“A Painful Case” is set in Dublin, Ireland at the turn of the 20th century. The short story collection in which “A Painful Case” appears is called Dubliners, a nod to the fact that Joyce is attempting to comment on the sociopolitical state of Dublin in the early 1900s through stories about various types of people living in the city. Near the beginning of “A Painful Case,” Joyce writes that Duffy’s face “was of the brown tint of Dublin streets,” hinting that Duffy—as an alienated, lonely man—represents the dull, dispossessed state of the city itself.
Dublin—and Ireland as a whole—was, at the time that Joyce was writing, facing immense social and economic challenges. Ireland had been under England’s colonial control for hundreds of years, leading to widespread exploitation, poverty, and alienation. While the Republic of Ireland eventually gained independence in 1922, Joyce wrote Dubliners in the early 1900s, when the Irish Nationalist movement lacked vision and political power. Joyce’s own disillusionment with the Irish Nationalist movement comes across in the story via Duffy’s former involvement with a nationalist political party and subsequent abandonment of the group after it split into several smaller parties.
Another important element of the setting is Duffy’s house. Like Duffy himself, his house is on the outskirts of society and is described as “lofty” (signaling Duffy’s lofty, pretentious views). His home is also austere, containing many books but very little color or life. All of this combines to communicate his sense of alienation and lack of connection with people and the outside world.
