Dubliners is a collection of vignettes of Dublin life at the end of the 19th Century, written by Joyce in a manner that captures some of the unhappiest moments of life. The dominant themes include lost innocence, missed opportunities, and an inability to escape one’s circumstances.

Joyce’s intention in writing Dubliners was to write a chapter of the moral history of his country, choosing Dublin as the scene because it seemed to him to be the centre of paralysis. He presented the stories under four different aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life, with each section reflecting different stages of life in Ireland.

‘The Sisters’, ‘An Encounter’, and ‘Araby’ are stories from childhood; ‘Eveline’, ‘After the Race’, ‘Two Gallants’, and ‘The Boarding House’ from adolescence; ‘A Little Cloud’, ‘Counterparts’, ‘Clay’, and ‘A Painful Case’ focus on mature life; and stories from public life are ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’, ‘A Mother’, and ‘Grace’. ‘The Dead’ is the last story in the collection and is probably Joyce’s greatest, standing alone and concerned with death.