James Joyce's Life and Literary Work: Dubliners and Ulysses, Appunti di Inglese

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CONTEST -The cultural climate of the beginning of 20th century sickness a profound change, which can be considered a sort of revolution in thought and in feelings, because in this period an entire system of thoughts was disrupted by a series of events, in particular by Scientifics and political theories, but also by psychological theories, because this is the period in ‘which Freud appeared. «It is also the period of the first world war, which accelerates the destruction of the old ideas and in this period we have a period of experimentation in all forms of art, so in literature, in the novel, in poetry, in music, in painting and all the adverse forms of art FREUD One of the most important people who influenced this period, and so all forms of art, was Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. 1) Freud was so important because his studies led to a new concept of the mind, in fact he revealed the primacy of human instincts, and we have to consider also that his name is associated with the discovery ofthe power ofthe unconscious or subconscious, which determines many of our actions. The function of the unconscious is revealed by the dream, that's the reason why Freud wrote books about dreams, and in particular about their interpretation. 2) Another important phenomenon which Freud thoughts that determines many human actions is the free association of the ideas: in fact, ifyou pay attention to how your mind works, you immediately realise that it works through the association of ideas. 3) Moreover, Freud discovered that men unconsciously tens to remove or modifying things, and in particular to remove things that he doesn't accept, and this phenomenon leads to man uncentently 4) It is from this study that the need to analysis consciousness more and more deeply was revealed, in fact Freud understood that it was too important to analyse consciousness more and more deeply, so he arrived to the awareness that there is no objective reality, but reality is the sum of men”s personal experiences 5) He also studied libido and its demand, and he discovered that there are irrational forces which regulate men’s behaviour and his relationship with other human beings. 6) He also gave importance to the theory of the free association of ideas, in fact, according to this theory he discovered that each individual associates ideas freely, according to his personal experience, which are sat in his unconscious. WILLIAM JAMES In this period, we have other studied, which are considered very important, and who gave an important contribution to this study was from another American psychologist whose name was William James who talked about the endless flats and the infinite changes of a man inter life. According to him, reality cannot be objectively given, but it is subjectively given, according to his personal experience, according to what is perceived through consciousness. So, according to him, consciousness scrolls, and he used the metaphor or a river or a stream to talk about consciousness. So, for William James the present doesn’t exists, because the reality exists in men's consciousness, so reality is perceived in a personal way, in fact past, present, and future, coexists: ifyou consider when your mind starts thinking it associates past, present, and future, so because of this, was is important is the fact that our consciousness flows freely, and that is the reason why he used this metaphor: the stream of consciousness. As a consequence, presence does not really exist, but reality is made up of a mixture of past, present, and future, ‘which flow into each other HENRY BERGSONE In this period, we have another important contribution, which came from a French philosopher, who was Henry Bergson. He was important because he introduced a new concept of time. He declared the superiority of intuition in the apparention of reality. The most importance and original aspect of his thought is the concept of time: according to him, we have two different form of time: one is called mathematical time of science, which consists of, for example, one minute which consists of 60 seconds; it is the same for every person. But we have another time, which is called the time of the mind, which ecols duration. The time of the mind is not the same for every person, in fact it is different from every person. Ifyou boil an egg the mathematical time is about 8 minutes, but the time of the mind in which you expect the egg to be ready is different in every person, and the time of the mind is the time of the spiritual experience; during that time our mind starts working, and the time we wait for the egg to be cooked corresponds to our time of the mind. The introduction of this concept is very important. All these discoveries would be very important in order to influence all forms of arts MES JOYCE In this period we have a series of important writes, but the most important writer who applied this method of investigation to his character is James Joys, in fact he based his experimentation on the fact that nobody, according to all psychologist, thinks in a complete well organised sentences, in the sense that when our mind starts working, the sentence are not well organised sentences