Little Chandler is a normal man living in Dublin Ireland with high hopes of becoming a famous poet. However, it is evident that Chandler will never reach this goal so he tries to settle for a different and more esoteric one in which he just to connect to a certain crowd of people, Joyce says, "[Chandler] would never be popular: he saw that. He could not sway the crowd but he might appeal to a little circle of kindred minds. " (118). Regardless of what Little Chandler thinks his capabilities are, he finds a sense of artistic imagination when he thinks about his poetic talents. However, due to the oppressive view of Dublin, his mind easily erases these hopes. As critic Stephanie Pocock Boeninger states, "Chandler's fixation on poetic moments, in which conventional scenes appeal to his melancholy artistic temperament, blinds him to the sights of everyday Dublin life. Without the aid of the sunset that had illuminated the view from his office window, Chandler walks blindly through the streets of Dublin " (118). Here, Boeninger emphasizes the idea that, without the beautiful poetic influence of the sunset, the oppressive culture of Dublin leads Chandler paralyzed as he walks through the streets, unable to contemplate his dream of an exciting career in poetry. .
In another story "A Painful Case ", the controlling influence of Ireland yet again leads an oppressed life for James Duffy. Duffy is another average living man in Dublin like Little Chandler; however, Duffy comes into an issue dealing with a "love affair " with Mrs. Sinico. Duffy is a homosexual. Unfortunately, the oppression of Ireland forces Duffy to repress his homoerotic tendencies and hide his true self. Critic Roberta Jackson claims, "More telling is Joyce's verbatim appropriation from Stannie of Duffy's aphorism that expresses regret over his necessity to repress erotic desire between men " (330). Here, Jackson contextualizes the story within the homophobic climate that existed in Ireland in the late-Victorian era.