How we cite our quotes: (Story.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Gabriel felt humiliated by the failure of his irony and by the evocation of this figure from the dead, a boy in the gasworks. While he had been full of memories of their secret life together, full of tenderness and joy and desire, she had been comparing him in her mind with another. (The Dead.424)
What's the exact opposite of finding out someone was thinking exactly what you were thinking? Finding out someone was thinking about a dead guy when you were heading into Hallmark territory. That's disappointment in a nutshell.
Quote #2
Little Chandler said nothing until the barman returned with the two glasses: then he touched his friend's glass lightly and reciprocated the former toast. He was beginning to feel disillusioned. Gallaher's accent and way of expressing himself did not please him. There was something vulgar in his friend which he had not observed before. (A Little Cloud.40)
Fair enough, Chandler, this guy is annoying, but drinking more whisky with him isn't going to make him Officer Friendly. The real bummer here of course is not that his old friend is newly a jerk. It's that Chandler had built him up so much in his mind. Gallaher's smug attitude is a huge letdown.
Quote #3
He found something mean in the pretty furniture which he had bought for his house on the hire system. Annie had chosen it herself and it reminded him of her. It too was prim and pretty. A dull resentment against his life awoke within him. (A Little Cloud.109).
Wow. So furniture's the most disappointing thing of all for Chandler. Wait, it's not the furniture, per se, but the poor choices it represents. Yikes. We'll think twice the next time we look too closely at our sofa. We'd rather not discover our major life failures along with the loose change between the cushions.
Quote #4
In his imagination he beheld the pair of lovers walking along some dark road; he heard Corley's voice in deep energetic gallantries and saw again the leer of the young woman's mouth. This vision made him feel keenly his own poverty of purse and spirit. He was tired of knocking about, of pulling the devil by the tail, of shifts and intrigues. Would he never get a good job? Would he never have a home of his own? (Two Gallants.76)
Yes, "It's hard out here for a pimp." But it's harder out there for a pimp's uncool friend.
Quote #5
The mimic warfare of the evening became at last as wearisome to me as the routine of school in the morning because I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. (An Encounter.8)
Remember when you found out life wasn't a Choose Your Own Adventure book? So does the narrator of "An Encounter." All the dreams he had of gunslinging and lassoing succumb to a bitter reality of bummer days and, um, potential child molesters. And the difference between those two things shows you just how far away the dream is from Dublin.
Quote #6
All his long years of service gone for nothing! All his industry and diligence thrown away! (The Boarding House.12).
Here's a little premature disillusionment from Mr Doran, who knows he has no chance of standing up to the Madam of the Boarding House. One innocent affair could lead to one big bummer of a life.
Quote #7
Farrington's eyes wandered at every minute in the direction of one of the young women […] She glanced at him once or twice and, when the party was leaving the room, she brushed against his chair and said O, Pardon! in a London accent. He watched her leave the room in the hope that she would look back at him, but he was disappointed. He cursed his want of money and cursed all the rounds he had stood. (Counterparts.47)
Disillusionment's a downward spiral: one bad flirtation and pretty soon you hate your life. Or maybe it just feels like that at the time. Whatever the case, Farrington is yet one more example of a tiny disappointment (a cutie not looking his way) spiraling into an omg-my-life-is-over moment. These characters are all in serious need of some perspective, but Farrington is by far the one who needs it most.
Quote #8
A very sullen-faced man stood at the corner of O'Connell Bridge waiting for the little Sandymount tram to take him home. He was full of smouldering anger and revengefulness. He felt humiliated and discontented; he did not even feel drunk; and he had only twopence in his pocket. He cursed everything. (Counterparts.57)
Dubliners is as much about coping mechanisms as anything else. And for a lot of these characters, the go-to seems to be booze. But of course, that's a downward spiral that only leads to more disappointments, and eventually an intervention, like the awkward one staged for Mr Kernan in "Grace."
Quote #9
He gnawed the rectitude of his life; he felt that he had been outcast from life's feast. (A Painful Case.33)
Aside from the fact that Shmoop has no idea how one gnaws on rectitude, we'd like to point out the source of Mr Duffy's disappointment here. It's not that something sad happened to him, or a dream died. It's that he missed out on all of life's fun. For that, it seems, he has no one to blame but himself.
Quote #10
After three weeks she had found a wife's life irksome and, later on, when she was beginning to find it unbearable, she had become a mother. (Grace.64)
Next on the Discovery Channel: "Worst Ideas Ever." Coping with your disappointment by getting knocked up has never been a good idea. And yet, for a lot of women in Dubliners, motherhood in all its forms, seems to provide the perfect distraction from their less than awesome personal lives.