rs again in his dream:
I imagined that I saw again the face of the para-
lytic . . . I felt my soul receding into some
The priest has seduced the boy away from his playful childhood innocence and attempted to "cripple" him at an early age by infecting the boy with the seed of a diseased, disingenuous, and incomprehensible church doctrine. The boy is perplexed by "how complex and mysterious were certain institutions of the church which I had always regarded as simple acts" (13). The boy is torn between the priest's spiritual perversity and the adult world: a mundane world with its emphasis on life's trivial aspects and its contempt for knowledge and friendship. Thus, the boy is further trapped in his quest for freedom and understanding, both of the church, and by extension Irish society and the world he will soon have to encounter as an adult.
We see the social paralysis that has infected the city in the grim portraits that Joyce paints of the people that populate "The Sisters." There is Old Cotter with his "beady black eyes" who "spat rudely into the gate" and is described by the boy as a "tiresome old red nosed imbecile" (10-11). His uncle is portrayed as a man who feels it is better to know how to fist fight than deal with the complexities that are inherent in the pursuit of a formal education. The mourners are incapable of dealing with the priest's death. The mourners are unable to speak and afraid to elucidate their thoughts as they commiserate with one another around a table covered with glasses of sherry and creamed crackers. They are so incompetent that another priest had to bring the flowers and candlesticks
...