J.joyce as a naturalist and a realisr. analysis of “dubliners” and “the dead”.

James Joyce (1882-1941) is among the most widely read modem writers. Joyce was born in Dublin. His family background was shabby-genteel and catholic. Joyce was supposed to become a priest but after a religious crisis he left Ireland in 1904 as an atheist. For the rest of his life he was to be a citizen of the world. He studied medicine and then singing in Paris, then taught languages in Italy and Switzerland.

The first period of Joyce's life as a writer was the period of “Dubliners” where he gives us thumbnail sketches of the characteristic situations of the life of which he is still a part in spite of the studied objectivity of his approach. The stories have much in common: realistic, neutral style, no sign of emotion or excitement. “The dead” stands apart. He presented a story in a way that implies comment. Death is in many stories: “The Sisters”-Father Flynn (priest – unhappy, understanding the distorted values and corruption of church, he is unable to say it to people. The only listener is boy.) “Eveline”-dead mother (time is slowed down by her speculation, if she was going to leave, she would do it without hesitations, but she tries to find as many positive features of her life as possible). “Painful Case” - Mrs. Sinico (Mr. Duffy-very much autobiographical: attitude to life, keenness on social doctrines, Hauptmann’s ideas of hypocritical nature of bourgeois life. But Joyce condemns Mr.Duffy’s individualism. Duffy lives in the world invented by himself. The author touches upon ethical problems and the problem of love. Mr. Duffy slowly realizes that not only did he condemn her to loneliness and death by his rejection, but he has also denied himself the possibility of intimacy and love).

The peculiarities of “modern style^”:

- the author just reports what his characters do, say, or think

- the meanings one gets from such fiction are delivered indirectly, by implication

- a writer may believe that some of the meanings of life cannot be stated directly in so many words, they have to be conveyed indirectly.

Joyce's Irish experiences are essential to his writings, and provide all of the settings for his fiction and much of their subject matter. The early volume of short stories, “Dubliners”, is a penetrating analysis of the stagnation and paralysis of Dublin society. The stories incorporate epiphanies a sudden consciousness of the "soul" of a thing (a sudden spiritual manifestation, moments of insight and understanding, moments, in which “soul is born”). Epiphany is an effective means to stress the turning point of the story that changes the character’s and the reader’s understanding of life, make them reevaluate their experience and come to the conclusions that life has been wasted that one is unable to start anew.

Dubliners is a collection of short stories by James Joyce, published in 1914. The fifteen stories were meant to be a frank and satirical depiction of the Irish middle classes living in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. Joyce, who would later be acknowledged as the pioneer of stream of consciousness writing, here uses a more realist style. The stories were written at the time when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture. Many of the characters in Dubliners later appear in minor roles in Joyce's novel Ulysses. The initial stories in the collection focus on children as protagonists, and as the stories continue they deal with the lives and concerns of progressively older people. They also grow correspondingly more sophisticated and subtle in effect.

In the world presented in Duliners, there is no interplay of the senses but rather a stripping of the senses, and a concern with the eye only, except for rare cases in which the eye and ear come together in an epiphanic moment. According to Joyce a human-being undergoes several changes in the development of his character. Each of the stages manifests a new kind of revelation. This means that a human being is confronted by an experience which may be regarded as a kind of shock. This shock serves as a starting point of each new stage, which make a human being wiser, and imposes a new kind or self-revelation.

“The Dead”- a long story, an outlet. The final epiphany.

The main character is a mature man, Gabriel, sick and tired of politics and nationalism and devotion to catholic faith. He refuses to participate in any ventures. All of a sudden there is a conflict between a protagonist attitude to life and people and lust. But the romantic movement of his life changes. Gabriel realizes that there are some attitudes that we can not get hold of it, they escape us. Human existence is a very complex phenomenon, life is not that simple. The snow covering the living and the dead is a kind of compromise between a pragmatic attitude and a romantic one.

"The Dead" is the most famous story in Dubliners, and is widely recognized as one of the finest short stories in the English language. Joyce conferred on it the honor of the final position, and made it three times as long as the average Dubliners tale. His fine range, acute psychological insights, and perfect control of his art are all on display here.

Many of the main themes are touched on. We see glimpses of poverty, in the character of Lily, whose family is achingly poor. We see the political divisions in Ireland in the conversation between Miss Ivors and Gabriel. We also have criticism of the church, as Aunt Kate speaks bitterly of the decision of Pope Pius X to exclude women from all church choirs; Aunt Julia had given a great deal of her life working in the choir, and her thanks for it were the Pope's appallingly sexist decision. Aunt Kate says repeatedly that of course the Pope must be right about everything, but she cannot help but think it was ungrateful. We see in her the inability to reconcile what she knows to be wrong with the indoctrinated Catholic conviction that the Pope cannot be wrong.

Central themes are mortality and isolation. But "The Dead" is a story with much joy in it. The scene here is far from bleak; poverty has little place in this story, and many financially comfortable characters are celebrating in the midst of the holiday season. As is appropriate for this time of year, we see loving interaction between friends and family, and people of different generations.

Mortality is a key part of the story, beginning with its title. The tale is set in winter, which is both holiday season and the season of death. The two old aunts in their old house become symbols for the onslaught of time; Aunt Kate can't even hear Gabriel's speech. Gabriel knows that one day, in the not-too-distant future, he will return to the house for his aunts' funerals. And of course, there is the dead boy Gretta remembers because of a song. Much has been made of the fact that Dubliners is framed by two stories dealing with death. The two stories, in fact, could easily switch their titles. But while "The Sisters" maintains one note and holds it well, "The Dead" is a far richer tale, mixing the joy of the occasion with somber reflection and several small but significant incidents, the importance of which is recognized gradually by the reader.

Date: 2016-01-05; view: 1077