Catholicism in James Joyce’s “Grace,” “The Sisters,”

and Brian Friel’s “The Diviner”

By: Orsolya Halmi

 2009
Religion has always played a very important role in the life of the Irish
community and it has become one of the favourite themes of Irish writers when depicting
traditional Irish way of life. Literature dealing with this theme usually describes Irish
Catholicism as exaggerated, strict and condemning for those who do not live by its
dogmatic rules. Very often Irish writers deal with fallen Catholics who are looked down
upon by their community.
Both James Joyce and Brian Friel tackle the problem of this strict religious way of
life, presenting such issues as faith, superficiality, narrow-mindedness, excessive
morality etc. James Joyce was an ardent critic of Catholicism, and having grown up in a
strict Catholic community, he felt the need to flee from this suffocating environment
along with his mistress, Nora. Thus, this paralyzing effect of this excessive religiousness
is excellently presented in Dubliners and The Portrait if the Artist as a Young Man. In
Dubliners, many of Joyce’s characters are confronted with religion and experience its
suffocating effect (“Joyce” 2). “Joyce frequently presents the Irish Church as
overwhelmingly, fatally materialistic and power-hungry -- but the anger in this
presentation is in itself a critique” (Hodgekins 7).

“The Sisters”

In “The Sisters,” the story centres on the death of a Dublin priest, befriended by a
young boy by whose perspective the problem of Catholicism is reflected on. Listening to
the talk of his sisters, the reader is drawn into the intricate details of the priest’s last few
days or weeks, suggesting that something was wrong with Father Flynn. The priest’s final
decline towards insanity (the breaking of the chalice, his sudden disappearance, his
laughing and talking to himself) may be interpreted as the result of the paralyzing
lifestyle imposed upon the Irish (or the representatives of the Catholic Church).
Furthermore, the boy’s feelings and observations about the Father’s death also suggest
the paralyzing effect that Catholicism plays on the inhabitants of Dublin: “I found it
strange that neither I nor the day seemed in a mourning mood and I felt even annoyed at
discovering in myself a sensation of freedom as if I had been freed from something by his

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death. I wondered at this for, as my uncle had said the night before, he had taught me a
great deal” (“Sisters” 2-3). Father Flynn’s death seems to come as a relief for the
narrator, who, although having been quite close to the priest, senses the liberating effect
of losing the burden of religion (Lewis 2).
The priest’s figure as a teacher for the boy also portrays the image of Catholic
religion as being instilled within the Dubliners from a very young age. The boy
remembers the details that Father Flynn had taught him about the ceremonies of the Mass
and vestments of the priesthood, and confessions: “Sometimes he had amused himself by
putting difficult questions to me, asking me what one should do in certain circumstances
or whether such and such sins were mortal or venial or only imperfections. His questions
showed me how complex and mysterious were certain institutions of the Church which I
had always regarded as the simplest acts” (“Sisters” 3). The categorization of sins as
“venial,” “mortal,” or “imperfections” and the rituals of getting rid of one’s sins also
alludes to the stifling nature of this religion.

“Grace”

In “Grace,” another short-story from the Dubliners, Joyce further explores the
intricacies of the Catholic faith and its relation to the people of Dublin. The story focuses
on Mr Kernan, a businessman, who, having gone into serious debts, finds himself at the
bottom of the bottle. His wife and some of his friends decide to “make a new man of
him” (Grace 4) by taking him to church to a sermon specially aimed at businessmen. The
conversations of the four men gathered in Mr. Kernan’s room on Catholicism as well as
the priest’s sermon create an ironic picture of Catholic “purity.” Joyce’s irony lies
especially in the men’s misinformation about the church, about its history, and the
infallibility of the Pope (“Interpretation” 1).
Joyce’s criticism of the Catholic Church is expressed also by the figure of Tom
Kernan, whose reluctance to join in the retreat because of the candle adds an even comic
effect to the whole (Lewis 3):
“O, don't forget the candle, Tom,” said Mr. M'Coy, “whatever you do.”
“What?” said Mr. Kernan. “Must I have a candle?”

