Article: James Joyce's darkly colored portraits of "mother" in Dubliners.(Special "Dubliners" Number)

She may appear, at first, a positive portrait, but the reader of Joyce's Dubliners soon discovers that there is something wrong with mother -- all mothers, whether they be real mothers or surrogates. Just as the priests of Portrait simultaneously convey contradictory impulses -- kindness and cruelty, for example -- the ambiguous mothers in Dubliners emerge paradoxical and enigmatic. Their "goodness" most decidedly tainted, Dubliners' mothers often seem ineffectual or hardened, sometimes even wildly or sadly perverted. Their positive feelings for their children become suspect when tempered by their harshness or selfishness. Usually paralyzed, either physically socially, ...

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