Joyce's 'Ulysses': Inner Monologues, Myth, and Themes in Dublin, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Joyce's 'Ulysses': Inner Monologues, Myth, and Themes in Dublin e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THE MODERN NOVEL The shift from the Victorian to the modern novel was caused by: - a gradual transformation of British society - the ferment of the years after WWI This situation brought moral and psychological uncertainty and the novelist became a mediator between the solid values of the past and the confused present. The new concept of time and the new theory of the unconscious contributed to the birth of the modern novel. The new concept of time The French Henri Bergson made a distinction between: - Historical time—> external, linear and measured by the hands of a clock - Psychological time—> internal, subjective, measured by the relative emotional intensity of the moment. The theory of the unconscious Freud’s theories about the simultaneous existence of different levels of consciousness and unconsciousness. The whole personality of each human being is determined by the coexistence of the past in the present. The modern novel Time was perceived as subjective and internal—> the distinction between past and present was meaningless in psychological terms. A well-structured plot with a chronological sequence of events was absent. It was not the passing of time that revealed the truth about characters. The modern novelist: ● rejected omniscient narration; ● understood it was impossible to reproduce the complexity of the human mind using traditional techniques; ● looked for new methods to portray the individual consciousness. Creation of a new narrative technique: the stream-of-consciousness technique or the interior monologue. The psychological novelists They were interested in the development of the character’s mind and human relationships. The most important are: - Joseph Conrad, who tried to record the mystery of human experience; - David Herbert Lawrence, who centred his work on the importance of natural impulses; - Edward Morgan Forster, whose recurrent themes are the complexity of human relationships and the analysis of the contrast between two different cultures. The Modernist novelists James Joyce and Virginia Woolf: - chose subjective narrative techniques; - explored the mind of one or more characters; - gave voice to their characters’ thoughts. The interior monologue Novelists adopted the interior monologue—> to represent the unspoken activity of the mind before it is ordered into speech. Interior monologue—> the verbal expression of a psychic phenomenon Stream of consciousness—> the psychic phenomenon itself The main features of the interior monologue - Frequent lack of chronological order; - the narrator may be present; - formal logical order may be lost or lacking; - the action takes place within the character’s mind; - speech may be immediate, without introductory expressions. Indirect interior monologue It is characterized by the following devices: - the narrator is present within the narration—> the character’s thoughts are presented both directly and by adding descriptions, appropriate comments and introductory phrases to guide the reader through the narration; - the character stays fixed in space while his/her consciousness moves freely in time; - everything happens in the present in the character’s mind—> ‘inner time’ preferred to ‘external time’. Direct interior monologue with two levels of narration Its main literary devices are: - the narrator seems not to exist; - the character’s self is given directly; - there are two levels of narration—> a mixture of third-person narration, linked to an external time, and interior narration linked to the character’s mind. Direct interior monologue with the mind level—> In this kind of interior monologue the character’s thoughts flow freely, not interrupted by external events. From the first to the last word, no external element interrupts the monologue ULYSSE Joyce's masterpiece is the classic modernist text, in which he treats the events of a single day, from 8am to 2am. Features: - the novel draws its structure from myth: Homer's "Odyssey". - Most of the action takes place in the thoughts of the main characters as they walk around Dublin - several parallels are present, created through the two works by analogy and antithesis: in the "Odyssey," Odysseus undertakes a heroic journey as he tries to return home, as does Leopold Bloom through Dublin to finally arrive at his home - the 18 episodes of "Ulysses" are similar to the episodes of the "Odyssey." Characters: The three main characters of "Ulysses" create other parallels with the "Odyssey": - Leopold Bloom = Odysseus - Molly (Leopold's wife) = Penelope - Stephen Dedalus = Telemachus The difference between the characters of the Odyssey and those of Odysseus is that the first ones are heroic, while the second ones are introspective and ordinary. Language: Joyce's purpose in writing the novel was to reproduce the random and chaotic thought processes that are present in our minds. Joyce invents words, refers to classical texts, and uses researched terms and vulgar terms that he hears on the streets of Dublin. Molly Bloom's monologue: it represents a long series of thoughts and is the most revolutionary episode in the novel: - there are 4,391 words, with only two punctuation marks - it begins and ends with the word "yes", which is the final statement that closes a circle of thoughts THE DEAD The story begins with Lily, Julia, Mary Jane, and Kate welcoming guests to their annual Christmas party in Dublin. After ten o’clock Gabriel and his wife Gretta arrive. When Lily takes Gabriel’s coat, he notices that she is approaching the age for marriage and offers her a tip. When the next dance begins Gabriel dances with his colleague, Miss Ivors who invites Gabriel and his wife to come along on a summer trip to the Aran Isles in the west of Ireland but Gabriel declines. Aunt Julia sings a song, which leads to a discussion about the pope’s