Dubliners Lesson Plan

How do individuals and institutions relate to each other in these stories? To what extent is the strength or viability of institutions contingent upon those who comprise it?

To some extent, all three of the stories read for Day 4 revolve around the collision of individual and institution. "Ivy Day in the Committee Room" provides a snapshot of Dublin politics via the men who have been hired to procure votes in advance of an election. The story is also a representative moment in the long debate betweeen Unionist, Nationalist, and Republican in Ireland, a conflict which continues to be relevant in the present day. In "Ivy Day," political opposition is paralleled by a...