Dubliners, a collection of short stories written by James Joyce, is regarded as the most famous short stories of the whole west in 20th century。 This work, consisting of 15 stories, describing the life of the middle and lower classes in Dublin in the early years of the 20th century。 In a letter to publisher Grant Richards, James Joyce clearly stated  the writing principles of this  book。

My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the center of paralysis。。。 I have written it for the most part in a style of scrupulous meanness and with the conviction that he is a very bold man who dares to alter in the presentment, still more to deform, whatever he has seen and heard。 1 cannot do any more than this。 1 cannot alter what I have written (Gilbert, 1966:134)。

“He felt contempt for the forces that subdued and deformed the souls of his people and a deep compassion for the victims of these forces” (Blades, 1996: 6)。 This collection can be pided into four parts, the first three stories mainly show the growth of the child to a youth; the next seven stories reveal the lives of the adult; the four stories behind are about social life; the last one is the summary of the whole book。 Although these stories depict different characters and events, they all have the same theme and present a state of spiritual paralysis of the citizens in Dublin。

The  paper  focuses  on  the  theme  of  Dubliners  and  analyzes the来`自+优-尔^论:文,网www.chuibin.com +QQ752018766-

spiritual paralysis that revealed in the 15 stories from the perspective of manifestation, impact and reason。

Part One is introduction, mainly tells something about the author James Joyce and the work Dubliners and the reason of writing this collection of stories。

Part Two is literature review。 This part mainly introduces the study of Dubliners home and abroad and finds out how many scholars studied the theme of Dubliners and from what perspectives。

Part Three is about the  manifestations  of  spiritual  paralysis。  This part introduces the four manifestations,  that  is,  religious  paralysis, political paralysis, emotional paralysis and psychological paralysis。

Part Four focuses on the impact of spiritual paralysis on people。 It shows how people do when they suffer from spiritual paralysis, such as abuse, alcoholism and longing for money。

Part Five concentrates on the reasons of  spiritual  paralysis, including the influence of Catholic, the colonization of England and the problem of people。