Joyce's "The Sisters": A Pennyworth of Snuff

Author(s): Thomas E. Connolly

Source: College English, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Dec., 1965), pp. 189-195
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
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 JOYCE'S "THE SISTERS" 189

to mean that: "The striving after justice, has been chosen or has earned considera-
after the unequivocal word is in vain. But tion from God, he has a reason (or a
it is also not publicly refuted, because in right) to expect salvation.
it a basis of truth is effective: man's be-
But how if, as I have attempted to show
ing coordinate with a spiritual certainty, above, K.'s claim is false? Then he is
with a real significance of his personal ex- making demands he has no right to make.
istence with God." (pp. 183-184). Camus He is seeking a salvation he has neither
speaks of K's "attempt . .. to recapture been awarded nor has earned.
God [and] to try to enter.., the desert If this is the picture that Kafka is giv-
of divine grace."4 ing us, then to the previous interpreta-
It is one thing, however, for a man - tions of The Castle we must add an
or Man - to seek a salvation to which he
additional ironic twist. Not only does K.
feels he has some right. In many religions, pursue doggedly a salvation he cannot
for example, the possibility of that right hope to achieve (or, if one credits Brod's
is explicit: it may either be given by story about the conclusion Kafka planned
election or earned by prayer, acts of for the novel, he receives too late - p.
penitence, or good works. In The Castle, vi). He seeks a salvation which he has
if K. is indeed a land-surveyor and if he not been promised, which he has not
has indeed been hired by the Count, he earned, and to which he has no reason to
has some reason (or right) to expect to feel he has a right. If this is Kafka's
get through to the Castle, to communi- picture of Man's journey through life or
cate with the Count or his emissaries. of his relation to God, it is even more
And symbolically, if a man - or Man - bitter than critics in the past have led us
to believe. Not only will Man not achieve
'Albert Camus, "Hope and the Absurd in the
Work of Franz Kafka," in The Myth of Si- salvation. He is presumptuous in even
syphus (New York, 1960), p. 99. seeking it.

Joyce's "The Sisters"

A Pennyworth of Snuff
THOMAS E. CONNOLLY

OF THE STQRIES IN Dubliners, only "The agreed that he is sacrilegious. The broken
Dead" and "Clay" have received more chalice may be, according to the critics,
critical attention than "The Sisters," but, the symbol of the loss of integrity that re-
among these stories, "The Sisters" is dis- sults from simony or the symbol of the
tinguished by the fact that it has received "great friendship" that exists between
the most fanciful, contradictory, and the boy and Father Flynn. At either ex-
frantic interpretations of all. Depending treme lies absurdity. At least two critics
upon which critic one reads, Father ask us to believe that paralysis is the
Flynn is either the God of Ireland or a natural result of simony.
homosexual, or, with his lolling tongue, a Invoking a principle known since the
gargoyle. Most critics seem fairly well fourteenth century as Occam's razor
("entities must not be unnecessarily mul-
Mr. Connolly is professor of English at State tiplied"), I suggest that a simple reading
University of New York at Buffalo and the of the story is in order after all the wild
author of Swinburne's Theory of Poetry (1964). and speculative guessing that has gone on