decision to ban women from the Church’s choirs. Aunt Kate criticizes the decision while Mary Jane tries to defuse the tension declaring it time for dinner. Miss Ivors leaves the dinner. Gabriel, sorry for this, is called to carve the goose. The guests discuss, but Gabriel does not participate in the conversation, and he is the only one who doesn’t eat the brown pudding. Then there is Gabriel’s speech, in which he praises his aunts and the values of their generation. The speech ends with a toast. Guests greet each other while Gabriel tells a story about his grandfather Patrick Morkan. As the guests leave, Gabriel notices a woman on the stairs: she is his wife. Getta and Gabriel arrives to the hotel where they are staying, and Gabriel feels as though they are escaping from their dull lives.in the room he sees that Gretta is preoccupied by something and he asks her: Gretta, crying, admits that she was thinking of her childhood love, Michael Furey. Gabriel is angered by the idea that Gretta was thinking of another man while he thinks only of her. She says that Michael was employed in the gasworks, and that he died from visiting her in the rain while he was ill, so he died for her. Gabriel is filled with terror by the idea that another man loved his wife enough to die for her. Themes - jealousy and male pride: Gabriel’s jealousy is driven by his lust for his wife, and his desire to “master” her. Gabriel is proud of his masculinity, but when he seeks validation from female characters, he is often let down. Gabriel feels most comfortable when he is seated at the head of the table: this shows Gabriel’s need to fulfill a typical male role. Gabriel’s epiphany is similar to that of the narrator in “Araby,” as they both come to the realization that they are experiencing feelings that are more commonplace and shallow than what they had first imagined. Gabriel’s strong desire for his wife was lust - Ireland, anti-nationalism, and the foreign: Gabriel is not happy to be in Dublin. It seems that Gabriel seeks an escape. His desire for an escape is shown through his lack of patriotism and his obsession with all things foreign. He sees everywhere outside superior. His interest in continental Europe manifests in his choice to wear galoshes, to quote English poet Robert Browning in his speech, to his choice to vacation in Belgium and France. His desire for an escape is implicit in his anti-nationalist. Gabriel presents an idealized version of the rest of Europe. Joyce criticizes Gabriel’s idealization of everything foreign and his condescending attitude toward Dublin and Dubliners. - women and society: while this story is written from a male perspective, women play a large role to show the injustices of Dublin society and the Gabriel’s reliance on the gender roles imposed by society. The best way that Joyce critiques the role of women in 19th century Dublin is in his critique of the Catholic Church: Aunt Kate expresses her anger towards the Church and pope for banning women from participating in church choirs. women had to act frail and helpless and that these were attractive qualities to men. Gabriel desires his wife primarily because he desires to “overmaster” her. Gabriel’s epiphany at the end of the story comes when he realizes that his marriage has been based on superficial feelings and vague attraction. - nostalgia and the past vs the present: Gabriel and Gretta are often paralyzed and unable to take control over their lives. Their inaction is due to distraction from the present by their nostalgic feelings about the past. Gretta thinks about her past feelings for Michael Furey that distract her from her current relationship with Gabriel while Gabriel is feeling nostalgic for the beginning of his relationship with Gretta - Death: it tells literal and metaphorical death: it tells about dead people. For both Gabriel and Gretta, the dead have a power greater than those living. for example Gretta’s ex-lover, Michael Furey, who she believes died as a martyr for her love. she believes that this was the purest form of love she has ever received. Gabriel thinks of his dead mother, who have contributed to her sons’ successes, including Gabriel’s degree. A crucial part of Gabriel’s final “epiphany” concerns death: the death is universal and constantly approaching. Symbols - snow: all manifestations of winter (cold, the color white, snow, and the season) represent mortality. Snow falls “on both the living and the dead” all over Dublin: it shows that many Dubliners are living meaningless lives and are essentially dead and it means that mortality is universal. So the living and the dead are not really that different, and the snow is a reminder that everyone will end with the same fate. This use of snow and cold in relation to Gabriel’s body accentuates his relationship with death. Gabriel feels that it would be better to die young for passion, as Michael Furey, than to live a long empty life, as he is doing. - light and dark: light symbolizes truth or knowledge, and the dark symbolizes ignorance. The dark is used frequently in Joyce’s descriptions of Gretta, so Gabriel does not know everything about Gretta. In the end of the text, it is the illumination of the snow by the lamplight that leads to Gabriel’s epiphany: he sees that everyone is approaching death, but also that everyone has the potential to find passion and love in their lives - windows indicate separation between warmth and cold, between outside and inside. Windows also serve as a metaphorical barrier between the living and the dead, and between passion and emptiness. - grey: it represents death and is used in descriptions of Gabriel’s Aunt Julia. Julia has grey hair and a grey face. - brown: often embodied by the character Mr. Browne, the color brown represents the drab-ness of Dublin. Outside, brown is everywhere, meaning that Dublin is a rather dull city. Aunt Julia bakes a pudding for the event but Gabrile doesn't try it: this is symbolic of the fact that he is the only party guest who is not a fan of Dublin life either.