Posted by Danny B on December 19, 19100 at 01:03:52:

In Reply to: Re: Dubliners by James Joyce posted by Sam on November 27, 1999 at 19:43:52:

: hello. can anybody summarize counterparts...pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee

Summarization of Counterparts - James Joyce
A fat, red-faced man named Farrington is called in to see the manager of his clerking office, where he works copying legal doents and correspondence by hand. His manager, Mr. Alleyne, is furious with him for not finishing a contract on time, and shouts through all of Farrington's mumbled excuses. He tells Farrington to finish the contract this evening, or he will bring the matter up before Mr. Crosbie. Farrington trudges downstairs and tries to work at the contract, but is quickly overcome by thirst and runs out to drink a beer in O'Neill's shop, afterward hurrying sullenly back to the office, where the chief clerk chastises him for his tardiness.
Miss Delacour, a middle-aged Jewish woman with whom Mr. Alleyne is rumored to be having an affair, appears at the office and disappears into Mr. Alleyne's room. Farrington is called in to bring them her copied correspondence, and takes pains to hide the fact that the last two letters are missing, hoping no one will notice. He returns to his struggle with the legal contract, when suddenly Mr. Alleyne emerges, furious about the missing letters. Farrington answers him sharply, sending Mr. Alleyne into paroxysms of rage.
Unable to obtain an advance on his pay from the cashier, Farrington decides to pawn his watch in order to have money for drinking that night. He takes his six shillings and dives into a raucous evening with his friends O'Halloran and Paddy Leonard--at one point losing an armwrestling match to an acrobat named Weathers--but returns home angry and unhappy. He spent all his money and hadn't even gotten drunk. He goes into his house, and finds that his wife has gone to the chapel, and not left dinner for him. One of his sons, Tom, offers to fix him dinner, but Farrington is furious. He seizes a walking-stick, and, ignoring his son's pleas, begins to beat him.
Commentary
"Counterparts" represents Joyce's fullest examination of the problem of alcoholism that runs rampant throughout Dubliners, and shows how the overriding desire for drunkenness ("thirst," as Farrington innocently thinks of it) can wreck a human life--can wreck more than one human life, actually, since Farrington's oafish brutality affects his children terribly. Farrington lives one of the most miserable and squalid lives of any character in Dubliners, a life with really no redeeming quality or hope. His work is miserable, his home life is miserable--even his pleasures are lurid and contemptible. He has no prospects and no self-respect. His physical corpulence--his sweaty, heavy, puffing body--is literally mirrored by his life.
One of the most remarkable qualities in Dubliners is Joyce's ability to describe scenes set in crowds. This skill is put to its most famous and effective use in the "The Dead," the final story of the collection, but it is also on display here, in Farrington's nighttime bar- hopping spree after the pawning of his watch. Joyce's prose seems to recreate the clatter of gles, the background hum of conversation, and the noisy joviality of large groups drinking and talking with a remarkable clarity--another evocative example of Joyce's ability to precisely manipulate detail and setting.

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