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 190 COLLEGE ENGLISH

about it. Why leap over the real thing crackers), relays the words of Eliza and
to seek either the symbol or the far- allows them to fill in the gaps in the his-
fetched when the real thing makes very tory of the removal of the priest from
good sense and a very good story by the active ministry. It seems to me to
itself? stretch the story beyond its limits to
The theme of this story is the response make the cream crackers and sherry the
bread and wine of the Mass as one critic
that the boy makes to the death of his
old friend, Father Flynn. In making his has done.2 The serving of refreshments
at an Irish wake is too familiar to allow
response, the boy reacts violently in the
early part of the story; later, he becomes me to go beyond realistic detail. Further-
a calm, objective narrator of events. Ini- more, Father Flynn as the Irish God,
tially, he does not like Old Cotter, and, as he has been called by the critic who
even before he learns that Cotter has transubstantiated crackers and sherry
brought news of Father Flynn's death, into the Eucharistic elements,3 seems
the boy thinks of him in a hostile fashion: equally beyond my grasp.
"Tiresome old fool!"' After his uncle Most critical discussions of this story
relays the news of Father Flynn's death have concentrated on Father Flynn's
and after Old Cotter makes insinuating lapses as a priest. The two offenses that
and derogatory remarks about the priest, have been presumed to have caused his
the boy is angry, partly because Cotter removal are hinted at only very sketchily.
referred to him as a child and partly in First, the boy implies that Father Flynn
defense of his former friend: "I crammed committed simony, and second we learn
my mouth with stirabout for fear I from Eliza that her brother had broken
might give utterance to my anger. Tire- a chalice during Mass. The implication
some old rednosed imbecile!" (p. 9). that the priest committed simony is in-
While the priest was alive, the boy had troduced very early in the story: "Every
been attracted to and repelled by him. night as I gazed up at the window I said
His first angry response to Cotter's re- softly to myself the word paralysis. It
marks after the news of Father Flynn's had always sounded strangely in my
death reflects the attraction. By the fol- ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid
lowing morning, anger yields to a feel- and the word simony in the Catechism.
ing of relief. "I found it strange that But now it sounded to me like the name
neither I nor the day seemed in a mourn- of some maleficent and sinful being. It
ing mood and I felt even annoyed at dis- filled me with fear, and yet I longed
covering in myself a sensation of freedom to be nearer to it and to look upon its
as if I had been freed from something by deadly work" (p. 7). Not only is there
his death. I wondered at this for, as my a strangeness about these words, but
uncle had said the night before, he had there is also an unusual linkage in the
taught me a great deal" (p. 11). The boy's mind between bodily illness and
final state of the boy's feelings, when, on sin, and this linkage, it will be noted, is
Tuesday evening, he and his aunt visit accompanied by the conflicting feelings
the dead priest's sisters, is quite calm and of attraction and revulsion. Fritz Senn
objective. He is now the observant nar- has commented very significantly on the
rator who, without personal involvement
(except for fear that he may make too 'Marvin Magalaner, Time of Apprenticeship:
great a noise while munching his cream the Fiction of Young James Joyce (London,
1959), pp. 79-81.
1James Joyce, Dubliners (New York, 1945), p. 'Marvin Magalaner and Richard Kain, Joyce,
11. Hereafter all citations to this edition will ap- the Man, the Work, the Reputation (New
pear parenthetically after the quotation. York, 1956), p. 73.

