Two Gallants

“Two young men came down the hill of Rutland Square. One of them was just bringing a long monologue to a close. The other, who walked on the verge of the path and was at times obliged to step onto the road, owing to his companion’s rudeness, wore an amused listening face.”

This passage introduces the story’s main characters. Corley assumes a commanding role in the scene as he concludes a ribald tale. Lenehan allows him to dominate the sidewalk, steps to the side, and listens attentively. The description suggests that Lenehan takes a subordinate role in the friendship.

“Most people considered Lenehan a leech but, in spite of this reputation, his adroitness and eloquence had always prevented his friends from forming any general policy against him. He had a brave manner of coming up to a party of them in a bar and of holding himself nimbly at the borders of the company until he was included in a round.”

This passage provides a detailed description of Lenehan’s character. It establishes him as a socially marginal figure who relies on his cunning and eloquence to ingratiate himself with others.

“It was fine, man. Cigarettes every night she’d bring me and paying the tram out and back. And one night she brought me two bloody fine cigars—O, the real cheese, you know, that the old fellow used to smoke…I was afraid, man, she’d get in the family way. But she’s up to the dodge.”

Corley relates a risqué anecdote to his companion, Lenehan. The content of the story reflects Corley’s habit of exploiting women, both sexually and financially.

“Corley was the son of an inspector of police and he had inherited his father’s frame and gait. He walked with his hands by his sides, holding himself erect and swaying his head from side to side. His head was large, globular and oily; it sweated in all weathers; and his large round hat, set upon it sideways, looked like a bulb which had grown out of another.”

The quote identifies Corley’s family background, his father’s status, and his physical dimensions. Joyce’s description implicitly connects Corley’s girth with the force of his personality. The statement’s comparison between the character and his father, the police inspector, indicates the family’s social decline.

“‘First I used to go with girls, you know,’ said Corley, unbosoming; ‘girls off the South Circular. I used to take them out, man, on the tram somewhere and pay the tram or take them to a band or a play at the theatre or buy them chocolate and sweets or something that way. I used to spend money on them right enough.’”

Corley’s dialogue describes his experiences and disappointment in conventional romances. His bitterness at receiving no sexual reward for his financial investment illustrates his transactional view of relationships.

“‘I know that game,’ he said, ‘and it’s a mug’s game.’”

Here, Lenehan agrees with Corley’s assessment of traditional romance. He may be expressing his genuine beliefs or aiming to manipulate his companion.

“‘Base betrayer!’ he said.” 

Lenehan’s statement is an example of Joyce’s use of irony throughout the story. He uses the phrase to describe a former lover of Corley’s who later became a sex worker. The irony derives from the fact that Corley routinely betrays and exploits women.

“As they passed along the railings of Trinity College, Lenehan skipped out into the road and peered up at the clock.”

This narrative description describes the characters’ actions as Corley prepares to initiate his plan. Joyce connects their planned deceit with the image of Dublin’s Trinity College in the background. This juxtaposition contrasts the degraded nature of the characters’ actions with the image of the city’s historic landmarks.

“Not far from the porch of the club a harpist stood in the roadway, playing to a little ring of listeners. He plucked at the wires heedlessly, glancing quickly from time to time at the face of each new-comer and from time to time, wearily also, at the sky. His harp, too, heedless that her coverings had fallen about her knees, seemed weary alike of the eyes of strangers and of her master’s hands.”

Joyce uses this description of the harp to convey a symbolic image. As an emblem of Ireland, the musical instrument symbolizes Ireland’s Social Decline. The harpist’s lack of engagement in his task suggests a sense of purposelessness. Meanwhile, the imagery describing the harp evokes a weary female sex worker, reinforcing the theme of betrayal and degraded personal relationships.

“Her features were blunt. She had broad nostrils, a straggling mouth which lay open in a contented leer, and two projecting front teeth.”

Joyce describes the servant woman whom Corley seduces in his plan to rob her employers. The woman’s unattractive physical features and “leer” establish her as the female equivalent of Corley and Lenehan.

“He was tired of knocking about, of pulling the devil by the tail, of shifts and intrigues. He would be thirty-one in November. Would he never get a good job? Would he never have a home of his own?”

Lenehan considers his life as he eats a plate of peas in the café. His interior monologue reveals an epiphany as he realizes that he wants to change the course of his unfulfilling life.

“He had walked the streets long enough with friends and with girls. He knew what those friends were worth: he knew the girls too. Experience had embittered his heart against the world. But all hope had not left him.”

Lenehan continues to ponder his past and future choices in the same scene. In this passage, he assesses the value of his companions, including Corley, as worthless. Although jaded, he retains some hope that his life can change.

“All at once the idea that perhaps Corley had seen her home by another way and given him the slip. His eyes searched the street: there was no sign of them. Yet it was surely half-an-hour since he had seen the clock of the College of Surgeons. Would Corley do a thing like that?”

Mistrust and betrayal pervade Joyce’s story. Here, Lenehan’s mistrust of Corley is revealed as he becomes convinced that his companion will not honor their arrangement to meet.