Although it is important to note the similarities between James Joyce’s “A Little Cloud” and Lord Byron’s “Prisoner of Chillon,” the stories are also largely different from one another. Explicit references are made to Lord Byron’s poetry in “A Little Cloud,” but the linguistic and literary parallels between it and “Prisoner of Chillon” are numbered, and are ultimately overshadowed by their differences. The primary theme that persists through both works of literature is imprisonment. As Clarice Short points out in “Joyce’s ‘A Little Cloud’,” “During the dungeon days of both Byron’s and Joyce’s characters they came to some sort of terms with the smaller life about them”. “Little Chandler [sees] the children that [squat] like mice,” just as the Prisoner of Chillon “[makes] friends with spiders and [watches] the mice playing in the streaks of moonlight” (276). Both characters find ways of passing the time that are hardly mentally stimulating. Each develops a means of coping with the sad reality that their lives have inevitably become. Another similarity that becomes evident after reading both works is the idea of epiphany, an element that is consistently employed by Joyce in all of his compositions. “Both characters were brought to consciousness, or heightened awareness, by the advent of a visitant from the outside world” (Short 276). As Little Chandler walks to meet Gallaher, “A light [begins] to tremble on the horizon of his mind” (Joyce 46) just as the Prisoner of Chillon hears a bird singing and describes compares it to “A light [breaking] in upon [his] brain” (Byron 251). Little Chandler and the Prisoner of Chillon are broken out of their repetitive and routine daily lives by outside influences – in Little Chandler’s case, it is Gallaher, and a bird does it for the Prisoner of Chillon. Nevertheless, “the pleasure of both was short-lived.” Similar to going on a spectacular vacation and returning more depressed than before departing because the sad realization that one is home sets in, both men were even more upset following their “epiphanies.” The recognition of their limited existences leaves both men in a more depressed state than before (Short 277). The “epiphanies” that both characters experience “[cause] each to make an effort to establish contact with the outer or freer world” (Short 277). Little Chandler begins to resent the quiet life he leads after seeing what Gallaher has become, and “A Little Cloud” ends with a grim confrontation between Little Chandler and his wife as the reader recognizes the absence of love of Little Chandler towards his child (Joyce 53-54). The Prisoner of Chillon climbs up the prison wall so that he may see outside (Byron 318) and “the view of freedom only [intensifies] his consciousness of his bondage” (Short 277). Then both men are reconciled with their prisoner selves and are brought back to the despair from which they came, their states of consciousness having only reminded them of the freedoms that they gave up. Little Chandler weeps in regret at the conclusion of “A Little Cloud,” providing the reader with a stark comparison to what Chandler’s emotions would have been had he followed his aspirations of publishing poetry. “And had the prison of personality and circumstances not weakened Chandler into a creature adapted to prison life, his tears, if he had shed any, would not have been tears of remorse” (Short 278). If this were the case, Chandler would have been crying tears of joy.
Despite the similarities between the two stories, “A Little Cloud” and “Prisoner of Chillon” are more different than they are similar. In fact, the similarities between the two can only be applied generally. To name just a few differences, Little Chandler is only imprisoned in a figurative sense, while the prisoner of Chillon actually lives in a prison. Little Chandler is imprisoned because of his inherent reticence and his arguable lack of drive; strictly speaking, he caused his own imprisonment. Little Chandler was the one to blame for his demise (Joyce 45). Contrarily, the prisoner of Chillon was imprisoned as a result of his family’s beliefs, specifically those of his father (Byron 11). Additionally, the prisoner of Chillon is set free at the end of the poem (Byron 392), granted the prisoner doesn’t know what to do with his freedom once he has it, much like the doctor in A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens 112). However, it is debatable whether or not the prisoner actually has the mental freedom that Little Chandler lacks (Short 277). Little Chandler never attains freedom in “A Little Cloud,” and it is implied that he never will.
Although specific similarities and differences between “A Little Cloud” and “Prisoner of Chillon” may be identified, the overarching theme between the two is lifelong imprisonment. While Little Chandler is not physically imprisoned, he turns “often from his tiresome writing to gaze out of his office window” and he feels how useless it is “to struggle against fortune” (Joyce 44). The physically imprisoned prisoner of Chillon similarly discusses his “fate” as “bann'd and barr'd” (Byron 8, 10). While dreaming of a poetic career may provide escape for Little Chandler, the demands of work and home that serve as obstacles to his dreams ultimately overwhelm him. Like other characters in Dubliners, Little Chandler experiences an epiphany that ultimately makes him realize he will never change his life. The epiphany the prisoner of Chillon experiences during his imprisonment has a similar effect by causing him to become even more depressed than before, but eventually he is granted freedom, a considerable difference between the stories of the prisoner and Little Chandler.