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 JOYCE'S "THE SISTERS" 191

substitution in the boy's mind of the land where the customs were strange"
word for the disease.4 -the priest makes his indistinct con-
fession and the boy smiles his absolu-
J. B. Kaye, in his article "Simony, the
tion. Now Father Flynn, whose per-
three Simons and Joycean Myth," may
verse desires have cut him off, may
be right in tr,.cing the gift of snuff as a commune again with God (new chal-
continuing act of simony, although I ice) and the boy with him (Eliza's
doubt it. But he stretches matters when
sherry).6
he confuses simony with the breaking of
the chalice: "What he is trying to con- In addition to the question of whether
fess is the mysterious sin of Simon Magus this particular boy can be linked to the
-the sin of simony. It is simony that broken chalice, it is very hard to see
causes the loss of integrity-symbolized the chalice as a "symbol of their great
by the broken chalice-which turns the friendship." The fact that Father Flynn
man into a gnomon, a shell of himself. teaches the boy the Mass responses after
Paralysis ensues as a natural conse- his retirement indicates that this boy
quence."5 How paralysis ensues "as a was not the altar boy serving at the
natural consequence" of either breaking time the chalice was broken. Once again
a chalice or practicing simony is not I am hard put to understand how one
entirely clear. becomes paralyzed as a result of simony,
John Kuehl also sees a relationship "trafficking in sacred things."
between simony and the broken chalice. William Bysshe Stein pushes matters
He makes a more detailed linkage be- rather far when he sees Father Flynn's
tween the two acts than does Kaye, and, lolling tongue, which reminds him of a
in addition, he introduces the notion of gargoyle on Notre Dame in Paris, as
homosexuality into the relationship be- "an unconscious reflex of guilt stemming
tween the priest and the boy: from the priest's sacrilegious act."7 The
most damning thing that can be said, in
Ultimate adult betrayal in "The Sisters"
all fairness and honesty, and I venture
has to do with Father Flynn's perverted
to say in canon law, about Father Flynn's
attraction to his proteg6, an attraction
Old Cotter's enigmatic statements, iter- breaking of the chalice is that it was an
unfortunate accident. To commit a
ative oral imagery and, above all, the
boy's thought, dream and actions estab- "sacrilegious act" one must deliberately
lish. The priest grown paralyzed, in- violate or profane a sacred person or
complete, through trafficking in sacred thing. In breaking the chalice, Father
things, through using a holy office to Flynn committed no sacrilege. Further-
perpetulate [sic] covert homosexuality. more, serious as the spilling of the con-
Having sensed this, the boy caused the secrated wine might be, and even the
chalice-symbol of their great friend-
breaking of the chalice, these acts would
ship-to be broken and feels much not in themselves be sufficient to cause
hostility toward Father Flynn during
his illness and after his death. The the involuntary retirement of a priest
crisis of Joyce's drama of the uncon- from his priestly duties. The act of
scious occurs in the boy's room, which,
like the "dead-room" later, is probably 'John Kuehl, "a la joyce: The Sisters Fitz-
gerald's Absolution," James Joyce Quarterly, 2
upstairs. Here, during a dream-"some (Fall 1964), 5-6.
'Villiam Bysshe Stein, "Joyce's 'The Sisters',"
'Fritz Senn, "'He was Too Scrupulous Al- The Explicator, 20, (March 1962) Item 61.
ways' Joyce's 'The Sisters'," James Joyce W. F. Gleeson has written a sane note on this
Quarterly, 2 (Winter 1965), 67-68. story. See The Explicator, 22 (December 1963)
5Julian B. Kaye, "Simony, the three Simons Item 30. Mr. Gleeson and I are in essential
and Joycean Myth," James Joyce Miscellany, agreement at several points, especially about
(1957), p. 23. the absence of sacrilege.