from the syntactic and grammar point of view because the thought forms in the mind without a syntactic shape. So Joys wanted to convey the thoughts and feelings of his characters as they pass true his characters at, and that®s the reason why when he wanted to express his character's thoughts he used a twisted and disrupted syntax because he ‘wanted to show how the human mind works and to translate into word the parts of our unconscious, in fact he abandoned an organised and well-structured syntax. He also used the sudden changes from the third person to the first person: the third person represents the narrator point of view, and the first person was the first person character's point of view, and so the first person character uses uncompleted sentences in which the referent is not always clear, and as a result we seem to enter directly into the character’s real thoughts. In this type of narrative, the narrator disappears and the reader shares the continuous present of the characters consciousness, because he enters into the characters unconscious. LIFE -> IMPORTANT FOR HIS WRITING I.J. was bom in a suburb of Dublin in 1882, in a large family. When he was 6 years old he started the Jesuit school, that gave him intellectual discipline, but after his family has financial problem (his father was a drunker => the influences of his father is visible in all Joyce?s work). in some of his writing there is a father who feathergrass with his presence the domestic serenity of the wife and of the children. -> Joyce seems to have aspired his father, because of his histrionic personality After he studied languages at University College Dublin: English, French and Italian, and he graduated in French and Italian. -> In this period his friend tried to involve him in a Ireland nationalistic movement, such as the Gaelic leage + He's sympathetic to this movement but he didn’t became a main promoter. His interest was in European culture — his wish was to become an European writer. A. Stories which start in MEDIA RES— media res opening in which the reader is immediately immersed in the situation and it is mostly told from the perspective of a character (ex. Eveline: a character who is watching out of the window) B. Allstories start in Media res and they finished as ifthey interrupt something — they END IN A BRUSK WAY C. Very little happens in these short stories; in some way they are considered MONOTONOUS and very sad. (when he published his first story the publisher told him that he didn't like his story — he found difficulties in having his books publishing) D. Joyce tended to diminish the role played to the omniscient narrator + so he abandoned the narration in the 3th person narrator => BUT stories are written from the POINT OF VIEW OF THE CHARACTERS E. What holds together all these stories are different elements: A particular structure + and the presence of certain themes, + simple and narrative techniques LANGUAGE ® The language he uses is rather simple; In each story he uses a lot of symbles. © The characters thoughts are presented through what passes through their mind -> The linguistic register is adapted according to the age, the social class and the role of the characters (for example in The Childhood the story is written from the point of view is the one of a child so it is simple). ® thedescription is realistic and extremely confused BUT there is a great number of external details. (so the use of REALISM is mixed with SYMBOLISM) (ex. Eveline: the contrast between Buenos Aires so a city full of fresh air and her house a place full of dusty air) — He uses an innovative approach to novelty, write setting through sensitive impressions. -> Smell/colours/noises evoke images. Revel to reader intimate thoughts EVELINE PLOT Eveline Hill, a 19-year-old girl who works in a Dublin shop, who is inside her family's house remembering childhood, including some happy memories and her father's drunken brutality to her and her brothers. Eveline thinks about people she has known who have left Ireland or died (her mother and her brother Emest), and of her own plans to leave the country with a man named Frank. She remembers meeting Frank, an Irish sailor that now lives in Argentina, and dating him while he visited Dublin during a journey. Eveline also thinks about her father's disapproval of Frank, and of her promise "to keep the home together as long as she could" before her mother died. Later, full of fear of the unknown and probably wrong as well, Eveline finds herself unable to board the ferry to England, where she and Frank are decided to meet a ship for South Ametica. He leaves without her. ANALYSIS NEW NARRATIVE STYLE -> The story is simple, (he use simple language) but it contains symbols (ex. settings) (The narrators enters the character’s thoughts, revealing to the rider his/her intimate thoughts) He uses what is called free indirect style: He starts in media res. 1. Inthe first passage there is the narrator point of view (he uses metaphor “evening invade the avenue” + he uses the literary word “odour” and the onomatopoeic word, becomes aware ofthe presence of someone else which tries to eyelike her paralysis and inactivity 2. Inthe second paite there is Eveline’ s point of view — Example of free indirect style 3. The narrative tends to reflect the language and sensitivity of the