Critiquing the Christian Church in "Ivy Day in the Committee Room" and Other Stories in Dubliners Timor Pasha 12th Grade

Religion has been at the heart of Irish identity for centuries, with Christianity being introduced around the 4th century CE. This has also been the focus for much of the political tension between Ireland and England in the more recent centuries. The conflict between Ireland and its colonial invaders has manifested itself into hostile tension between two branches of Christianity, Catholicism and Protestantism. At the moment, Catholicism accounts for 84.2% of the Irish population, and James Joyce himself was a Catholic by birth. Although, there is a great deal of ambiguity around his religious views, Joyce has fused religion into his book in many ways ranging from simple every-day life to existential epiphanies. It is a theme which stands out alone and also interacts with other ideas to create a vivid depiction of Dublin life. Some ways in which religion and the church are presented to us are through paralysis; how the constrictions and restraints of religious institutions have caused a great deal of hemiplegic lethargy in Ireland, identity; how it interacts with the Dubliners themselves and obscurity; the murky nature surrounding religion and, in particular, religious corruption.

One of the stories where the paralysis of...