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 192 COLLEGE ENGLISH

simony, however, would be cause for It is important at this point to dis-

removal, as would mental deterioration. criminate between the retirement of a
William A. Faheys disagrees with secular priest from the active duties of a
Magalaner and Kain,9 and presumably parish and the defrocking of a priest.
he would disagree with Kaye also, about Some commentators treat Father Flynn
the "undue service" to the priest consti- as though he were a defrocked priest,
tuting the sin of simony, but he, too, and this, I believe, is wrong. There is
tends to place the act of simony after never a hint in the story that Father
Father Flynn's retirement from the Flynn has been defrocked. The retired
active ministry. He says, "I think that priest who lives quietly on a side street
'undue service' was rendered not by of a parish is fairly common. The most
Stephen [note that Fahey as well as serious thing that can be said about
Magalaner identifies the boy of this story Father Flynn in this respect is that he
with Stephen Dedalus of the Portrait has been involuntarily retired, probably
and Ulysses] but by the sisters. For they because, after mental deterioration, he
have ministered to the acting priest, qua acted strangely in the confessional. One
priest, without believing in him." Irish might note here that, in the original ver-
sisters might very well be expected to sion of the story, Father Flynn was laid
out "in his brown habit." The color of
"minister" to their brother, especially
if he is a priest, or at least they might the habit suggests that originally Joyce
have been expected to do so in Joyce's intended Father Flynn to be a member
time in Ireland. It is also particularly of the regular clergy (a Franciscan, for
difficult for me to understand just what example) but in the final version he
Fahey means by saying that the sisters became a secular parish priest. The re-
ministered to Father Flynn "without be- quirements of the story dictated this
lieving in him." I find no such lack of change to Joyce, for when a member
belief in him in the story. Certainly they of one of the orders (regular clergy)
"believed" in him insofar as they con- retires, he usually remains within the
tinued to accept him as a priest and so walls of the monastery or abbey. He
did all the neighbors with the possible ordinarily does not return to live with
his relatives.
exception of Old Cotter. Finally, how
can Father Flynn be called "the acting Now let us come to the simple,
priest" when he is just exactly the oppo- straightforward reading of the story.
The first clue to the effect on Father
site of an acting priest, a retired priest?
The ordination service includes these Flynn of the breaking of the chalice
words: "Thou art a priest forever [italics comes when the boy, after his feeling
added] according to the order of Mel- of relief at the news of the priest's death,
chizedek." thinks of the hours he spent with Father
Flynn: "His questions showed me how
'William A. Fahey, "Joyce's 'The Sisters,'" complex and mysterious were certain
The Explicator, 17 (January 1959) Item 26. In- institutions of the Church which I had
cidentally, Fahey's interpretation of gnomon as always regarded as the simplest acts.
the pin of a sundial ignores the boy's own state-
ment in the story that the word paralysis The duties of the priest towards the
sounded strangely in his ears, "like the word Eucharist and towards the secrecy of the
gnomon in the Euclid." It may appear to be confessional [italics added] seemed so
quibbling to point out that Kaye's interpreta- grave to me that I wondered how any-
tion of gnomon as a "shell" is not quite ac-
curate either. See footnote 20 below for a def- body had ever found in himself the
inition of gnomon taken from the Euclid that courage to undertake them.. ." (p. 12).
Joyce most probably used. The italicized lines in this excerpt point
'Magalaner and Kain, p. 73. up the two offenses of Father Flynn.

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 JOYCE'S "THE SISTERS" 193

The old man, who had failed in his own brother merely points up, to those who
duties toward the Eucharist-at least are familiar with the Mass service, the
toward one half of the Eucharistic sacri- priest's responsibility for breaking the
fice-dwells on those duties, for, as his chalice and, most likely, spilling its con-
sister says, "He was too scrupulous tents. The effect of this accident was
always.... The duties of the priesthood disastrous. Eliza says, "But poor James
was too much for him" (p. 18). Imme- was so nervous. . . . That affected his
diately after making this comment, Eliza mind . . ." (p. 18).
reveals his first offense, the breaking of Both William Bysshe Stein"o and Flor-
the chalice which led eventually to his ence L. Walzl11 note that July 1, the
mental deterioration. "It was that chalice
day on which Father Flynn died, is the
he broke. . . . That was the beginning Feast of the Most Precious Blood in the
of it" (p. 18); and then she repeats the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church.
obviously false phrases that the sisters It is not beyond belief that Joyce was
have been using to conceal their brother's aware of this fact when he chose to have
offense. "Of course, they say it was all Father Flynn die on that day, for he
right, that it contained nothing, I mean. changed the date from July 2 in the
But still. . . ." Her very hesitancy in earlier versions and he substituted in his
speech and her conscious effort to make final version of the story, as Magalaner
excuses for her brother argue that the has pointed out, a cruelly ironic "idle
chalice in all likelihood was not empty. chalice" for a rosary and a crucifix which
After her pregnant comment, "But still" Father Flynn held in his coffin in the two
she attempts to shift the blame to the earlier versions.12
altar boy. "They say it was the boy's None of those who have commented
fault." Her second attempt at covering
on this story have noted, with respect
up the offense is no better than the first.
to Father Flynn's alleged priestly lapse,
Anyone who has closely observed
that there are three distinct points of
altar boys or who has himself served at
view about that lapse. First, there is the
Mass knows that, after the altar boy
public view expressed initially in the
pours the wine into the chalice before
vague and tantalizingly incomplete sen-
the Offertory (and before the Transub-
stantiation), he does not come near the tences of Old Cotter. From these implied
charges one may conclude anything or
chalice again nor near the center of the
altar where the chalice rests until after nothing about Father Flynn's flaw, and
this very vagueness may account in part
the contents have been consumed by
for the boy's annoyance with the "tire-
the priest. He then, at the end of Mass some old fool." Second, there is the
and after the congregation has received
sisters' point of view of their brother's
Communion (the Host for individuals),
lapse. They alone seem to know that
offers water and wine to the priest to their brother broke a chalice. Neither
cleanse the chalice. The only way the the boy nor his aunt knew of this event
altar boy (Joyce always used the Irish
until Eliza offered her own halting ac-
term massboy) could cause the priest to
break the chalice while it contained the
consecrated wine would be to jerk hard 1"Stein, The Explicator, 21 (September 1962)
Item 2.
on the chausible (the priest's outer gar-
ment) which he raises while the priest "1Florence L. Walzl, "A Date in Joyce's 'The
Sisters.'" Texas Studies in Literature and Lan-
elevates the Host and chalice immediately guage, 4 (Summer 1962), 183-187.
after the Consecration of the Mass, or
clMagalaner, Time, p. 85. Stein and Walzl
to perform some other equally outlandish clarify the "mystifying set of changes" that
action. What Eliza says to excuse her Magalaner has noted.

