The Sisters

As the first story in Dubliners, “The Sisters” sets the tone for the collection. The stories in the collection pass broadly through the various stages of life, and “The Sisters” focus on the narrator’s youth reflects its placement as the first story. It also introduces several of the themes and Modernist literary techniques that recur throughout it.

The use of narrative perspective in “The Sisters” exemplifies the importance of this device in the collection: While some stories are told in the first person and some in the third, all include James Joyce’s characteristic use of Modernist narrative perspective techniques. Those told in first person, like “The Sisters,” tend to involve stream of consciousness and interior monologue, techniques that enable the reader to glean unique and experiential insight into the narrators’ thought processes. Similarly, the stories told in third person often include the use of free indirect discourse, when characters’ thoughts are blended into third-person narration. In “The Sisters,” the first-person perspective creates intimacy with the narrator and highlights the presence of the narrative