“A Little Cloud” takes place in Dublin, Ireland, moving from Little Chandler’s place of work (King’s Inn, a legal institution), the streets of Dublin, a fancy restaurant, and his modest house. Joyce pays close attention to the geography of the city, naming actual streets in downtown Dublin like Capel and Henrietta.
The story is set in the early 1900s, when Ireland was still under the colonial rule of England and navigating the consequences of ongoing colonization, such as a loss of culture, widespread poverty, and economic exploitation. Though the Irish independence movement had had some success in the late 1800s (and ultimately won independence from England in 1922), when Joyce was writing this story, the nationalist party had little political power, and most of its supporters (like Joyce) were deeply pessimistic about its ability to accomplish its goals.
Joyce’s pessimism about Irish people remaining stuck in an oppressed position comes across in the story via Little Chandler’s sense of being trapped by his circumstances. He has big dreams of becoming a successful Irish poet but no energy with which to achieve those dreams. Further, when he envisions what this sort of success would look like, his visions are centered on receiving positive reviews from “the English critics.” This is Joyce’s way of signaling how Irish people are caught in a power dynamic with England, forced to toil in order to survive the unjust conditions of being controlled by a colonial power while still craving—and even needing—recognition by that very same power.
