James Joyce: Ulysses, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica James Joyce: Ulysses e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Ulysses The best known work of the second period is Ulysses. With this work we can see the transition from tradition to experimentation: the use of the 3rd interior monologue. The story describes a single day: 16th June 1924, the day when he met Nora Barnacle. It is divided into three parts: - The central character in the first part is Stephen Dedalus. Stephen is considered the first Christian martyr ( Saint Stephen). Dedalus constructed the labyrinth of Creta and finds the escape. It comes from Greek culture. With the combination of these names, Joyce creates the perfect figure of a new art. Martyr because he uses a new type of writing and he is criticized for that. He is identified with Joyce but he is the symbol of the artist – in part because Dedalus as he finds the escape from the labyrinth, escapes from the paralysis. Here we can find the main difference between him and Gabriel Conroy ( The Dead) who doesn’t escape from the paralysis. - The second part is dominated by the figure of Leopold Bloom, who can be identified with Ulysses. In fact, he wanders around Dublin just like Ulysses wanders around the Mediterranean. The main difference between Stephen and Leopold is that: 1) Stephen Dedalus is the symbol of the new generation and artist. 2) Leopold Bloom represents the common man and the old generation. Although this main difference, these two characters are strictly interdependent: according to Joyce this idea is very similar to Wilde’s one. The artist and the common man need each other. The artist needs the common man because he is the object of his work, the common man needs the artist to elevate himself. - The third part is dominated by his wife, Molly Bloom, who corrisponds to Ulysses’s wife Penelope, just as Stephen Dedalus represents Ulysses’s son, Telemachus. Molly is the symbol of materialism and flesh in its pure way; Dedalus represents the mind; Bloom has the function to mediate between Molly and Dedalus, but he fails. This novel ( each of the 18 chapters) refers to different elements: parts of the day, colours, sensations etc. and parts of the Odissey, too.