Paralysis can be defined as “complete or partial loss of function, especially when involving the motion or sensation in a part of the body”. However, in Joyce’s writing, it can be defined as “a state of powerlessness or incapacity to act.” This definition of paralysis is very prevalent in “A Painful Case.”  Mr. James Duffy is quite an average man who has a routine and sticks to it. He lives on the outskirts of Dublin purposely to be away from the people and dreadfulness of the city.  He keeps the same job as a cashier for a private bank for years. Each day he wakes up and takes the tram out of the place he lives called Chapelizoid to work.  In the afternoon, he takes up his same routine: “he went to Dan Burke’s and took his lunch- a bottle of lager beer and a small trayful of arrowroot biscuits,” (Joyce 104). Then he goes home at the end of the day.  This occurs every day until he meets Mrs, Sinico. She changed him; he started living his life and escaped the paralysis of his routine. It’s not something he  ever thought he would do. His life is described  as “an adventureless tale” (Joyce 105), but this is turned upside down with the entrance of Mrs. Sinico. Not only did this change the life of Mr. Duffy but also the paralysis that Mrs. Sinico was living in. Her husband was always gone and “he had dismissed his wife so sincerely from his gallery of pleasures” (Joyce 106) and she has been stuck at home with only her child. They both moved and shaped each other’s lives. Joyce writes, “Neither he nor she had had any such adventure before, and neither was conscious of any incongruity” (106). One is only living life when there is constant change. One can’t be stuck in something that is always adapting. For years the two shared their intelligence with each other; gathering books and sharing music; becoming intimate even. However, Mrs. Sincio  wanted this more than Mr. Duffy: “Mrs. Sinico caught up his hand passionately and pressed it to her cheek. Mr. Duffy was very much surprised. Her interpretation of his words disillusioned him. He did not visit her  for a week” (Joyce 107).  Mr. Duffy was content that he had found someone to share his thoughts and his knowledge with. Mrs. Sinico has a depravity about her. She has been dismissed  by her husband and Mr. Duffy is giving her the attention she longs for. She feels free from her paralysis but it’s misinterpreted. They had one last meeting where Mr. Duffy broke things off between them. He goes back into his paralysis. Joyce writes, “Four years passed. Mr. Duffy returned to his even way of life” (108).  Mr. Duffy becomes suconsciously stuck in his life again. While the lives of Mr.  Duffy and Mrs. Sinico are examples of paralysis in this story, there is another example. The death of Mrs. Sinico: “One evening as he [Mr. Duffy] was about to put a morsel of corned beef and cabbage into his mouth his hand stopped. His eyes fixed themselves on a paragraph in the evening paper,” (Joyce 108).  At this moment, Mr.  Duffy becomes stuck in the death of Mrs. Sinico; paralysis. He reads the paragraph  over and over again as if there is going to be something different on the page each time. The repetition of it  all shows how he is stuck in the thought of her death. Someone who gave him purpose and someone who he confided in, who he shared his knowledge and heart with was gone. He gets stuck in the  memory of her: “As the light failed an,d his memory began to wander he thought her hand touched his,” (Joyce 112).  He starts to think it is his fault she is dead and gets caught up in these self-accusations. He starts to realize  what a paralyzed life looks like: “Now that she was gone he understood how lonely her life must have been, sitting night after night alone in that room. His life would be lonely too until he, too died, ceased to exist, became a memory- if anyone remembered him,” (Joyce 113). He couldn’t escape his  thoughts and questions about her. He was stuck; paralysis.  All of the characters throughout this novel experience some type of paralysis. The city of Dublin has this cloud of stillness that rains down on the lives of the people who live in the city, especially at this time. Joyce captures  this state of powerlessness in Mr. Duffy and Mrs. Sinico. Her paralysis comes alive in the depiction of death. Mr. Duffy’s paralysis comes alive in the perspective of the city’s quietness, the river’s stillness, and the loneliness he’s now aware of. Paralysis infects the lives of these characters, but they can’t escape it until they are already stuck.