"A Painful Case" is a short story by Irish author James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

, published in his 1914 collection Dubliners

Dubliners

Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century....

.

The story

Mr. Duffy, a middle-aged bank cashier, deliberately lives in an isolated suburb of Dublin. He is characterized as very meticulous and ordered and has little social contact. At a concert one night, Duffy makes the acquaintance of Mrs. Sinico, a married mother. They start up a relationship that is innocent enough to be condoned by Mrs. Sinico’s husband, who believes the two's discussions revolve mostly around his daughter and the possiblity of a relationship between her and Duffy. The two draw closer together, and one night Mrs. Sinico impulsively takes his hand, but Duffy is not pleased at the development and ends their meetings. Four years later, he reads that Mrs. Sinico has been struck by a train and killed. The newspaper article, the title of which provides the title of the story, contains an account by her husband, who states that she began drinking two years ago. The details of the accident suggest that she may have committed suicide. He reacts at first with revulsion, concluding that some inherent weakness led to her drinking and the accident, but he slowly realizes that his rejection condemned her to solitude and death. He reflects on his own loneliness: "No one wanted him; he was outcast from life's feast." The story ends with Duffy listening to the silence of the surrounding night.

Details

• Bile Beans
—a popular patent medicine in Ireland during Joyce’s day.

• the Rotunda
—a group of buildings next to the maternity hospital on Rutland Square (now Parnell Square), one of which is a concert hall.

• astrakhan
—a wool fabric with a pile cut and curled to look like a loosely curled fur made from the pelt of very young lambs originally bred near Astrakhan, a city and port in southwest Russia.

• Earlsfort Terrace
—the location of the Dublin International Exhibition Building, a concert venue at the time this story takes place.

• Leghorn
—a seaport in Tuscany

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

, western Italy, on the Ligurian Sea

Ligurian Sea

The Ligurian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, between the Italian Riviera and the island of Corsica. The sea is probably named after the ancient Ligures people.-Geography:...

 (The Italian name is Livorno.)

• Parkgate
—the main entrance to Phoenix Park

Phoenix Park

Phoenix Park is an urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying 2–4 km west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its 16 km perimeter wall encloses , one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since the seventeenth...

, the large public park in northwest Dublin.

• the buff Mail
—the Dublin Evening Mail

Dublin Evening Mail

The Dublin Evening Mail was between 1823 and 1962 one of Dublin's evening newspapers.-Origins:Launched in 1823, it proved to be the longest lasting evening paper in Ireland...

, which was printed on buff

Buff (colour)

Buff is a pale yellow-brown colour that got its name from the colour of buff leather.Displayed on the right is the colour buff.EtymologyAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary, buff as a descriptor of a colour was first used in the London Gazette of 1686, describing a uniform to be "A Red Coat...

 (brownish-yellow) paper.

• reefer

Pea coat

A pea coat is an outer coat, generally of a navy-colored heavy wool, originally worn by sailors of American and European navies. Pea coats are characterized by broad lapels, double-breasted fronts, often large wooden or metal buttons, and vertical or slash pockets...

—an overcoat; a short, thick, double-breasted coat in the style of a seaman’s jacket.

• the prayers
—Secret prayers in the Roman Catholic mass between the Offertory

Offertory

The Offertory is the portion of a Eucharistic service when bread and wine are brought to the altar. The offertory exists in many liturgical Christian denominations, though the Eucharistic theology varies among celebrations conducted by these denominations....

 and the Preface

Preface (liturgy)

In liturgical use the term Preface is applied to that portion of the Eucharistic Prayer that immediately precedes the Canon or central portion of the Eucharist...

, read silently or quietly by the priest.

• Sydney Parade

Sydney Parade railway station

Sydney Parade Railway Station is located at Sydney Parade Avenue in Sandymount, Dublin 4, Ireland.The station opened in January 1835 as a halt on the Dublin and Kingstown Railway. In 1852, it was upgraded to a full station with the construction of shelters, stone platforms, and a footbridge.The...

—a train station on Sydney Parade Avenue

Sydney Parade Avenue

Sydney Parade Avenue Sandymount, Dublin 4, Ireland runs from the land formerly known as Ailesbury Park opposite the Merrion Centre at the Merrion Road end, to the sea of Dublin Bay at the Strand Road....

, in the village of Merrion, southeast of Dublin.

• Leoville
—apparently the name of the house in which the Sinicos lived.

• a league
—a temperance association

Temperance movement

A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...

; its members would have pledged to avoid alcohol.

• the Herald
—the Dublin Evening Herald

Evening Herald

The Evening Herald is a mid-market tabloid evening newspaper published in Dublin, Ireland by Independent News & Media. It is published Monday-Saturday, and has three editions — City Edition, City Final Edition and National Edition...

.

External links

• Dubliners at Project Gutenberg
  Project Gutenberg
  Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...