This story is much like “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” in that it takes place for the most part in one room and is conveyed mainly by means of dialogue. Unfortunately, the dialogue, like that in the earlier story, is obscure to most American readers (though no doubt highly authentic). When the talk turns to ecclesiastical matters, mostly misinformation is shared by the participants; though their faith in God may be firm, their understanding of Roman Catholic dogma is shaky at best.
Here, Joyce repeats the theme of death—Kernan came near to killing himself when he fell down the stairs—and of corruption. Somehow, the purity of Christian faith in God has been corrupted by the institution of the Catholic Church, the author seems to say, and then further corrupted by types like Kernan’s friends, who seem to mean well but misunderstand almost everything about their own faith. The way in which the priest at the retreat “dumbs down” the Bible for his audience is the final insult.
This is the most novelistic story in the collection, except for “The Dead.” Not only is “Grace” longer than the stories that come before it, it also uses techniques such as three separate scenes and a truly omniscient point-of-view. Not only are the thoughts in Kernan’s mind available to the reader, but his wife’s and those of some of his friends are as well. These are techniques associated more with novels than with short stories. Fittingly, Kernan himself, as well as Cunningham and M’Coy appear in Joyce’s great novel Ulysses.