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 “O yes,” said Mr. Cunningham.
“No, damn it all,” said Mr. Kernan sensibly, “I draw the line there. I'll do the
job right enough. I'll do the retreat business and confession, and... all that
business. But... no candles! No, damn it all, I bar the candles!”
He shook his head with farcical gravity. (“Grace” 14-15)
Kernan’s joking attitude clearly satirizes the “retreat business” and makes fun of
his friends’ strong belief in the power of the Catholic Church. Moreover, Joyce’s use of
words for his attitude in church – he “followed the general example,” “presented an
attentive face to the preacher” (“Grace” 15, 16) – emphasize the superficiality of his
attendance, his presence accounted for only by the submission to his friends’ request
(Lewis 3). Furthermore, Mr M’Coy’s joke on his friends’ seating arrangement in a
quincunx adds to Joyce’s criticism of the church. As Don Gifford notes, a quincunx is an
“arrangement of five points, one at each of the four corners of a square and one in the
center, associated with the pattern of wounds which Jesus received on the cross” (qtd. in
Rice 6). Rice claims that “Joyce's decision to situate Kernan in the corner of the design . .
. rather than at its center, supports another level of irony through yet another dimension
of the story's geometrical allusion” (7).
Joyce also includes the priest’s character when discussing religion. For the Irish,
the priest becomes the direct figure of faith, the powerful image of purity and perfect
model for the people to follow. In “Grace”, the priest appears only in the last part of the
story, yet his role is no less important. His powerful and commanding figure dominates
the scene and his solemn and lofty sermon seems comically in opposition to the friends’
chatter in the first part of the story. Joyce highlights the specious morality of Father
Purdon’s sermon, which “clearly suggests that Kernan will find no genuine fulfillment,
no true grace or place, no integration or reintegration within the spiritual community in
this businessman's retreat (Rice 7).
As for the priest in “The Sisters,” he proves to be yet another character for
expressing the writer’s harsh criticism of the Church of Ireland. Here, however, the
Father becomes the symbol of religious paralysis through the boy’s portrayal (Lewis 2):
“Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis
(“Sister” 1).” In contrast to the priest in “Grace,” nevertheless, Father Flynn is looked

4
upon as rather uncanny and queer, “one of those ... peculiar cases” and the boy’s
friendship with him is also seen as wrong: “‘I wouldn't like children of mine,’ he said, ‘to
have too much to say to a man like that’” (“Sisters” 1). It is suggested throughout the
story that the Father was suffering from mental disease which is had begun to affect his
duties as a priest:
[H]e began to mope by himself, talking to no one and wandering about by
himself. So one night he was wanted for to go on a call and they couldn't
find him anywhere. They looked high up and low down; and still they
couldn't see a sight of him anywhere. So then the clerk suggested to try the
chapel. So then they got the keys and opened the chapel and the clerk and
Father O'Rourke and another priest that was there brought in a light for to
look for him.... And what do you think but there he was, sitting up by
himself in the dark in his confession-box, wide- awake and laughing-like
softly to himself? (“Sisters” 5)

“The Diviner”

Brian Friel is another Irish writer who deals with the issue of Catholicism in
contemporary Ireland. One of his most influential short-stories, “The Diviner,” tells the
story of an Irish woman named Nelly Devenny, who, after having lost her first husband,
becomes a widow again when her second husband drowns in a lake. Friel portrays the
typical small Irish community of Drumeen as a place where religion plays a crucial role
in the life of its inhabitants.
In the “The Diviner” Catholicism appears under the disguise of respectability,
morals and the figure of the priest. The work begins with an image of Nelly as the wife of
a drunkard husband and with some reference to Nelly’s status in the community. Great
importance is given to they idea of respectability even from the very beginning. Nelly’s
behavior after her husband’s death presents the first signs of Catholic morality: “She took
the death calmly and with quiet dignity and even shed a few tears when the coffin was
lowered into the grave. After a suitable period of mourning, she went out to work as a
charwoman, and five better-class families she asked for employment were blessed for