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 194 COLLEGE ENGLISH

count of it. 13The sisters knew of Father nect it with the confessional. I think that
Flynn's strange action in the confessional, it is wrong to link the act of simony to
but the boy's aunt did not. (The boy the gift of snuff and the Latin lessons,
might have known of the strange con- for these acts, which take place after the
fessional behavior. This point is discussed removal of the priest, provide almost no
below.) Finally, there is the point of basis for the charge of simony, the details
view of the boy, the one who has been of which I shall soon examine. The final
closest to the priest. The boy, who nar- emphasis is on the deranged priest sitting
rates this story, is the only one who in the confessional "wide-awake and
applies the terms simony and simoniac laughing-like to himself . . ." (p. 19).
to the priest. None of the others, not Eliza says, "So then, of course, when
even the openly hostile Cotter, accuses they saw that, that made them think there
the priest of simony. The boy associates was something gone wrong with him"
the term simony with both paralysis and (p. 19). In the final version of the story,
gnomon, and the term simoniac with the mental breakdown began after Father
paralysis alone.14 When these two terms Flynn broke the chalice,17 and the
pass through his mind, the boy feels an simony, if it occurred at all and in what-
attraction to and a revulsion from Father ever form it occurred, followed. Maga-
Flynn. On the second application of the laner, speaking of the indefiniteness of
term to the priest, the boy associates it, the simony, says: "In the specific context
in a dream, with the confessional, and of this story, simony may be involved
the confessional is the link back to the simply in the superior relationship of
breaking of the chalice, for Eliza informs Flynn to the boy, since the Church de-
the boy and his aunt that, after he broke fines simony as an exchange of spiritual
the chalice, Father Flynn began to act for temporal things. It can take the form
strangely in the confessional, and this of having the applicant pay homage
behavior led to his removal from active 'which consists in subserviency, the
parish duties. To assume, as do Maga- rendering of undue service.' ",18 This
langer and Kain,15 that the priest actually argument, persuasive as it is, implies a
did try to confess to the boy is again, very sophisticated knowledge of Church
it appears to me, to push what Joyce definition on the part of the boy, who
says too far. This confession took place alone associates the term simony with
in a dream and the "velvet curtains and the priest and who is just learning the
swinging lamp of antique fashion" are responses at Mass. It is doubtful that
part of the furniture of the dream con- simony could have existed between the
fessional. (It must be noted, however, priest and the boy on the basis of service
that Magalaner in Time of Apprentice- rendered. There are three types of
ship treats the confession of the priest
17"In the earliest version of the story, it should
to the boy as a dream.) 1 be noted, Father Flynn's sister and the boy's
If a simoniacal act was committed,
uncle and Old Cotter speak openly about Father
Joyce leaves its exact nature vague, al- Flynn's sanity (or lack of it), using such phrases
though there is enough of a hint to con- as, "Upper storey-(he tapped an unnecessary
hand at his forehead) -gone," and "Not that
he was anyway mad, as you know yourself, but
"3In the first version of this story, the aunt
he was always a little queer." Magalaner, Time,
knew of the charge of his having broken the
chalice prior to Father Flynn's death. Magal- pp. 175 and 179. It should also be noted that
the mental breakdown started long before he
aner, Time, p. 180.
became a priest in the first version of the
"For an interesting biblical association of story.
these two words, see Senn, p. 69. 'sMarvin Magalaner, "'The Sisters' of James
"Magalaner and Kain, p. 72. Joyce," University of Kansas City Review, 18
'Magalaner, Time, p. 77. (1952), 259.

