Joyce and Trevor's Dubliners: the legacy of colonialism

Closer examination of Corley and Lenehan's routes reveals the ubiquity of Ireland's colonial past and the extent to which these representative Irish men are marginalized from the prevailing cultural ethos. When we first encounter the two young men, they are coming "down the hill of Rutland Square" (Joyce, Dubliners 52). Named after one of Ireland's first Lord Lieutenants, Rutland Square had been home to "eleven peers, two bishops, and twelve M.P.'s" (Clarke 80). The fact that so many of Dublin's grandees lived in this residential area and that the square is named after one of them reveals the geopolitical significance of the city's landscape. Places like Rutland Square recall Ireland's colonial heritage and illustrate how one tradition subjugates another by privileging its own historical narrative. (Joyce may have enjoyed the irony that Rutland Square was later renamed Parnell Square shortly after the formation of the Irish Republic.)

Later, Corley and Lenehan pass another reminder of Ascendancy privilege -- Trinity College. As Ireland's oldest college, Trinity was for centuries where the Anglo-Irish establishment sent its sons to be educated, and Catholics were not admitted until 1873 (Clarke 122). As Corley and Lenehan walk past Trinity, the College's "railings" signify the school's cultural and political elitism and mark the boundary between a privileged Ascendancy and ordinary Dubliners (Joyce, Dubliners 57).

Not much later, Corley and Lenehan reach the Kildare Street club, another symbol of Ascendancy entitlement. The original club burned down in 1860, and a new structure -- the one to which Joyce refers -- was erected farther down the street (Clarke 106). However, this relocation did not alter its reputation as a "landlords' club," where pro-unionist and anti-Home Rule sentiment still prevailed (108).

Finally, after Corley and Lenehan separate, Lenehan passes the Duke's Lawn, allowing "his hand to run along" the railings (Joyce, Dubliners 60). This landmark has political and cultural importance, too: named after the Duke of Leinster, it was "the lawn of Leinster House," and in 1900, the Royal Dublin Society was located there (Gifford 60). Once again, the "railings" signify the exclusivity of Anglo-Irish culture.

While Corley and Lenehan represent a self-defeated race still suppressed by colonial rule, Joyce also implies that their moral and cultural paralysis directly results from their inability as Irish men to locate an identity outside the dominant colonial culture; in fact, its architecture surrounds them. However, Corley and Lenehan are hardly passive victims; they contribute to their own cultural and political disenfranchisement. Corley's shallow, consciousness of a broader vision of himself and Lenehan's failure to act despite recognizing that his life consists only of nugatory routines ("shifts and intrigues") demonstrate how both men act out their assigned roles as marginalized elements at the bottom of a colonial hierarchy (Dubliners 62).