According to Friedrich Nietzsche, "'free spirits'... do not exist, did not exist" but "could one day exist" (18 ). Mr. James Duffy, the protagonist of James Joyce's "A Painful Case" in Dubliners, exhibits similar characteristics to Nietzsche's theoretical Superman. Nevertheless, although Duffy seems to live like a superman, his life ironically resembles an ascetic religion from which he cannot escape. His orientation toward Dublin, society, and his relationship with Mrs. Sinico have Nietzschian overtones, even if they remain fundamentally religious, thus ensuring the impossibility of Duffy ever achieving bermensch status. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayIn the preface to Man, All Too Human and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche sets out the key features of his bermensch. This intellectual superman has a "deep degree of suspicion" of society (Human 17) and thus, like Zarathustra, would "possess his mind in solitude" (Zar. 3), living isolated from others in the mountains until 'so that he can rise above the world. everyday values ​​of society. He is a man “of a high and chosen species” (Human 18) who “does not give alms” (Zar. 4). More importantly, he was once a "chained spirit and seemed chained forever to [his] pillar and corner" (Human 18) until he realized that "God is dead!" (Zar. 5) and becomes “as much as an enemy and accuser of God” (Human 17). James Duffy's personality directly reflects some of these fundamental qualities of the bermensch. Duffy, like the artistically rebellious Overman, is an intellectual who translates Hauptmann's Michael Kramer (70) and promotes the music of Mozart. He lives “sheltered from the society of the golden youth of Dublin” (71), and although he does not flee to the mountains like Zarathustra, his “dark old house” was “as far from the city as possible” and had a “room without carpet.” free from photos" or practically any decoration (70). He considers himself above the "phrasers, incapable of thinking consecutively for sixty seconds" (72), and rejects most of the "conventions which govern civic life" (71 ).Perhaps as a direct nod to Nietzsche's Zarathustra, Joyce states that Duffy "never gave alms to beggars" (71). (71) and, embarrassed, has his "Maynooth Catechism sewn into the cloth cover of a notebook" (70) to hide it. However, although Duffy seems to disregard religion, each of his similarities with the. Superman have religious undercurrents, thus reflecting Duffy's inability to escape religion and the unlikelihood of him ever becoming a bermensch Although Duffy lives isolated from society as the free spirit who lives in. the mountains, the description of Duffy's house reflects a religious ascetic rather than a defiant bermensch. Almost nothing in Duffy's house is colorful, from the simple "black iron bedstead" to the "white wooden shelves" (70). He has few objects other than what he needs and allows only a lamp as his "sole ornament" (70), which most would consider not a decoration but a necessity. Duffy's intellectual activities become mixed with religion when Joyce describes his attendance at concerts and the opera as "the only dissipations of his life" (71). The word "dissipation", which can denote diversion, sensual pleasure or unnecessary expenditure, does not reflect the attitude of a bermensch towards art, who would consider art necessary and important. Instead, the word implies sin, because the ascetic Duffyconsiders his interest in art worldly and unnecessary. Nevertheless, Duffy still considers himself above the common man, and although his eyes “gave the impression of a man ever attentive to saluting a redemptive instinct in others,” he was “often disappointed” (71 ). Here, Joyce's use of the term "redemption" evokes a religious redemption from the "mean, modern, pretentious" (70) suburbs of Dublin or the "obtuse middle class" (72). Even Joyce's assertion that Duffy has "neither church nor belief" is questionable, because Duffy leads a certain "spiritual life without any communion with others" (71). By cutting himself off from the rest of the world while living a “spiritual” life, Duffy once again resembles a silent monk and not a free spirit of the world. His strict regime of working and then dining in a restaurant "where a certain pure honesty reigned" (71) would seem suspect to a superman who would not follow such a daily routine and who would never believe in such a concept as "honesty." pure”. ", because he does not even believe in good and evil. Furthermore, although Duffy hides his Maynooth catechism, the fact that he kept it shows an inability to reject religion completely. Nevertheless, Duffy's account with Mrs. Sinico may reveal some "wickedness" (although probably not obvious to Duffy himself) which Nietzsche claims is fundamental to the superman, because "man must become better and meaner... more wicked." is necessary for the superman to be better”” (Zar. 254) This wickedness is apparent in the sexual undertones and sinfulness of the relationship between Duffy and Mrs. Sinico, even visible in the root of Mrs. Sinico's name. the pretty “breast of a certain fullness [that] struck more clearly the note of defiance” of Mrs. Sinico, and he “captured even the moments when his daughter’s attention was diverted to become intimate” (72). becomes even more sexually open and "nasty" with the short but explicit phrase "she came" and "the quieter neighborhoods" they choose "for their walks together" (72). Although they had no physical contact, "little by little he mixed his thoughts with hers" and "sometimes in exchange for his theories she revealed certain facts of her own life" (72). Even without actual contact, Joyce conjured up images of sexual intercourse and a mutually satisfying relationship. For Duffy, "her company was like warm soil around an exotic" (73), and although Captain Sinico "so sincerely dismissed his wife from her gallery of pleasures," Duffy "takes an interest in her" (73). 72). ). Their relationship is symbolically described as rebellious in that their meetings take place in "dark, discreet rooms" in "isolation" (referring to the isolation of Zarathustra) where Mrs. Sinico "refrains from turning on the lamp” (73). , although their relationship appears "nasty", the sexual imagery is mixed with religious metaphors, revealing that Duffy still has strong religious tendencies. Instead of simply commenting on Mrs. Sinico's beauty, Joyce writes that "her face... must have been beautiful" (71), which reveals Duffy's reluctance to simply appreciate her face, because it might be a sin. Her eyes, first invoked sexually with their "note of defiance" and "deliberate fainting of the pupil in the iris" (71), are later used as the most sacred image in the story when Duffy " thought that in his eyes he would ascend to an angelic stature” (73). The two are united by the sexual tension of a "music which still vibrated in their ears", but which "exalted him" (73), referring to a religious emotion which is expressed when "she becomes his confessor" (72). In fact, Mr. Duffy probably did not ».. 5).