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 JOYCE'S "THE SISTERS" 195

simony: conventional, real, and mental. simoniacal act seems not so important
Both conventional and real simony re- as the fact that the priest has drifted
quire the expression of mutual agreement from the activity of the spiritual life
and has become a "remainder after some-
to be either completely or partially
carried out by both parties. Even mental thing else has been removed," a gno-
simony, which alone could be applicable mon.20 In a very real sense a gnomon,
here, requires "approval on the part of therefore, is a type of paralysis, an in-
the person to whom a proposal is completeness, and the hulk of Father
made."9 There is no evidence whatso- Flynn spiritually and physically paralyzes
ever that the boy approves of the simony. the society which he dominates. He has
I rather think that Father Flynn, in become an example of paralysis to which
his mental deterioration committed simo- society continues to pay respect, even
ny in the confessional, if he committed if it is the respect only of pious clich6s
this sin at all, by offering some spiritual uttered by ignorant old women and
forgiveness to the boy in return for some vaguely felt by one small boy.21
temporal favor, but even to go that far
is to write a part of the story that Joyce 'The edition of Euclid that Joyce most likely
never wrote. knew is The First Six Books of the Elements
of Euclid and Propositions I-XXI of Book XI,
More probable still is that no act of etc., by John Casey, published in Dublin by
simony was committed at all. All we Hodges, Figgis & Co. Ltd., and in London by
know for certain is that a scrupulous Longmans, Green & Co. By 1894 this book was
priest broke a chalice, suffered mental in its thirteenth edition. There gnomon is de-
deterioration that caused him to sit fined as follows: "In any parallelogram the
figure which is composed of either of the
laughing in an empty confessional, and parallelograms about a diagonal and the two
was involuntarily retired from the active complements . . . is called a gnomon. Thus, if
ministry. We know further that a boy, we take away either of the parallelograms AO,
born with an interest in language, has OC from the parallelogram AC, the remainder
picked up three vaguely understood is called a gnomon" (p. 78).
terms, two from his schoolbooks, gnomon A E B
and simony, and one from neighborhood
gossip, paralysis. Two of these terms,
paralysis and simony, he associates with
G H
the ailing priest; the third he leaves to
Joyce to use symbolically (if Joyce did
so) and to Joyce's critics to use imagina-
tively (as they have).
The exact nature of the alleged
D F C

19The Catholic Encyclopedia, ed. by Charles 21I am grateful to the ever-helpful and gra-
G. Herbermann, et al. (New York, 1913), XIV, cious Adaline Glasheen for hints and prompt-
(1). ings in the development of this paper.

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