“But
real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who sit at home: they
must be sought abroad” - An Encounter
James
Joyce seems to perfectly encompass the struggles and affairs of the people of
Dublin in the 20th century during the scorn of Irish nationalism.
Torn and stressed from British rule, the citizens are polluted with confusion
and disillusion of who they are both on a national as well as individual level. Each
generation from youth to adulthood is faced with that looming question which is
carried out throughout separate stories in Joyce’s Dubliners. As each short story has its own complications,
struggles, and trials; they all come together to form one whole entity, just as
the search for identity confined both the individuals there and make up of
Ireland as a nation.
As
the characters each struggle to figure out where they stand, a reoccurring
notion of rebellion is entwined throughout the stories often in the form of leaving
Ireland to find their answers.
From
the struggles of the young schoolboy in "An Encounter": “I began to hunger again …
for the escape for which those wild sensations seemed to offer me.” In "A
Little Cloud” when Little Chandler's timidity is holding him back
from his dreams of being a poet and concludes he is a ‘prisoner for life’ both
within the confines of his homeland and within himself. To “Eveline” when the young woman turns down a new life in Argentina with her
lover, to stay trapped in a life she isn’t happy in, confused and unsure. In "Counterparts", “his
body ached for him to do something..." "A
Painful Case", “His
life rolled out evenly – an adventurous-less tale” and "Grace" which presented religious struggle and the men's longing to repent and reinvent themselves.
And
lastly, in "The Dead", when Gabriel tells Miss Ivors of his annual cycling tour
in France and Belgium, she sternly questions why he would leave his own country
and scolds him for such an idea. He retorts saying he’s “sick of his own country," and felt “his
own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world
itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and
dwindling.”
As the characters in Dubliners, search for their identity in the discontent of their nation; I hope we all allow Dublin to open our minds and teach us something new about ourselves.
I like your pointing out that, in the quest for national and personal identity for these characters, there's an underlying sense of revolution. Great images too.
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ReplyDeleteI really like that you wrote about the characters consistent identity crisis. I think that many different events factor into why these people have this mindset. Joyce makes a point in choosing a few specific events that led up to characters dissatisfaction with their lives. Joyce highlights the Irish's dislocation from their national identity. He attributes circumstances such as the potato famine, religious prejudice, and the desire to uphold tradition, to the dispassionate tone of his characters. Overall, I think Joyce exposes the paralysis of the Irish and their struggle with their identity. In a sense theses stories strip these people of their facades and reveal their vulnerability.
ReplyDeleteI loved your psychological analysis here. After finishing the book, I found that the stories dealing most profoundly with identity crises (Eveline, A Little Cloud, etc) really stuck with me more than anything else. I think these stories have aged well and translate just as genuinely in 2012 as they did in 1914.
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