While there are no recurring characters in Dubliners, Joyce does appear to have envisioned the collection as a single work that would expose the city's crippling moral paralysis. His examination of Dublin's condition was carried out according to a plan he laid out for the publisher Grant Richards.

Each stage of life, from childhood to maturity and public life was to be represented by one of four groups of stories in the collection. The first group, which Joyce described as "stories of my childhood," would comprise "The Sisters," "An Encounter," and "Araby"; the second group, stories of adolescence, would contain "The Boarding House," "After the Race," and "Eveline"; the third group, stories of mature life, would be "Clay," "Counterparts," and "A Painful Case"; the final group, stories of public life in Dublin, would contain "Ivy Day in the Committee Room," "A Mother," and "Grace."

Three stories...