Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Theses Department of English 8-12-2016 By the Grace of Joyce, the Brute is Freed: Brutish Bodies, Munificent Minds, and Liberating Language Within Dubliners Julie E. Fowkes Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses Recommended Citation Fowkes, Julie E., "By the Grace of Joyce, the Brute is Freed: Brutish Bodies, Munificent Minds, and Liberating Language Within Dubliners." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2016. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses/208 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. BY THE GRACE OF JOYCE, THE BRUTE IS FREED: BRUTISH BODIES, MUNIFICENT MINDS, AND LIBERATING LANGUAGE WITHIN DUBLINERS by JULIE ELIZABETH FOWKES Under the Direction of Marilynn Richtarik, PhD ABSTRACT My thesis examines Dubliners through the lens of Rene Descartes’s mind-body dualism to explain the relationship between contrasting themes in the text and demonstrate how they are connected. In an explication of the three words introduced by Joyce in the introductory paragraph of the first story in his collection, namely paralysis, gnomon, and simony, linking them with their more subtle but equally significant antonymic themes, which I propose are progression, epiphany, and grace, I show that Joyce was as compassionate as he was contemptuous of his countrymen. I propose that recognizing this balance helps us better understand what Joyce may have meant by making no apology for the brute-like spectacle he projects in his nicely polished looking-glass.