payment page
Of the two friends, Lenehan is the more self-reflective and he provides a quiet, contemplative balance for the burly actions of Corley, who has crafted and executed their current plan. Lenehan is a Dublin man quite literally on the edge. When the readers first meet Lenehan, he appears to be tightly locked into his sidekick role. He limits himself to shallow, reactive comments while he allows Corley to dominate their conversation, he is clearly going along with a plot that he did not have a hand in planning, and he walks off alone while Corley has a date with a pretty woman. However, readers are able to determine that Lenehan is not such a one-dimensional character the longer that they spend in his presence. Lenehan’s jovial demeanor melts into a somber contemplation of his own pitiful life the moment that he is left alone. As Lenehan wanders aimlessly through the streets of Dublin, it becomes abundantly apparent that he is not happy with the current trajectory of his life and wishes that he had the strength to pull himself out of it. He is a character who is caught at an impasse. He has one foot on the path and one on the road as he walks with Corley, he must bide time while Corley woos the girl, he lives on the verge of bankruptcy, and many consider him to be “a leech.” At almost thirty-one, Lenehan yearns for a comfortable life but he does not know if he has the nerve to make that dream a reality. He is a character deserving of pity because the events at the end of the short story imply that he is too enmeshed in his seedy existence to pull himself out of it. As a result, Lenehan can be compared to any of the various Dubliners protagonists who dream of an unattainable escape. However, it is important to note that Lenehan is no less guilty of deceit than Corley is, because he still goes along with Corley’s plan.
