The stories of Dubliners share unifying themes and motifs, but some of the stories evolved and changed over time. For example, Joyce wrote the first story in the collection ‘The Sisters’ during the summer of 1904, and it was published in the Irish Homestead magazine on 13 August, the first anniversary of Joyce’s mother’s death. Joyce later revised the story, so the version we read in Dubliners today differs quite a bit from the story as it appeared in the Irish Homestead in 1904. For instance, the original opening paragraph didn’t include the word ‘paralysis’ even though Joyce had already declared that the paralysis of the city was a major theme in his stories. The story we know today now reads: “THERE was no hope for him this time: it was the third stroke. Night after night I had passed the house (it was vacation time) and studied the lighted square of window: and night after night I had found it lighted in the same way, faintly and evenly. If he was dead, I thought, I would see the reflection of candles on the darkened blind for I knew that two candles must be set at the head of a corpse. He had often said to me: "I am not long for this world," and I had thought his words idle. Now I knew they were true. Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work.”

Press ‘A’ to learn about the story ‘Araby’… Press ‘B’ to learn more about the story ‘The Dead’… Press ‘C’ to listen to the final lines of ‘The Dead’…

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