Dubliners (Museum Audiobooks Edition) characters

Appears from the start

A Dublin schoolboy who has been fascinated by the ailing priest Father Flynn and by the adult world surrounding him. He observes the priest's death, the neighbors' reactions, and the visit to the mourning household with a mixture of curiosity, unease, and incomplete understanding.

Appears from the start

An elderly Catholic priest whose illness and death dominate the first story. He had tried to instruct a local boy in church ritual, but the adults' guarded conversation suggests that his final years were marked by mental and spiritual distress.

First appears in chapter 2

A schoolboy eager to escape routine and experience adventure. He skips school with Mahony for an expedition across Dublin, only to find their imagined freedom narrowed by an unsettling encounter with an older stranger.

First appears in chapter 3

A schoolboy living with his aunt and uncle who becomes intensely preoccupied with his friend Mangan's older sister. When she mentions that she cannot attend the Araby bazaar, he promises to bring her something and invests the trip with romantic importance.

First appears in chapter 4

A young Dublin woman who keeps house for her father and cares for younger children. She has agreed to leave Ireland with her sailor sweetheart, Frank, but at the point of departure she is torn between escape and the familiar obligations of home.

First appears in chapter 5

The son of a prosperous Dublin family, proud of his new connections with wealthier and more cosmopolitan men. After watching a motor race, he spends a celebratory night trying to keep pace socially and financially with companions more worldly than himself.

First appears in chapter 6

An idle young man who walks Dublin listening to his friend Corley's account of a planned seduction. Curious, hungry, and short of money, he waits for evidence that Corley has persuaded a servant woman to provide something valuable.

First appears in chapter 7

The practical owner of a boarding house who has separated from an abusive husband and built a business for herself. When her daughter Polly becomes involved with a resident, she calculates how to secure a respectable outcome.

Also known as Little Chandler

First appears in chapter 8

A timid Dublin clerk with literary ambitions. A reunion with his confident, well-traveled friend Ignatius Gallaher intensifies his dissatisfaction with his own cautious life, modest career, and domestic responsibilities.

First appears in chapter 9

A frustrated copying clerk who drinks heavily and resents his humiliating treatment at work. His anger moves from his employer to strangers and, finally, toward his family, where his young son is unable to defend himself.

First appears in chapter 10

A gentle, unmarried laundress who lives at a charitable institution and is valued by the women there. On Halloween she visits Joe Donnelly's family, carrying cakes and trying to preserve the warmth of a household connection.

First appears in chapter 11

A solitary bank cashier devoted to order, music, and intellectual independence. He begins a close companionship with the married Mrs Sinico but withdraws when her affection becomes physically explicit, preferring his controlled isolation.

First appears in chapter 12

A political campaign worker spending the rainy anniversary of Charles Stewart Parnell's death in a committee room. He waits for wages and canvassing news while visitors expose divisions, cynicism, and lingering loyalty within Dublin nationalist politics.

First appears in chapter 13

A determined mother who has invested in her daughter Kathleen's musical education and negotiated a concert engagement for her. When the organizers fail to honor the agreed terms, she confronts them and makes the dispute public backstage.

First appears in chapter 14

A salesman and family man found injured and drunk after falling down pub stairs. His friends escort him home and later encourage him to attend a religious retreat intended to reform his habits.

First appears in chapter 15

A teacher, reviewer, and aspiring public figure attending his aunts' annual holiday gathering with his wife, Gretta. Socially assured but inwardly defensive, he worries about how others see him and is unsettled when the evening reveals a part of Gretta's past he never knew.