But as the impulsion faded away, Mr. Duffy began to feel terribly sorry for her decease, "feeling ill at ease", regretting his former doings by "asking himself what else could he have done". He even pleaded guilty himself, implying that he was an indirect murderer by saying "Why had he withheld life from her? Why had he sentenced her to death?", for he had broken her heart four years ago. Superficially, all of these emotions were in harmony with the reality. However, in the newspaper, what the reporter quoted from Dr. Halpin was that "The injuries were not sufficient to have caused death in a normal person. Death, in his opinion, had been probably due to shock and sudden failure of the heart's action". We could find no direct evidence suggesting Mr. Duffy's relevance. Moreover, based on Mr. Sinico's testimony, it was "about two years ago his wife began to be rather intemperate in her habits". Therefore, since Mrs. Sinico's unusual behavior only had started two years ago while the departure between she and Mr. Duffy had happened four years ago, whether Mrs. Sinico's breakdown had anything to do with Mr. Duffy should remain open to the question. Nevertheless, as soon as laying eyes upon the startling news, Mr. Duffy omitted the contradictory details and associated himself to the tragedy without hesitation, being irritated, mourning, and even pitying himself for the loss of a soul-mate. His reaction now seemed excessively exaggerated. The relevance between Mr. Duffy and the accident therefore cannot be validated.
Then here comes the question. If Mr. Duffy did not genuinely sympathize with Mrs. Sinico, then why did he react so emotionally? I considered the answer to be that Mr. Duffy was not sorry for Mrs. Sinico, but, in fact, himself, caused by egotism. So coming up, I will try to explain how James Joyce had implied the egotism in Mr. Duffy's character.