What happens in Chapter 6 of Dubliners?
On a warm Sunday evening in Dublin, Lenehan and Corley meander through the city streets. Corley is excitedly talking about his latest conquest—a domestic servant girl he’s been seeing. Lenehan listens, part admiration and part eagerness, as he asks if the girl gives Corley any money. They part ways near Merrion Street, where Corley meets the girl—described plainly—and they head off together. Lenehan spends some time wandering the city, having a simple meal of peas and ginger beer in a rundown refreshment bar, while indulging in a fleeting daydream about settling down with a nice, uncomplicated girl. He eventually returns to the agreed meeting spot. Corley comes back from his encounter and, after a moment of dramatic pause, opens his hand to show a small gold coin—evidence that the girl has stolen money from her employer for him.
Analysis
Joyce's "Two Gallants" explores the theme of moral parasitism disguised as masculine friendship. The title is sharply ironic; neither character embodies gallantry in any real way. Corley plays the role of a bully and exploiter, while Lenehan is a sycophant whose cleverness has soured into servitude. Joyce depicts Dublin with meticulous geographical details—the streets named and the paths outlined—turning the city into a maze of futility where the men move in circles that reflect their stagnant lives.
The harp, seen outside a club playing "Silent, O Moyle" to an apathetic audience, serves as the story's most poignant symbol: Ireland's cultural legacy reduced to mere background noise, ignored and undervalued. This resonates with the slavey, who is similarly an instrument, used and then tossed aside.
Joyce's writing captures Lenehan's emptiness through a style of free indirect discourse that shifts between irony and pathos. The refreshment-bar scene acts as the story's emotional turning point: the meager meal and Lenehan's fleeting moment of genuine desire ("He was tired of his life") momentarily make him relatable, a contrast to the distance the narrative maintains. However, this tenderness quickly evaporates as Lenehan returns to his role as Corley's audience.
The final image of the gold coin resting in Corley's palm hits like a punchline but carries the weight of an accusation. Joyce refrains from commentary, allowing the object to speak for itself: exploitation portrayed as a transaction, the city's stagnation made literal and gleaming.
Key quotes from Chapter 6
“He was tired of his life.”
Lenehan's interior admission surfaces mid-story during his solitary wandering, the single unguarded moment in which Joyce allows the character's exhaustion to speak without irony.
“Her eyes were dark and her manner was frank. She had broad nostrils, a straggling mouth which lay open in a contented leer, and two projecting front teeth.”
Joyce's deliberately unflattering description of the slavey strips the romantic plot of any glamour, foregrounding the story's cold transactional logic.
“He opened it and showed it to his companion. The other nodded and smiled. Then he closed it carefully and put it back in his waistcoat pocket.”
The story's final lines describe Corley revealing the gold coin, Joyce's refusal to name the coin or editorialize leaving the reader to absorb the full moral weight of the image alone.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Chapter 6
- leer
- An unpleasant, knowing smile or expression that suggests slyness, vulgarity, or crude satisfaction.