JOYCE: DUBLINERS AND ULYSSES, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica JOYCE: DUBLINERS AND ULYSSES e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! JOYCE DUBLINERS ❖ RELATIONSHIP WITH IRELAND Joyce hated Irish society because it is close-minded, bigot culturally and politically. Dublin is defined as “the centre of paralysis”, so it is a city stuck to the old century. Although he lived in other cities, all his works are set in Dublin. Therefore, actually, he could never go away from Dublin psychologically speaking. Meaningfully the last story of Dubliners is entitled The Dead. In fact, the Dubliners are dead inside, paralysed, stuck because they are close-minded, oppressed by Church and by traditions. ❖ EPIPHANY In Dubliners, there is the idea of epiphany which represents a deep insight: through very trivial reasons, you understand your life. For instance, in The Dead, there is an epiphany when Gabriel understands that his wife Gretta has never loved him. Epiphany does not lead to a real change in people’s lives: it simply makes them more aware of how dead and paralysed they are. So the epiphany is not a way to escape. For instance, in the story of Eveline, we see a woman who lives with his oppressive father. Then she falls in love with a man and she wants to go to Argentina (she has an epiphany) but when it’s time to leave Dublin, she doesn’t and she remains with his father. ➢ SHE WAS FAST ASLEEP This passage is the conclusion of the story entitled The Dead. Gabriel and his wife Gretta have just come back from an after-Christmas party at the house of Gabriel’s unmarried aunts. At the party Gretta heard an old Irish song which reminded her of her first love, Michael Furey, a man who she believes died for her. Once back at the hotel where they are staying, Gabriel asks Gretta why she looks so thoughtful and she tells him about Michael Furey. Immediately after this, she falls asleep and Gabriel has his own epiphany. Gabriel in fact suddenly realizes how poor a part he has played in his wife’s life, so he understands that he doesn’t know anything about his wife so that maybe she has never loved him. Looking at Gretta sleeping, Gabriel feels “a strange, friendly pity” for her because he sees that “her face was no longer beautiful” so he understands that she is no longer young and she is going to die. So from this, the idea of the passing of time starts being in Gabriel’s thoughts. In fact then, for free associations, he thinks of aunt Julia and how she will soon die, so he starts thinking about death. He arrives to realise that everyone is becoming shades so that death comes for everyone. Then his mind wonders to Michael Furey and how his wife “had locked in her heart for so many years”. So from this passage, we understand that Gretta never really communicated with Gabriel. So Gabriel imagines seeing a young man standing under a dripping tree who is with other shades: he is Michael Furey. From what I said, we understand who the title The Dead refers to: although it can be considered as a plural noun referring to mankind (cfr. when Gabriel realises that everyone is becoming shades), it can also be considered as a singular noun. According to this last option, it can refer to Michael Furey, who is physically dead, but also to Gabriel who is dead inside because he thinks that his wife doesn’t love him (while Michael Furey is dead physically but alive in Gretta’s memory). The story ends with snow falling: suddenly he is attracted by the noise of the snow that is falling and covering all over Ireland. The last image of the snowfall has different meanings: the snow represents paralysis, death (so the idea of no suffering) and also isolation and lack of communication not only between Gretta and Gabriel but also between Dubliners and mankind in general (the lack of communication is a consequence of relativism that spreads in the 20th century). In this interior monologue, Joyce uses a third-person external narrator which differs from the point of view. In fact, the point of view is internal and very limited. The reader associates reality with the subjective point of view of Gabriel but actually we don’t know the truth. So there is a limited point of view because reality is not objective but it is perceived by our own point of view that gives us only a limited portion of the truth. STEPHEN DEDALUS Stephen Dedalus is the protagonist of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, a sort of semi-autobiographical Bildungsroman. In the novel, the young artist rebels against his country, his family and religion and leaves Ireland in a sort of self-imposed exile to find freedom. So Stephen Dedalus tries to escape but he is not able. In the same way, Joyce tried to escape from Ireland but he didn’t succeed. The problematic nature of this character is also clear from the name itself: Dedalus is the name of Icarus’ father, so it is the symbol of the man who tries to go behind human limits (a sort of Prometheus), while Stephen refers to the catholic oppression (in fact Stephen is the name of the first catholic saint). In addition, this figure is also present in Ulysses. There Stephen Dedalus is the protagonist of the first three episodes, grouped as Part I: “The Telemachiad”. ULYSSES ❖ RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CUBIST ARTISTS (cfr. the “collage technique”) Picasso gives his vision of reality: → Les demoiselles d'Avignon (original technique; faces like masks); → Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (maybe he is dark inside); → Guernica (a city in Spain bombed; lots of things are all together and not united - cfr. Inside Bloom’s mouth). ➢ INSIDE BLOOM’S MOUTH This passage is taken from Chapter 8, entitled “Lestrygonians”. The scene takes place at lunchtime: it is one o’clock and Leopold Bloom eats a sandwich and drinks a glass of wine in a pub. However, although Bloom is in a pub, the action takes place in his mind. In fact, coherently with the modernist technique used by Joyce, it is strong the idea that what matters is inside our mind and not in our actions (cfr. Virginia Woolf). So, since we are inside Bloom’s mind, we see the train of thoughts, which follows an internal logic [ example of the train of thought: tempting fruit X they have colour to attract people → the flavour of ice cream is tempting → instinct protects us from eating poisoned things→ orangegroves X he thinks about fruits → oysters are linked to the idea of temptation (cfr. effect on sexual. Aphrodis.) → oysters are disgusting → who is the first man who ate oysters?→ in June there aren’t oysters → June is a month without R … ]. In addition in this passage, there are two levels of narration: - the first one is seen when the action is described from the outside (line 6), therefore with an external point of view; -the second one is when Leopold Bloom’s thoughts are reported from his own point of view (internal point of view).