James Joyce - Dubliners and Ulysses, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica James Joyce - Dubliners and Ulysses e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Dubliners It is not a novel, but it is a collection of short tails (overall 15), that are divided into 4 different sections. Good These sections corresponding to the different step in the life of a man —> childhood, adolescence, maturity phase or adults age, and public life. In the end of the story there is an epilogue. The novel is set in Dublin, which it’s description is very detailed and real (Joyce knew really well Dublin). The most characterises places are described fantastically. In this phase of his literally production Joyce is still linked to the tradition in writing —> he used traditional techniques to write his novels. He hadn’t experienced the stream of consciousness, and especially the interior monologue yet. You can perceive the contrasting relationship between Dublin and Joyce, made of love and hate at the same time —> he wanted to leave Dublin, but at the same time he remained linked to the city. Joyce, criticise Dublin and the Dubliners, he tried to express his idea in his works, but he was unsuccessful. He felt misunderstood. Joyce, at this point, began to talk about a common condition to all the Dubliners, called by the writer paralysis. The Dubliners were paralysed in their condition —> the paralysis of courage to act. He focused on this condition in every tail, which characterise all the Dubliners belonging to every social class and whatever age —> their attitude was the same WHY? —> at a certain point of the life, they realised that they was unsatisfied of their life, thanks to the sudden moments of revelation, called by Joyce epiphany. The Epiphanies were caused bye any external stimuli. The epiphanies of the Dubliners where always negative, because they reveal dissatisfaction, unhappiness. But the Dubliners were never able to change their conditions because they were paralysed by the lack of will an and courage. So their lives, in Joyce’s opinion, was stagnant, stifling, still, especially after the war (which characterised the country with a great poverty). She was fast asleep This passage is set in Dublin, in the Christmas period and it talks about a young married couple (Gabriel and Greta). They had a Christian dinner at a friend’s house. During the party, there is a song on the radio, and Greta was displaced, because the song reminds her of an old love, the love when she was young. The sad aspects is that that boy had died of pneumonia. In fact, she had refused him at a certain point, because of her fathers will. So the boy decided to move to a different city, bus before leaving, he wanted to greet her. So he stood under the rain for the whole night, waiting for her. As a conceguence he got really sick and died for pneumonia —> so Greta felt really sad and guilty, and so she started crying during the party At the end of the dinner thy went back to the hotel, and Gabriel tried to understand why she cried, and so she explained it. And while she was telling Gabriel about the story, she was fast asleep. This was the first time she had told him about this lover. In fact, Gabriel was surprised because her wife was this still feeling some love for a past lover. To him, the epiphany that he never understood what was inside his wife. So their relationship, is based on the appearance. And while he was thinking (Joyce used the flowing of thoughts, the stream of consciousness) behind the window it was snowing —> the snow covers everything. Ulysses: Yes I said yes I will yes This passage is taken from the last part of the novel Ulysses, in which we find the Molly’s interior monologue. Molly is Leopold’s wife and they are two of the three main characters of Ulysses. Thanks of the flowing of her thoughts, she was able to remember the time when her current husband proposed to her and, even though lot of time has passed, she revives the same feelings when she was attracted to him and when they had their first sexual experience. Now, while thinking about it, she is experiencing the same excitement, the same emotions as that time when they were in love with each other. At the beginning of the passage Molly remembers the day when Leopold asked her to marry him. She liked him because he was a sensitive man. Actually, Molly encouraged Leopold to ask her to get married; she didn’t answer immediately and looked at the sea and the sky. Then she thinks about what happened to her even before she knew Leopold. She remembers her youth in Gibraltar, other men and other kisses. In the last part of the monologue there’s a climax of her stream of consciousness and erotic thoughts. Molly’s flux of thoughts is now back at when she and Leopold got engaged. She remembers she told him to ask again with her eyes and then she put her arms around him and said “ yes”. PS: The interior monologue is the technique employed by Joyce to translate the stream of consciousness, that is the flux of thoughts in an individual's mind, into words. Ulysses The title of this particular and symbolic as the language James Joyce used in the novel. It is realistic in the detailed descriptions of the town, Dublin. Ulysses is James Joyce’s masterpiece, a modern epic prose. MODERN —> for the settings, the characters, the lifestyles he presents EPIC —> because he tried to present the protagonist as an hero, like Ulysses. But it’s ironic epic PROSE —> it’s not written in versus but it’s a novel The protagonist? —> Leopold, Bloom, Molly Bloom and Stephen Daedalus. This work is important because it marks the different with the past tradition —> Joyce begin to use the interior monologue.