Dubliners

Section: Book Reports

I felt my soul receding into some pleasant and vicious region; and there again I found it waiting for me". The boy feels the need to get away from the priest, but this proves to be impossible. When he ran away into his "pleasant and vicious region", the priest was still there'haunting him. In fact, even before the narrator is thoroughly convinced that the priest is dead, he is worried that Father Flynn will haunt him (Stone 169): "In the dark of my room I imagined that I saw again the heavy grey face of the paralytic. I drew the blankets over my head and tried to think of Christmas". These passages convey the idea that the boy was afraid of the priest and felt somewhat freed by his death. This is further proven when the boy, after having seen the card announcing the death of the priest, thinks it "strange that neither [he] nor the day seemed in a mourning mood and [he] even felt annoyed at discovering in [him]self a sensation of freedom as if [he] had been freed from something by [Father Flynn's] death". This feeling of freedom suggests that the boy understood that he was a captive of Father Flynn, and thereby, also a captive of the church. With the Father's death, perhaps the death of his captivity came as well. The idea of religious bondage can be seen in An Encounter by examining the relationship between the boys and Father Butler. When Leo Dillion is caught reading The Apache Chief in class, "everyone's heart palpitated" as Father Butler frowns and looks over the pages. Shortly thereafter, the narrator claims that "[t]his rebuke'paled much of the glory of the Wild West'But when the restraining influence of school was at a distance [he] began to hunger again for wild sensations'". This passage demonstrates the control the church has over the opinions and thoughts of the narrator. In addition, if Father Butler is considered a symbol of the church, the fear felt by the students at the prospect of his disapproval and the freedom they feel when the "restraining influence" of the church was at a distance prove the suffocating nature of religion. It is from this stifling existence that the narrator yearns to escape. This is further illustrated when Leo Dillion doesn't appear for the ditch day because he worries that they "might meet Father Butler or someone out of the college". Even though Father Butler's influence on the boy's thoughts dwindles when school lets out, he is always in their minds. His presence in their thoughts, especially at time when they are planning an activity for which they could be punished, is a parallel to the feeling of a sinner who worries what God's punishment will be.

Words: 461