In the story of ‘A painful case’, Mr. Duffy lives a life of prudence and order. Duffy’s meticulous life is depicted by his tidy house, uncarpeted floor, walls without pictures and the orderly manner he has kept his books (Joyce 71). According Joyce, Duffy states that he detests anything that shows or has mental or physical disorder (72). He lives in a somber house just to fulfill his desire to live alone. The reason Mr. James Duffy lives away from where he is a citizen is because he does not like mingling with his age mates or relatives (Joyce 72). He wants to have a quiet life free from disturbance where he enjoys his freedom to its maximum. On the other hand, Eveline lives with an abusive father where she works as a nanny and a shop worker to support the family (Joyce 48). Her father takes away all her earnings, and she has to endure hard work and hard life to fulfill her dead mother desires.
Duffy’s life signifies a decayed and paralyzed life where the author uses brown and yellow colors to show the level of paralysis. For example, Duffy’s brown face project loneliness, the apple that is rotting in his desk that is turning brown and the Dublin streets brown tint point a paralysis in the surrounding suburb (Joyce 72).
Eveline is social as she lives with her father and has a relationship with Frank while Duffy wants to stay an isolated life where it is only him except that he accidentally meets Mrs. Sinico in a concert. Further, Eveline never limited her love to her Fiancé except on the red letter day when she failed to take a new lease on her life and accompany Frank. But for Duffy, he rejected Mrs. Sinico love to prosper when he rejected Mrs. Sinico sexual advances.
Both Eveline and Duffy are responsible for their drawbacks as they were given a chance to change their life but, they squandered it. None of them is a victim of her or his character than the other as they both delayed taking actions that could have changed their life completely.
Work Cited
Joyce, James. Dubliners. London: Simon & Brown, 2011, Print.
