One way of looking at style

 Joyce, asked about style, said he favored “scrupulous meanness.” He was talking about economy.

The story “Counterparts” is a series of images involving the man at the center of the story. We see the world from his point of view. Other characters call the man Farrington, but the narrator doesn’t name him.

It’s that kind of economy Joyce was talking about, I think. Joyce gives us images of the man sabotaging himself at the office, pawning his watch, hitting the bars with companions and spending up the money. Joyce gives us enough to see a larger picture. He doesn’t give us any extras.

What we see is a man trying to escape the frustration and rage that causes him to sabotage himself and not succeeding, which explains, in a twisted way, why the man does inexplicable things when he finally gets home to the family.

• James Joyce, Dubliners; New York: Bantam Books, 1990. “Counterparts” is on pp. 65-75.