The current study aims to examine the meanings and features of colors used in James Joyce’s Dubliners with a corpus linguistic technique. To achieve research objectives, AntConc was employed to explore the characteristics of colors used as keywords in Dubliners, and the frequencies, keyness values and effect sizes of different colors were calculated. In James Joyce’s works, color serves not merely as a representational device for objects or characters but as a symbolic mechanism that reveals the pervasive paralysis afflicting Ireland. Throughout Dubliners, white connotes pallor  and impotence, black  signifies authority  and  control,  brown  suggests  dullness  and  passivity,  gray  evokes ambiguity  and  decline,  and  green  symbolizes  the  multifaceted  identity  of Ireland itself. Through his careful and symbolic deployment of color imagery, Joyce effectively portrays Dublin  as a  city immobilized  by the  intertwined forces of religion, patriarchy, and imperialism.