It is Joyce's use of voyeurism that most characterizes the eroticism in "The Dead", "The Boarding House", "Two Gallants" and "Araby". Erotica is heavily driven by mystery and suspense. By creating a passive individual who experiences sexuality without real contact, Joyce can use every aspect of that individual's perception to paint the ideally charged moment. The voyeur simply watches and waits, desire increasing with avoided consummation. In all four stories, details, tones, circumstances, images, and language communicate eroticism by emphasizing this desire. The actual interaction, when it occurs, is veiled from the reader, creating an entirely separate world in what is not told. We see erotic action through imagination, memory, or description. The lack of fulfillment and interaction reinforces the erotic by keeping it veiled, creating an inner world that we cannot know. The rhythm of Joyce's cyclical motifs and the sensuality of his visual images create the perfect setting for this sense of recognition and desire without consummation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Joyce tends to occupy more than one consciousness in weaving his narrative (Fisher, in conference, 10/4/99). Watching and waiting characterize every point of view involved in these stories. In “The Boarding House,” action is motivated entirely through observation. Mrs. Mooney "[notices] that something is going on between Polly and one of the young men" (Signet Classic, 60) because she is watching closely. His emotions and decision to act are driven solely by what he sees between these two people. The reader also becomes a voyeur, changing peepholes almost systematically and catching three different people in a state of waiting. In “Two Gallants,” the use of watching is more evident, as the meeting of two lovers is told entirely through the eyes of someone spying on them. Lenahan simply "watches them for a few minutes" (53) and is affected by the sexuality of their exchange. Once the lovers disappear from sight, both the reader and Lenahan are forced to wait. Even when the interaction never happens, the excitement of anticipation is achieved through passive eyes. In “Araby” and “The Dead,” the protagonist is the primary voyeur in strikingly parallel images. Gabriel gazes at his wife at the top of a flight of stairs (220) just as the boy in “Araby” perceives his object of desire, “…her figure defined by the light coming from the half-open door.” (24) These early erotic moments move both stories forward, presenting intact images to pursue. Both become motifs, appearing again in both stories. Joyce's use of imagery in setting each scene is filled with sensory detail, reminding the reader that erotic observation communicates through all the senses. In “The Boarding House,” the scene is set in one of these descriptions: “It was a bright Sunday morning in early summer, promising heat, but with a cool breeze blowing. All the windows of the boarding house were open, and the curtains of lace billowed gently towards the street under the raised doors. The bell tower of George's Church rang continuously... In the boarding house breakfast was over and the table... was covered with plates on which lay yellow strips of eggs with morsels of bacon. . -fat and rind." (60)This type of image, tempting and appealing, recurs among all Dubliners. In these cases, the reader becomes a voyeur, increasingly excited by the vision before him. Joyce further emphasizes the voyeurism of his erotic world with detailcomplementary. His physical descriptions of people concern body parts and the clothes that cover them. This plays on the mystery and suspense of sexual tension, emphasizing the importance of not seeing everything. Each part of the face and hands is often mentioned in each story, scrutinizing the details. The closer we look at the author, the more we will desire. A passage from "Two Gallants" is full of this veiled attention to the body: "Her blue serge skirt was held at the waist by a black leather belt. The large silver buckle seemed to depress the center of her body, capturing the light stuff of her white blouse like a clip... Lenehan's eyes noted approvingly his sturdy, muscular body, Frank's rugged health shone on his face, on his fat red cheeks and in his cheeky blue eyes (. 52) In this segment, and many like it, the use of "she" instead of a first name is a telling detail. Joyce uses nameless women to create even less attachment or reciprocity in these erotic encounters. and "Araby", the girls don't even seem to have names "Araby", the boy states that "her name was like a reminder to all [his] foolish blood", and that "her name sprang to [his] ] lips in moments of strange prayers",(25) without ever revealing it. . This increases the feeling of mystery by reminding us of what we don't know and preserving a sense of conscious distance. Even in "The Dead", during Gabriel's emotional remark, Gretta refers mostly to "her" and "his wife". This is where the use of pronouns stands out most as an intentional stylistic decision. Although Gabriel's attraction to his wife should be anything but impersonal, Gretta's erotic attraction is strongest when she is something unknown and distant, still waiting to be conquered. The images also contain symbolic objects and events. A harp appears in two separate stories. In "Araby", the reference is relatively explicit, as the boy imagines "my body was like a harp and his words and gestures were like fingers running on strings". (25) The use of this image is more complex in "Two Gallants", when Lenahan and Corley pass a harpist on the street. In this sensual passage, the harpist is referred to as "he" and the instrument as "she". Joyce, using personification, describes an instrument "heedless of the fact that her blankets had fallen on her knees", thus exposed to all the voyeurs in the street. And by ending the moment with "[t]he notes of the air throbbed deep and full" (50) Joyce draws attention to the rhythm of eroticism. This rhythm, also seen in the falling snow in “The Dead,” gives silent time to these sensual encounters. They become more real and believable when they have a heartbeat and communicate sexuality on a more subconscious level. What Joyce doesn't tell us is equally important to everything we see, hear, smell, taste, and hear in these erotic narratives. It is crucial that encounters fail at moments when the line between looking and having is crossed. This happens explicitly in "Araby" and "The Dead", and is characterized precisely by a sudden awakening to reality. The observer is suddenly no longer occupied with all the sensory pleasure of perceiving his subject. All the cheerful sexuality of "Araby" ends with a moment of self-realization. (30) When the observer becomes aware of himself desiring his object, self-consciousness interrupts eroticism. In “The Dead,” Gabriel had fantasized about “when they would be alone together,” only arriving at the moment when “she would turn and look at him…” (225). This fantasy is realized later, continuing beyond looking at the stage. When Gretta turns and approaches, no longer a simple object, her separate experience.