Mr. Crofton Character Analysis

Crofton, a Conservative who begrudgingly joined the Nationalists after his candidate dropped out, has exactly one line in the story, but he is crucial to illustrating the discord that consumes the men’s relations. A “very fat,” mustachioed man with piercing eyes, Crofton is a sulky and silent misfit. Like the others, Crofton works as a canvasser for the Nationalist candidate Richard Tierney, but he dislikes his colleagues and he is reluctant to help them. Joyce goes out of his way to tell readers that Crofton’s heart is not in it; he does not favor Independence from Ireland, and thus does not worship the late leader Charles Stewart Parnell. He works with the Nationalists only because his candidate has dropped out, and the two parties share some—but by no means all—concerns. Joyce depicts Crofton as sullen and ineffective, first when John Henchy complains about him behind his back for being “not worth a damn as a canvasser,” and then when Crofton appears in the Committee Room toward the end of the story and remains silent to his companions, ignoring their greetings and questions. Joyce reminds readers of Crofton’s silence in several places, a constant indication that, though they share an employer, respect and agreement among these colleagues do not exist as one would expect. When Joe Hynes recites his melodramatic elegy for Parnell, Joyce shows the room of gossipy men feeling awkward and not quite conciliatory, despite their mutual patriotism. Afterwards, when Crofton is forced to admit “that [the poem] was a very fine piece of writing,” Joyce paraphrases Crofton’s response, rather than quoting it. This condenses the entire story’s feeling of disingenuousness into one line.