person it describes 3th narrator but not omniscient) 4. The key wordin this passage is DUST— has symbolic meaning in Christian funeral rites (human are created by god from dust); — it’s represents the fact that E. feels imprisoned by dust, which represents her family's home. The room is described as a dark place in which everything is dark and seems old — this environment imprisons her through the object full of memories. > the harmonium is broken = after her mother”s dead the harmony at home as been broken (it represents the fact that in the past she use to play the feels with her family = happy life) 5. Buenos Aires means “good air and freshness” > it's in contrast with the dust, the musty atmosphere and the stagnant atmosphere ofthe interior of Eveline”s living room SCENA FINALE in the final passage Eveline finds herself unable to make her decision and to leave her family, to leave her violent father, and to go to live in Buenos Aires. Her body undergoes a sort of gradual physical paralysis but also a spiritual one, because she can’t move (L138 and 141), in contrast to Frank, who represents life and energy as well. So in the final image the paralysis became total, and became a form of spiritual paralysis and of physical paralysis, even her gaze is absent, her eyes no longer are able to give him any sign of love or recognition, her face was very pale. LANGUAGE is clear and simple, but it contains symbols, and it°s interesting because the great power of the setting, for example at the beginning of the story is created by a various sense impression, like the smell, the odour of craton, the noises and colours which surrounds Eveline reveries (ricordi), he voice powerful images of her tid existence: the colour which are predominant are brown, black, yellow, and the key word is dust, dustiness, darkness and they are repeated images which came to symbolize Eveline”s paralysis: the room is dark and everything in it seems to be dusty, cold, and everything seems to imprison her with its object which are full of memories. CHARACTERS -All the characters of these stories are characters who are not physically described but the portrait ofthem is based on introspection, and these characters have in common the fact that they luck the carriage to break the chains that bind them, so, for this reason, they are spiritually weak (they have the occasion of changing it but they can't do it because, for example, Eveline meet Frank, who was a good boy, who had a house in Buenos Aires, who had proposed to marry her, so he could completely change Eveline life, but at the moment of taking the decision she can't do it because she remember the promise that she had made to her mother to keep the family together as long as they could ), they are fearful people, they are leaving-death people, because they are unable to live their life fully and because they are slaves of their familiar, moral, cultural, religius, and political life - in different way the protagonists of these stories are slaves to different institution; in the case of Eveline, who is an adolescent, because she is 19, she is slave to her familiar bones, she can’t break her family bones even if she live a very hard life, in fact she has to work hard at home, because she has to clean the house, she has to prepare the meals for the member of the family, she has to work hard at the store, and when she finishes working in the store she has to rush out to do the shopping in order to prepare the meal, she is in charge of her little brothers and sisters, and she also has a violent father. Eveline has entered life engaged in routine tasks (like cleaning the house, taking care of brothers and sisters...) and a monotonous job. > In fact, is significant the repetition of the adverb REGULARLY (line 65) — She had very monotonous life but also a very difficult life -> realised that the only way to escape from a monotony is from Dublin. BUT she is at the arbour, the sheep is about to leave, she can't to do it (& SHE IS INCABLE OF ESCAPING) -> she is sit by a sort of physical and spiritual paralysis We don’t have any physical description of Eveline, so the portrait of the character is based on introspection rather than description, so the narrator enters Eveline”s train of thoughts. PRESENT PAST AND FUTURE: COEXIST 1) PAST: she used to play with her friends and her brothers and they were happy in that period (her mother was alive) -> her life was completely different. She thinks about the moment when she met Frank... 2) PRESENT: she is sitting at the window and she feels tied (bcs she has a very hard life, both at home and both at work + her father has become violent and drunk) she has just written 2 letters: 1. for her dad (she says that he would miss her) 2. for her brother (She realises that time in running out so she has to take her own decision) 3) FUTURE: she imagines very different future: she imagine her future life in Buenos Aires with Frank (-> Joyce use free indirect style to enter the character’s consciousness) MUSIC -Is important for Joyce, because he came from a family in which a mother was a piano teacher, he had leamt to play piano but also played other musical instruments, and he had a fine voice and he had studied to become a tenor voice, so music in his way of writing plays an important role. «it triggers Eveline’s epiphany, and