een in each of the first three stories of Dubliners. Just as Father Flynn haunts the boy in The Sisters, and the boys in An Encounter can not escape the presence of Father Butler, the protagonist of Araby is obsessed with Mangan’s sister and can not escape seeing her image everywhere he goes. All three characters are haunted and all three desire freedom. In The Sisters, this feeling is articulated in the protagonist’s feeling of freedom that came with the death of Father Flynn. In An Encounter, it is expressed with his desire to “break out of the weariness of school-life for one day at least”. In Araby, this craving for freedom is not realized until the narrator’s epiphany when he finally understands the hold the church has had on him. Because the three stories use religion as a prison, they can be seen as a set. Works ...
