“All the Lonely People”: Joyce's Dubliners, Paul McCartney, and the Songbook of The Beatles

This paper seeks to explore what might be called intriguing commonalities or parallels between some short stories by James Joyce, from his 1914 collection Dubliners, and some songs by The Beatles. I do suggest the possibility of influence, but reserve the bulk of my observations to making connections between narratives which have never been linked in any way before. This exploration allows us to see The Beatles in a new light, yet, not only: this study can also help in the classroom, helping students to come to a better understanding of some particularly challenging areas within Joyce's narratives. I make linkage between the Beatles songs “For No One” and “She's Leaving Home” and Joyce's “Eveline,” in terms of narrative events, tone and compositional approach. I also make a connection between Joyce's “Clay” and the Beatles' “Eleanor Rigby”: these narratives share a number of thematic elements. Furthermore, this song can also be seen as containing many of the overarching themes of the 1914 book. As all of the songs under consideration are primarily written by Paul McCartney, I discuss what I see as shared artistic methods and approaches between McCartney and Joyce.