In the opinion of Richard Ellmann, Joyce's biographer and editor of the letters, these letters demand respect for their intensity and sincerity, and because they fulfill Joyce's avowed determination to express everything he thought. Their goal was to achieve sexual gratification and inspire Nora, and at times they voluntarily adhere to certain behavioral traits that could technically be considered perverse. They display hints of fetishism, annuity, paranoia, and masochism, but before confining Joyce to such categories and consigning him to their tyranny, we must remember that in his work he was able to ridicule them as circus tricks and transform them into revue routines.