According to Friedrich Nietzsche, "'free spirits'... do not exist, have not existed" but "might one day exist" (18). Mr. James Duffy, the protagonist of James Joyce's "A Painful Case" in Dubliners, has characteristics similar to those of Nietzsche's theoretical superman. However, although Duffy appears to live like a superman, his life ironically parallels an ascetic religion from which he cannot escape. His orientation towards Dublin, society and his relationship with Mrs Sinico have Nietzschean overtones, although they remain fundamentally religious, thus ensuring the impossibility of Duffy achieving Bermensch status. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In both the preface to Human, Too Human and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche lays out key traits of his bermensch. This intellectual superman has a "deep degree of suspicion" of society (Human 17) and therefore, like Zarathustra, "possesses his spirit in solitude" (Zar. 3), living isolated from others in the mountains until he can rise above the daily values ​​of society. He is a man of "high and chosen kind" (Human 18) who "does not give alms" (Tsar. 4). Most importantly, he was once a "chained spirit and seemed chained forever to [his] pillar and his corner" (Human 18) until he realizes that "God is dead!" (Zar. 5) and becomes "equally an enemy and accuser of God" (Human 17). James Duffy's personality directly reflects some of these fundamental qualities of the Bermensch. Duffy, like the artistically rebellious superman, is an intellectual who translates Hauptmann's Michael Kramer (70) and valorizes Mozart's music. He lives "safe from the society of Dublin's gilded youth" (71), and although he does not escape to the mountains like Zarathustra, his "gloomy old house" was "as far from the city as possible" and had an "uncarpeted room" devoid of images" or virtually any decoration (70). He considers himself above "phrase-tellers, incapable of thinking consecutively for sixty seconds" (72), and rejects most of the "conventions governing civilized life" (71 ) Perhaps as a direct nod to Nietzsche's Zarathustra, Joyce states that Duffy "never gave alms to beggars" (71) Finally, Duffy states that he has "no church and no creed" (71) and with embarrassment he has his "Maynooth Catechism sewn onto the cloth cover of a notebook" (70) to hide it. However, although Duffy appears to mock religion, each of his similarities to the superman have religious undercurrents, thus reflecting incapacity. of Duffy's avoidance of religion and the unlikelihood of him ever becoming a Bermensch. Although Duffy lives isolated from society as the free spirit who lives in the mountains, the description of Duffy's home reflects a religious ascetic rather than a rebellious Bermensch. Almost nothing in Duffy's house is colorful, from the simple "black iron bed" to the "white wooden shelves" (70). He has few objects beyond what he needs, and allows only a lamp as his "sole ornament" (70) which most would consider not a decoration but a necessity. Duffy's intellectual pursuits become intertwined with religion as Joyce describes his attendance at concerts and opera as "the only dissipations of his life" (71). The word "dissipation", which can mean a diversion, a sensual pleasure or a wasteful expenditure, does not reflect the attitude of a bermensch towards art, who would consider art necessary and important. Instead, the word implies a sin, because the ascetic Duffy sees his interest in art as worldly and wasteful. However, Duffy still considers himself atabove the common man, and although his eyes "gave the impression of a man always ready to welcome a redeeming instinct in others," he was "often disappointed" (71). Here, Joyce's use of the term "redemption" evokes a religious redemption from the "bad, modern, pretentious" (70) suburbs of Dublin or the "dull middle class" (72). Joyce's claim that Duffy has "no church or creed" is also questionable, as Duffy leads a kind of "spiritual life without any communion with others" (71). Cutting himself off from the rest of the world but still leading a "spiritual" life, Duffy once again resembles a silent monk and not a worldly free spirit. His strict regime of working and then dining in a restaurant "where there was a certain plain honesty" (71) would seem suspicious to a superman who would not follow such a daily routine and who would never believe in such a concept as "plain honesty" . ", because he does not even believe in good and evil. Furthermore, although Duffy hides his Maynooth Catechism, the fact that he has kept it demonstrates an inability to completely reject religion. However, Duffy's relationship with Mrs Sinico can reveal a certain "wickedness" (though probably not evident to Duffy himself). what Nietzsche argues is fundamental to the superman, as "'man must become better and more wicked... it takes the most wicked for the superman'. better than the Superman'" (Zar. 254). This wickedness is evident in the sexual undertones and sinful nature of the relationship between Duffy and Mrs. Sinico, also visible in the root of Mrs. Sinico's name. Duffy notes the attractive "breast of a certain fullness [that] more decisively strikes Mrs. Sinico's note of defiance,” and even “capture[s] the moments when her daughter's attention was diverted to become intimate” (72). The narrative becomes even more sexually open and "evil" with the short but explicit phrase "she came" and "the quieter neighborhoods" they choose "for their walks together" (72). Although they have no physical contact, "gradually he intertwined his thoughts with hers" and "sometimes in exchange for his theories she revealed some fact of her life" (72). Even without actual contact Joyce conjured up images of sexual intercourse and a mutually satisfying relationship. For Duffy, "his company was like warm ground on an exotic" (73), and although Captain Sinico "had so sincerely removed his wife from his gallery of pleasures," Duffy "takes an interest in her" (72). Their relationship is symbolically depicted as rebellious as their meetings take place in "dark, discreet rooms" in "seclusion" (referring to Zarathustra's isolation) where Mrs. Sinico "refrains from lighting the lamp" (73). , although their relationship seems "evil", the sexual imagery is mixed with religious metaphors, highlighting that Duffy still has strong religious tendencies. Instead of simply commenting on Mrs. Sinico's beauty, Joyce writes that "her face...must have been beautiful" (71), which reveals Duffy's reluctance to simply appreciate her face, as this could be sinful. His eyes, first sexually invoked with their "note of defiance" and "deliberate swooning of the pupil into the iris" (71), are then used as the most sacred image in the story when Duffy "thought that in his eyes it would risen to an angelic stature" (73). The two are united by the sexual tension of a "music that still vibrated in their ears" but which "exalted him" (73), referring to a religious feeling that is expressed when "she became his confessor" (72). In fact, Mr. Duffy probably did not realize the sexual nature of his relationship with Ms. Sinico, as he "had disgust for the ways. 5).