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“While they talked he tried to fix her permanently in his memory… Her face, which must have been handsome, had remained intelligent. It was an oval face with strongly marked features. The eyes were very dark blue and steady. Their gaze began with a defiant note but was confused by what seemed a deliberate swoon of the pupil into the iris, revealing for an instant a temperament of great sensibility. The pupil reasserted itself quickly, this half-disclosed nature fell again under the reign of prudence, and her astrakhan jacket, moulding a bosom of a certain fullness, struck the note of defiance more definitely.”
Joyce gives the reader a lengthy description of Mrs. Sinico’s appearance as soon as she is introduced to the narrative. Joyce’s meandering description, which begins at Mrs. Sinico’s eyes and travels down to her bosom, places the reader in Mr. Duffy’s shoes and we assess this new character alongside Mr. Duffy. The attention that Mr. Duffy pays Mrs. Sinico shows that he is instantly captivated by her. This passage also offers the reader a glimpse of Mrs. Sinico’s intelligent, bold, and warm personality.
“Captain Sinico, of Leoville, Sydney Parade, husband of the deceased, also gave evidence. He stated that the deceased was his wife . . . They had been married for twenty-two years and had lived happily until about two years ago when his wife began to be rather intemperate in her habits. Miss Mary Sinico said that of late her mother had been in the habit of going out at night to buy spirits. She, witness, had often tried to reason with her mother and had induced her to join a League.”
The above lines are a quotation from the newspaper article, titled “A Painful Case,” which announces that Mrs. Sinico died after being struck by a train. In this part of the article, Mrs. Sinico’s husband and daughter discuss Mrs. Sinico’s troubled state before she died. It is essential to note that the reader never hears an account of Mrs. Sinico’s mental state from Mrs. Sinico herself. Instead, we are told secondhand which provides room for mystery and interpretation.
