How we cite our quotes: (Story.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Farrington's eyes wandered at every minute in the direction of one of the young women […] She glanced at him once or twice and, when the party was leaving the room, she brushed against his chair and said O, Pardon! in a London accent. He watched her leave the room in the hope that she would look back at him, but he was disappointed. He cursed his want of money and cursed all the rounds he had stood. (Counterparts.47)
Disillusionment's a downward spiral: one bad flirtation and pretty soon you hate your life. Or maybe it just feels like that at the time. Whatever the case, Farrington is yet one more example of a tiny disappointment (a cutie not looking his way) spiraling into an omg-my-life-is-over moment. These characters are all in serious need of some perspective, but Farrington is by far the one who needs it most.
Quote #8
A very sullen-faced man stood at the corner of O'Connell Bridge waiting for the little Sandymount tram to take him home. He was full of smouldering anger and revengefulness. He felt humiliated and discontented; he did not even feel drunk; and he had only twopence in his pocket. He cursed everything. (Counterparts.57)
Dubliners is as much about coping mechanisms as anything else. And for a lot of these characters, the go-to seems to be booze. But of course, that's a downward spiral that only leads to more disappointments, and eventually an intervention, like the awkward one staged for Mr Kernan in "Grace."
Quote #9
He gnawed the rectitude of his life; he felt that he had been outcast from life's feast. (A Painful Case.33)
Aside from the fact that Shmoop has no idea how one gnaws on rectitude, we'd like to point out the source of Mr Duffy's disappointment here. It's not that something sad happened to him, or a dream died. It's that he missed out on all of life's fun. For that, it seems, he has no one to blame but himself.