A Painful Case by James Joyce is a story of loneliness, isolation and paralysis. James Duffy, the protagonist, was a predicatable bank cashier. He lived in a house neat and tidy, far from the city of Dublin enough to isolate himself. His everyday schedule was identical, paralysed by routine in other words. Until one day at a time, he attended the concert where he first met Emily Sinico, who was a wife of a mercantile boat captain and a mother of one. They subsequently encountered again, their peculiar relationship was built since Mr. Duffy approached Mrs. Sinico to schedule a meeting. They exchanged ideas of their common intellectual interests such as books, politics, music et cetera, and they enjoyed this spiritual connection between them much. Yet, this connection was detached when Mrs. Sinico took Mr. Duffy’s hand to touch her cheek, for she could not withhold her feelings for him anymore. Mr. Duffy was first surprised, but then turned into worried. He at last decided to have a clear break-off of their connection, she agreed. Four years later, Mr. Duffy read a newspaper article about the death of Mrs. Sinico. The news at first irritates Mr. Duffy, but his anger eventually turned into sorrow. At the end of the day, he figured out that they were all lonely, himself in particular. It would seem that the major loss of this story is the loss of Mr. Duffy’s soul companionship. The lamentations of Mr. Duffy at the end of the story reveal his sorrow for the death of Mrs. Sinico.