5
their prompt charity, because Nelly was a perfect servant – silent, industrious, punctual,
spotlessly clean” (Friel 471). Nelly’s is portrayed as the perfect Catholic woman, who,
although having suffered much from the misdemeanor of her late husband, acts according
to Christian morals: she takes the news of death with quiet dignity, respects the period of
mourning, and even sheds a few tears at the grave as expected of her. Throughout the
story, she follows this predetermined demeanor until the final revelation about her second
husband, when the stains of shame show through the second time: he was found with two
bottles of whiskey in his pockets. Nelly’s image of a respectful Catholic woman carefully
constructed after the death of her first husband is shattered by the second husband. And
this time, she finally loses her dignified self in the face of the community: “Nelly cried,
helplessly, convulsively, her wailings rising above the drone of the prayers. Hers, they
knew, were not only the tears for twenty-five years of humility and mortification but,
more bitter still, tears for the past three months, when appearances had almost won, when
a foothold on respectability had almost been established” (Friel 481). The appearances
that she so desperately tried to keep up were the appearances imposed by the Catholic
Church.
The second character that the writer introduces is the priest, Father Curran, the
only person told about Nelly’s new plans for marriage. The priest is present as the head
of the community, the person of confidence for the villagers, as well as their advisor. His
spiritual consolations, however, are only standard prayers and rosaries. As the
representative of the Church of Ireland, this highly respected and powerful figure
emphasizes the power of Catholicism in the community, yet it shows that religion
provides no real comfort for Nelly. Furthermore, the Father’s hostile attitude towards the
diviner highlights his narrow-mindedness as well as the narrow-mindedness of the
villagers, who are reluctant to accompany the diviner to the lake. In this sense, the Irish
Catholicism is criticized as being superficial and backward. In this sense, it is not by
chance, therefore, that Friel entitled this work “The Diviner.” Besides being a story about
shattered Catholic respectability, one may also interpret the work as a criticism of the
intolerant and bigoted Catholic Church.

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 All in all, “Grace,” “The Sisters,” and “The Diviner” provide insight into the
problems of the Church of Ireland and its influences upon traditional Ireland exposing it
as ignorant, backward, and superficial.
Works Cited

Friel, Brian. “The Diviner.” The Oxford Book of Irish Short-Stories. Ed. William Trevor.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Hodgekins, Hope Howell. “‘Just a little…spiritual matter’: Joyce's ‘Grace’ and the
modern Protestant gentleman”. Studies in Short Fiction. 2005. FindArticles. 27
Jan. 2009. <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2455/is_n3_v32/ai_19517938>

“Interpretation of Grace from Dubliners, by James Joyce.” Poet’s Forum. 26. Jan. 2008.
<http://www.poetsforum.com/papers/200_2.html>

“James Joyce,” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2008. 27. Jan. 2009.
<http://au.encarta.msn.com>

Joyce, James. “Grace.” Dubliners. London: G. Richards, 1914. 25. Jan. 2009.
<http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/960/>

---. “The Sisters.” Dubliners. London: G. Richards, 1914. 25. Jan. 2009.
<http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/965/>

Lewis, Robert. “Emphasis on Catholicism in James Joyce's Dubliners.” Associated

Content. 26. Feb. 2008. 27. Jan. 2009.
<http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/618457/emphasis_on_catholicism_in_
james_joyces.html>

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Rice, Thomas Jackson. “Paradigm Lost: ‘Grace’ and the Arrangement of Dubliners.”
Studies in Short Fiction.1995. 26. Jan. 2009.
<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2455/is_n3_v32/ai_19517937>