An Encounter

The narrator is a young middle-class Catholic school boy whose Wanderlust is the main catalyst for the story. When the reader is first introduced to him, he is explaining how he and his friends vent their need for adventure through games set in the Wild West. The narrator is somewhat of a reluctant participant, but he doesn’t want to stand out from the other kids. This lack of a strong attachment to the games could explain why he so readily seeks out new adventures beyond his usual routine.

The narrator is an active participant in the decision to skip school and explore the city. However, as the story unfolds, the detachment of Joyce’s naturalist prose often makes it seem as though the narrator is more of a passenger along for the ride. He follows a prescribed route and reacts to Mahony’s antics, but his role is primarily observational throughout. He wants to see things, but it isn’t entirely clear whether he also wants to experience things. He simultaneously wants to be on an adventure and be in the safety of familiarity.

When the narrator finally does experience something, the encounter that gives the story its name, he first tries to act smarter and more well-read than he actually is. As the situation begins to feel more uncomfortable, the narrator steps back in a way, refusing to even look at the old man as he goes off to conduct his presumably inappropriate business. When the man returns, the narrator looks him directly in the eyes, and it is at this point that he again takes action. He finds a way to remove himself from the situation before it becomes dangerous, or at least any more uncomfortable. His relationship with Mahony suddenly feels far more desirable, despite the fact that he previously didn’t like Mahony some of the time.

Like the narrator, Mahony is a young middle-class Catholic school boy, but unlike the narrator, he is typically the character taking action. He isn’t introduced until the end of the second page, when the plan to skip school is announced, but from that point on he is a central character. It is Mahony who hurls insults at Leo Dillon for choosing school over their big adventure, who chases cats and children with his catapult, and who suggests that the two boys run away to sea.

Mahony doesn’t seem to be intimidated by the old man or want to impress him the way the narrator does at first. He boldly asks the old man questions about books he hasn’t read and challenges him on his number of “sweethearts.” He watches as the old man performs his inappropriate act, and although he’s surprised, he isn’t scandalized or afraid. In fact, more than anything the old man seems to bore Mahony. He acts as a perfect foil to the observant but reticent narrator. When the old man returns and the situation seems to grow more dangerous, Mahony is off chasing a cat. Although he readily runs to his friend’s aid when called, it is possible that the encounter has not left as significant of an impact on Mahony. Mahony’s actual feelings, like much of the story, remain ambiguous, however. Whether Mahony is behaving in a certain way to exude maturity while he actually feels frightened or intimidated is unknown, just as it is unknown to the narrator. The reader experiences Mahony alongside the narration, which is limited by a single perspective, age, and worldly context.

The reader is provided with remarkably little information about the character whose actions give the story its name. He is seemingly not very well off financially, based on his clothing, but there is no indication as to his profession, religious background, or social standing. In a city obsessed with these things, this is rather significant. The old man is a blank canvas. He represents all that is unknown and potentially dangerous to the boys in the wider world beyond the limits of the schoolyard.

Despite the lack of concrete detail provided about him, there are a few inferences that could be made about the old man. He seems well-versed in the literature that the young boys might have been exposed to by that point in their education, so it’s possible that he attended a similar school. This of course would suggest that he comes from a similar middle-class Catholic background. The writer would have been intimately familiar with the many characters like the old man who wandered the streets of Dublin, and the presence of this character in the story is significant in that Joyce felt that this was a part of Dublin that needed to be included in the overall picture painted in the collection.

There are hints of what is to come in the way that the man speaks with the boys upon their initial acquaintance. He references the works of Irish poet Thomas Moore, Scottish poet Sir Walter Scott, and, most notably, English novelist Lord Lytton. The latter’s works were considered scandalous to some and would not have been appropriate for young boys, something that the old man even mentions. Bringing up these works to these children is already a red flag.

Even before the old man walks off to perform his mysterious act, implied to be masturbation, the narrator senses that something is amiss: “I disliked the words in his mouth and I wondered why he shivered once or twice as if he feared something or felt a sudden chill” (16). Clearly the old man knows that what he is doing and what he is about to do are wrong.

When he returns, his thoughts turn to punishment, specifically the whipping of young boys. Despite the man’s age, his obsessions all seem to revolve around events of his youth, which makes the reader wonder what might have happened to this man in childhood. The narrator is certainly not interested in finding out, as he takes the first opportunity to leave the old man, hoping as he goes that the man does not “seize me by the ankles” (18).