analysis of the "Ulysses" by Joyce, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica analysis of the "Ulysses" by Joyce e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! PLOT: It transpires over the course of a single day and it is a story of three characters: Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and Molly. During the day Bloom wanders throughout the city; he goes to a funeral, his work, a pub and so on, avoiding going home because Molly is about to begin an affair. CHARACTERS: - Stephen Dedalus: reprised from Joyce’s earlier novel “A portrait of the artist as a young man” he is depressed because of his mother’s recent death - Leopold Bloom: a half-jewish advertising canvasser for a Dublin newspaper - Molly: Leopold’s wife, who is about to embark an affair STYLE: Joyce used multiple styles, which is what makes this novel so hard to read, but at he same time so enjoyable and funny. Each chapter is written in a different style. For instance: - Chapter 15 is a play; - Chapter 13 is like a romance novel; - Chapter 12 is a story with bizarre, exaggerated interruptions; - Chapter 11 uses techniques, like onomatopoeia, repetitions and alliteration to imitate music; - Chapter 14 reproduces the evolution of English literary prose style - the final chapter follows Molly’s stream of consciousness as it spools out in just eight paragraphs with almost no punctuation. Imaginative use of the language; It has both highbrow intellectual humor and more lowbrow dirty jokes and other sexual references; It is filled with all manner of references and allusions from medieval philosophy to the symbolism of tattoos, and from Dante to Dublin slang. COMPARISON WITH THE ODYSSEY: - Each chapter is named after a character or episode from the “Odyssey” - Homer’s Odysseus, after an epic 20-year-long journey, returns home to Ithaca and reunites with his faithful wife. In contrast, Joyce’s Bloom wanders around Dublin for a day and returns home to his unfaithful wife. IDEA OF THE JOURNEY: The idea of the journey is conveyed by the fact that Bloom wanders all day throughout Dublin far from home, but it is not quite the adventure of Odysseus, who had to fight monsters and natural forces all alone; the only monsters Leopold have to fight are perhaps his own fears and thoughts. The “journey” of Bloom throughout Dublin is a sort of parody of the journey of Odysseus. In the end the real journey that Leopold has to undertake is a journey into his consciousness.