there are also other references to music in that story, also the fact that Frank was fond of music and used to take her to theatre to see operas (the last they saw was “The bohemian girl”). Also in this story music triggers one ofthe character's epiphanies THE DEAD PLOT Gabriel is a professor and book reviewer who attends a Christmastime party organised by his aunts (Kate and Julia Morkin, two famous women in the world of Dublin music) at which he dances and holds a brief speech. As the party is finishing, Gabriel notice his wife, Gretta, listening to a song sung by the renowned tenor Bartell D'Arcy, and the intensity of her focus on the music causes him to feel both sentimental. In a hotel room later, Gabriel is shocked to discover that he has misunderstood Gretta's feelings; she has been moved by the memory of a young lover named Michael Furey who preceded Gabriel, and who died for the love of Gretta. Gabriel realizes that she has never felt the same passion about their marriage. He feels alone and profoundly mortal, but spiritually connected for the first time with others. ANALYSIS -TITLE: Why? these characters are not fully conscious of what life is , or are unable to face life with passions and determinations -CONTENT: the spiritual death, that is at the cuor (?) of the paralytic condition of Dubliners, of the inhabitants of Dublin -WHEN: Joyce spent almost one year in Rome. He spent more than 11 years in Trieste, but during that period he also spent one year in Rome because worked there for a bank. In that period, he felt sick (sentiva la nostalgia di casa), and that is the reason why he wrote a story about the death, because in his own opinion “the dead” are very important in the living’s deaths. -FUNCTION: no belong to the other sections BUT recapitulate the previous chapters/stories and to fix the general theme, which is paralysis, in fact the collection of these stories is not dispersive, but the stories are integrated even had/at the structural levels, in fact there are motifs/symbols which record from one section to another section. -use FREE INDIRECT STYLE -> for ex. “Perhaps she had not told him all the story” the use ofthe past perfect means that Joyce refers to the past of the character and so it's the character®s thoughts not the narrator®s ones for ex. “Poor Aunt Julia”: in this last one, we notice that the character’s mind is thinking to the future (to the death that soon will arrive for Aunt Julia) -series of alliteration (d,f) + repetition (it) + climatic repetition (fallen softly — falling faintly) > effect: quite ipnotic, poetic, idea of solid world dangled, ail poetic ---> great musicality -snow: important: when the story starts were snowing in all Irland and even on the cemetery were lay berried. Is the the symbol of death and life of all hopless solitud and incommunicability between livings. The snow is the element whihc living and the dead share. -DEAD are more alive in the living life than living themself. In fact Greta has looked in her heart the pain of Michael's death, we can undertand that a relationship between a dead person and a living one is more alive than between 2 livings one. That beacuse living are considered spiritually dead and also moribol, she would be dead and so she is spiritually dead, so the couple fail to live fully their love. -BOY”S NOME: symbolic meaning: -Gabriel: archangel, angle of death, prince of fire, angel of annunciation - Michael: angel of life -ASSOCIATION OFIDEAS -DANTE: the story has a tripartite structure -> he choose 3 bcs is the cultural number (Divina Commedia), in fact for Joyce Dante is the greates poet in the world and he uses 3 parts (inferno, purgatorio e paradiso). -first part: ends when all the guests arrive to the party -second: central part: dinner «third: set at hotel room «MUSIC: Is important because start like a soundtrack and then becames more and more important, for example when Greta listens the song " The less of Augrine", song which trigges her epiphany and has consequence trigges Gabriel's one. ULYSSES - Its a very long story, a novel (instead the others, Dubliners, are short stories) in which the story evolves around threee characters (hero, heroin) of Odyssey of Homer WHEN: The story envolves one day 16th JUNE 1904, Joyce decided this day because in this day he had the first date with Nora and day in which she expressed her affection for Joyce. The story starts at 8 am and ends at 2pm ofthe day after. PLOT Leopold Bloom is an ordinary man, he is an advertisment agent, banal and common man, nothing iteresting happens, is not an hero, he gets up in the moming at 8 o'clock and for all day he does quite banal and common actions. Molly is the opposite of Penelope, she is unfaithful wife, she is a soprano singer (an opera singer) and she has a relationsheep with a man who works with her; Leopold knows thier story, but he doesn't metter because he and his wife had been living separated from the death of their son (11 years before), they live in the same house but separated. Leopold during his wondering at Dublin street encontres Steven Dedalus, in a brothel and take him at his own house, so momentaly Steven becames his adoptive son. Steven had quarreled with his father and is in serch of a figure of father and Leopold is sonless (and Steven fatherless) so Leopold take the young with him. CHARACTERS > In the story instead to have hero and heroines we have ordinary people. The characters are described while thinking throw association of ideas. 