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Paralysis
“The Sisters” is filled with literal and figurative paralysis. The short story opens with the narrator whispering the word “paralysis” to himself as he thinks about Father Flynn who has been paralyzed by his third stroke and is sitting on death’s door. The narrator is both disturbed and fascinated by Father Flynn’s paralysis and he has a morbid desire to witness Father Flynn’s weakened state. The story also includes moments of figurative paralysis such as the narrator’s silence at the supper table, his hesitancy at Father Flynn’s door, and the narrator and his aunt’s inability to eat, speak, or, in the case of the narrator, pray during their visit to the sisters in the text’s final scene.
The narrator and his aunt’s figurative paralysis as they pay their respects is perhaps the most important example because it recalls the sense of paralysis that the narrator connects to the dying Father Flynn in the story’s opening paragraph. This link between paralysis or inaction to both death and religion underpins all the stories in Dubliners. Characters face events that paralyze them from taking action or fulfilling their desires, as though they experience a kind of death in life. In “The Sisters,” such paralysis is connected to religion through Father Flynn. Father Flynn’s dropping of the chalice and his inability to grasp the same object in his coffin suggest that the rituals of religion lead to paralysis. It’s likely Joyce placed such a heavy emphasis on paralysis in Dubliners’ first short story because he wanted it to be a prominent motif throughout his collection.
Descriptions of the Grotesque
Joyce includes many visceral and disturbing descriptions of the grotesque throughout “The Sisters.” The first example occurs when the narrator dreams of Father Flynn’s face hovering over him after he learns that Father Flynn has died. The narrator is confused and disgusted by Father Flynn’s smiling, spittle-covered lips and hides under his covers in an attempt to escape. A few paragraphs laters, the narrator recalls Father Flynn’s unsanitary snuff habits and his unnerving tendency to smile by “uncover[ing] his big discoloured teeth and let[ting] his tongue lie upon his lower lip.” Finally, the narrator gazes at Father Flynn’s corpse which he describes as being “truculent, grey and massive, with black cavernous nostrils and circled by a scanty white fur.”
It is important to note two key details: all of these examples have to do with Father Flynn and all of these examples are corporeal in nature. Joyce likely placed such a heavy emphasis on Father Flynn’s ugly and distorted appearance to signify his malevolence. Although the reader comes to see Father Flynn as an antagonist, they can never fully pinpoint why. Father Flynn is shrouded in mystery. He is never physically present in the text (except as a corpse) and none of the characters offer a holistic overview of him. Instead, we are left with disjointed fragments such as an isolated anecdote or a vague reference to his inappropriate conduct. To contribute to this sense of unease, Joyce emphasizes the physical manifestations of Father Flynn’s inner corruption while simultaneously denying the reader any real information. This ambiguity is more unsettling because the details are left to the readers’ imagination and everyone knows the unknown is more frightening than an explanation.
