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“He had neither companions nor friends, church nor creed. He lived his spiritual life without any communication with others, visiting his relatives at Christmas and escorting them to the cemetery when they died. He performed these two social duties for old dignity’s sake but conceded nothing further to the conventions which regulate the civic life. He allowed himself to think that in certain circumstances he would rob his bank but, as these circumstances never arose, his life rolled out evenly—an adventureless tale.”
This section encapsulates Mr. Duffy’s solitary nature. Joyce informs the reader that Mr. Duffy has no meaningful relationships and that he does not believe in anything whether that be religion or a personal code. These lines also show the reader that Mr. Duffy is not really living and is, instead, merely going through the motions of his daily life with no sense of direction or purpose. He lives an “adventureless” existence—a notable description, as it’s not typically how an author introduces the reader to the story’s protagonist.
“The night was cold and gloomy. He entered the Park by the first gate and walked along under the gaunt trees. He walked through the bleak alleys where they had walked four years before. She seemed to be near him in the darkness. At moments he seemed to feel her voice touch his ear, her hand touch his. He stood still to listen. Why had he withheld life from her? Why had he sentenced her to death? He felt his moral nature falling to pieces.”
This passage occurs towards the end of “A Painful Case” when Mr. Duffy is trying to come to terms with Mrs. Sinico’s death. He was originally angry by her alleged weakness but now he is more sympathetic to her plight. Here, Mr. Duffy blames himself for contributing to Mrs. Sinico’s loneliness by terminating their relationship the moment it strayed from the platonic. The use of the words “life” and “death” to describe loneliness also brings to mind the notion of death in life, one of the text’s key themes.
