Gaps or Invitations for Imagination?

Humans have always had a fascination with the unknown from guessing what creatures dwell on other planets to worrying about the “boogey monster” in the closet. In James Joyce’s The Dubliners, a collection of short stories, “Araby” and “The Sisters” all provide certain unknown aspects in order to let the audience use its imagination and make its own assumptions so that the stories have a variety of meanings. These gaps are seen in the form of unmentioned characters, unspecific information and the use of ellipses.

Joyce’s element of mystery is most prevalent in “The Sisters” in which a boy, whose name is not specified deals with the death of a priest who was a mentor to him. The protagonist and narrator of this story having no name is an example of Joyce’s attempt to avoid specifics. In doing so, this provides the audience a chance to give him the identity that the author never did. Moreover, this story has many instances in which the author uses ellipses to give the reader a chance to expand. This often appears in important situations that give key glimpses into characters and their feelings toward others such as when old Cotter says, “No, I wouldn’t say he was exactly . . . but there was something queer . . . there was something uncanny about him. I’ll tell you my opinion.” This gives the reader the ability to elaborate upon what the character’s meaning is. Further use of Joyce’s gap in details is seen in “Araby” where the closest Joyce comes to revealing an important character’s name is “Mangan’s sister.” Once again Joyce gives the reader an opportunity to give the character more details using the imagination as he fails to go into detail. In both of these stories the protagonist is a boy who is being raised by his aunt and uncle but neither give any explanation as to why their parents are not present. Though this seems like this would be important to the story it is not explained which gives the story flexibility for the reader.

Whereas details can captivate a reader by giving him or her a mental image, a lack of details invites the reader to create a unique and individual image. This gives the reader a way to make the story his or her own. By leaving gaps in dialogue, by leaving out names and by not declaring why either protagonist has parents the author is leaving the story open to have a different meaning for each reader.