It is Joyce's use of voyeurism that most characterizes the eroticism in "The Dead", "The Boarding House", "Two Gallants" and "Araby ". Eroticism is strongly driven by mystery and suspense. By creating a passive individual experiencing sexuality without actual contact, Joyce can use all aspects of that individual's own perception to paint the ideally charged moment. The voyeur simply watches and waits, desire increasing as consumption is avoided. In all four stories, details, tones, circumstances, images, and language communicate eroticism by emphasizing this desire. The actual interaction, when it occurs, is hidden from the reader, creating a whole other world in what is not told. We see erotic action through imagination, memory, or description. The lack of fulfillment and interaction reinforces eroticism by keeping it veiled, creating an inner world that we cannot know. The rhythm of Joyce's cyclical motifs and the sensuality of his visual images create the perfect setting for this feeling of recognition and desire without consumption. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Joyce tends to occupy more than one consciousness in weaving his narrative (Fisher, in lecture, 10/4/99). Watching and waiting are characteristic of each point of view involved in these stories. In “The Boarding House,” the action is driven entirely by observation. Mrs. Mooney “[notices] something going on between Polly and one of the young men” (Signet Classic, 60) because she is watching closely. Her own emotion and decision to act is driven solely by what she sees between these two people. The reader also becomes a voyeur, almost systematically changing peepholes and surprising three different people in a state of waiting. In “Two Gallants,” the use of observation is more apparent, as the meeting of two lovers is told entirely through the eyes of someone who is spying on them. Lenahan “simply observes them for a few minutes” (53) and is affected by the sexuality of their exchange. Once the lovers disappear, the reader and Lenahan are forced to wait. Even when the interaction never occurs, the excitement of waiting is achieved through passive eyes. In “Araby” and “The Dead,” the protagonist is the primary voyeur in strikingly parallel images. Gabriel looks at his wife at the top of a staircase (220), much like the young boy in "Araby" perceives his object of desire, "...her silhouette defined by the light of the half-open door". (24) These early erotic moments move both stories forward, presenting untouched images to pursue. Both become motifs, appearing again in both stories. Joyce's use of imagery in staging each scene is full of sensory detail, reminding the reader that erotic observation communicates through all the senses. In "The Boarding House", the scene takes place according to one of the following descriptions: "It was a bright Sunday morning in early summer, promising heat, but with a cool breeze blowing. All the windows of the boarding house were open and the lace curtains rose gently towards the street under the raised sashes. The belfry of the George Church sent out constant chimes... Breakfast was finished in the boarding house and the table... was covered. of plates on which lay streaks of egg yolk with pieces of bacon - fat and bacon crust. (60) These kinds of images, tempting and palatable, are found among all Dubliners. In these cases, the reader becomesvoyeur, more and more excited by the vision that presents itself to him. Joyce further highlights the voyeurism of her erotic world with complementary details. His physical descriptions of people focus on body parts and the clothing that covers them. This plays on the mystery and suspense of sexual tension, emphasizing the importance of not seeing everything. Each part of the face and hands is often mentioned in each story, with painstaking detail. The closer the author comes we look, the more we will desire. A passage from “Two Gallants” is rich in this veiled attention to the body: “Her blue serge skirt was held at the waist by a black leather belt. The large silver loop seemed to dig into the center of her body, catching the light. stuff from his white blouse like a clip... Lenehan's eyes noted with approval his sturdy, muscular body that gleamed on his face, on his big red cheeks and in his unabashed blue eyes. (52) In this segment, and many others like it, the use of "she" rather than a proper name is a significant detail. Joyce uses anonymous women to create even less attachment or reciprocity in these erotic encounters. In "Two Gallants" and "Araby", the girls don't even seem to have names. In “Araby,” the boy states that “his name was like a call to all [his] senseless blood” and that “his name sprang to [his] lips in moments of strange prayers” (25), without ever saying it. reveal. . It enhances the sense of mystery by reminding us of what we don't know and preserving a sense of conscious distance. Even in "The Dead", throughout Gabriel's enthusiastic observation, Gretta is primarily referred to as "she" and "his wife". This is where the use of pronouns most appears to be an intentional stylistic decision. Although Gabriel's attraction to his wife should be anything but impersonal, Gretta's erotic attraction is strongest when she is something unknown and distant, always waiting to be conquered. Imagery also contains symbolic objects and events. A harp appears in two separate stories. In "Araby", the reference is relatively explicit, since the young boy imagines "my body was like a harp and his words and gestures were like fingers running on wires". (25) The use of this image is more complex in "Two Gallants", when Lenahan and Corley pass a harpist in the street. In this sensual passage, the harpist is called “he” and the instrument “she.” Joyce, using personification, describes an instrument "without caring that its covers had fallen on its knees", thus exposed to all the voyeurs in the street. And by ending the moment with “[t]he notes of the air throbbed deep and full” (50), Joyce draws attention to the rhythm of the erotic. This rhythm, which we also find in the falling snow of "The Dead", gives a hushed time to these sensual encounters. They become more real and believable when they have a heartbeat and communicate sexuality on a more subconscious level. What Joyce doesn't tell us is just as important to everything we see, feel, smell, taste, and hear in these erotic stories. It is crucial for encounters to fail in moments where the line between looking and having is crossed. This occurs explicitly in "Araby" and "The Dead", and is specifically characterized by a sudden awakening to reality. The viewer is suddenly no longer occupied with all the sensory pleasure of perceiving their subject. All the joyous sexuality of “Araby” ends with a moment of self-realization. (30) When the observer becomes aware of himself desiring his object, the consciousness of.