James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, in Dublin, Ireland. Joyce’s writing is classified as fiction, though some could be considered autofiction influenced by the events of his childhood and life in Ireland. His household was Catholic and middle class, and, like his father and grandfather before him, Joyce attended the prestigious primary school, Clongowes Wood College, which was run by the Jesuit priests. Joyce’s father mishandled the family’s finances, and Joyce was forced to leave the boarding school to attend the Christian Brothers’ O’Connell School. Nevertheless, despite the lesser credentials, Joyce thrived at school and challenged the conventions of his society.

Joyce’s male characters, such as Farrington from “Counterparts,” are emblematic of the hardships that Joyce saw befall the men of Dublin. As a young man, feeling suffocated by the restraints of Catholicism and provincial Irish Nationalism, Joyce left Ireland for the European continent. He returned home briefly to attend his mother’s deathbed, and it was during this visit when he met Nora Barnacle, a hotel maid from Galway. Joyce and Nora had two children, Lucia and Giorgio, and defied the institution of marriage for decades, ultimately only deciding to wed to ensure their children’s inheritance rights.