1) Leopold Bloom is the protagonist (modern Odysseus) : Leopold, like the ancient Odysseus, lands on the banks of many streets of Dublin, there are the sense of adventure and misadventure, he fells happy and sad and thinks about his. unfaithful wi has Jew Irish origins, he rejected his origin religion and adopted Christian catholic religion and for that he feels guilty. WHY HE CHOOSE ODYSSES? the ancient Odysseus was a complete man: heroic, courageous, good man, generous and for this reason chose Odysseus. Also Leopold is a good man, helpful but is an ordinary man who doesn't do anything special 2) Steven Daedalus (who is the modern Telemachus): symbolic meaning: Steven because St. Steven was the proto monitor of Christian religion, was a martyr of religion and Daedalus because he is a young Latin teacher and he want to became a writer. (Daedalus in mythology was an architect and an artist who built the labyrinth where the minotaur had been looked and also built wax wings to be able to fly away through the labyrinth. - rejected Christian catholic religion, like his compatriots feels exchanged by solidarity > rejected Irish nationalism. - He is and artist and has all the defects of an artist, he must find his way throw life from faith and father. He has a youth spirit of rebellion in open contrast with ancient Daedalus. 3) Molly Bloom, (Leopold Bloom's wife, who is the modem Penelope): is the name of fa female creative energy, symbolise flash, she is constantly afferming her human life TECNIQUE he uses an epic method to stress the luck of heroism of ideas of low and trust in modem age (in fact Leopold has difect and contraddictions); epich structure is the mirror which reflect modern world. STREAM OF CONSCIUSNESS In the story doesn't happen nothing particular, he does banal actions, but it's long because a lot of pages are about what the character think, what passes through his mind, this is called STREM OF CONSCIOUSNESS, which Joyce borrowed by psychology revolutionise the structure and the way of writing novels, in fact before novel were written in a chronological order, following the chronological sequence of the events, result: well-structured plot, has his own development > now he uses the stream and that gives the rider to understand deeply the psychology, to discover deep inside characters” mind -Stream of consciousness and plot are two opposite tens: the plot is ordinary, stream not, follows thoughts of characters” mind THE FUNERAL Joyce brought to perfection what sperimented in Dublin, he uses stream of consciousness, uses free association of ideas PLOT The story starts with a funeral, Joyce in there with Steven's father behind the porfin there is the funeral and Joyce shows how mind works. .... NARRATOR There is a free narrator words unated to his own mind. In the sentences aren't with the subject because owr mind doesn't uses complete sentences, not well structured STYLE - incubisme --> is at the present of spirits, spirits that had sexual intercorse to women. Regualar sentences ---> uses grammar. - Luck subjects, verbs or just only word (like 'twenty') as if it was written "Leopold Bloom 'He thoughts... words, no conventional use of grammar , narrator POINT OF VIEW: 1)Narrator : uses the conventional use of grammar (regluar sintax) 2)Leopold one ((thought, free association): work with the free association of ideas ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS bared heads -thirteen-unlucky number-silly superstition that about thirteen - Ned Lambert's suit - his similar suit- he must get his grey suit turned by Mesias- the coffin disappears- he sees twenty- he would like to be somebody else - far away a donkey brayed- he has never seen a dead one donkey- also his papa died- a gentle sweet air blows round the bared heads in a whisper- the whisper of the boy by the grave head with his wreath- Mr Bloom moves behind the portly kindly caretaker- he watches the caretaker's well cut frockcoat- death is a long rest- you feel no more- the very moment of death must be damned unpleasant- you can't believe it at first - he sees a darkened death chamber- he hears people whispering around him- he wonders if it is worth seeing a priest- the death is a struggle- his sleep is not natural- it is possible to pull the pillow away and finish it off on the floor since he's dead- there is a devil in that picture of sinner's death showing him a woman- he dies embracing her. MOLLY’S MONOLOGUE The first sentence is made up of 2500 words. This begins and end with the word YES NAME MOLLY: is the name of fa female creative energy, symbolise flash, she is constantly afferming her human life PLOT There are Molly's memories of her past life. She remembers all new that she had had (past love). END in the end she realises that Leopold is not bad,concluding that her husband is not so bad. 3We see Molly's Bloom mind which wouldback and forword in her thoughts, she think about present, past, future. STYLE Apparently the story is caoetic the writer wnats to rapresent Molly's flows thoughts: in fact there are some spelling and grown mistakes because is the moment in which she is falling asleep (past, present, future).