and voice functions in a auditory erotic fashion, but how such eroticism is responsible for Duffys, albeit impermanent, self-transcendence. In a passage which Professor Fischer would