Curated set · answers marked
In James Joyce's Dubliners, what term does the narrator use in the opening story "The Sisters" to express the spiritual paralysis and moral failure he perceives in the world around him?
ASimony
BGnomon
CParalysis✓
DEucharist
Rationale
In "The Sisters," the young narrator reflects on three terms — gnomon, simony, and paralysis — but it is "paralysis" that serves as the central theme of the entire collection, illustrating the spiritual, moral, and social stagnation of life in Dublin that Joyce aimed to depict.
In the last story of Dubliners, "The Dead," what sudden realization leads Gabriel Conroy to a moment of deep self-reflection and humility at the story's conclusion?
AHe finds out that his wife Gretta has been secretly in touch with a former lover.
BHe learns that Gretta once had a profound love for a young man named Michael Furey, who died because of his love for her.✓
CHe discovers that his aunts are planning to sell their house and leave Dublin.
DHe realizes that he embarrassed himself during his after-dinner speech at the party.
Rationale
Gabriel overhears Gretta listening to the song "The Lass of Aughrim" and later finds out it reminds her of Michael Furey, a young man from Galway who loved her deeply and passed away shortly after standing in the rain outside her window to say goodbye before she left for Dublin. This revelation shatters Gabriel's self-satisfied identity and leads to his well-known epiphany about the living and the dead.