Dubliners: A Pluralistic World

154 Pages·1988·13.573 MB·English

by  Craig Werner

..
•
A Student"}s Companion
to the Stories
D·U·B·L·I·N·E·R·S
A
PLURALISTIC WORLD
CRAIG HANSEN WERNER
TWAYNE PUBLISHERS • BOSTON
A DIVISION OF G. K. HALL & CO.
D·U·B·L·I·N·E·R·S
A
PLURALISTIC WORLD
Twayne's Masterwork Studies
General Editor
RobertLecke~
by David E. E. Sloane
ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN: AMERICAN COMIC VISION
by Richard I. Smyer
ANIMAL FARM: PASTORALISM AND POLITICS
by John H. Gottcent
THE BIBLE: A LITERARY STUDY
by David Lenson
THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY: A COMMENTARY
by David Williams
THE CAN~ERBURY TALES: A LITERARY PILGRIMAGE
GREAT EXPECTATIONS: A NOVEL OF FRIENDSHIP by Bert G. Hornback
by Gary Adelman
HEART OF DARKNESS: SEARCH FOR THE UNCONSCIOUS
THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS: FREUD'S THEORIES REVISITED by Laurence M. Porter
by Kerry McSweeney
INVISIBLE MAN: RACE AND IDENTITY
by Maggie Berg
JANE EYRE: PORTRAIT OF A LIFE
by Bert G. Hornback
MIDDLEMARCH: A NOVEL OF REFORM
by Kerry McSweeney
MOBy-DICK: ISHMAEL'S MIGHTY BOOK
by Francis C. BleSSington
PARADISE LOST: IDEAL AND TRAGIC EpIC
by Donald B. Gibson
THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE: REDEFINING THE HERO
by Nina Baym
THE SCARLET LETTER: A READING
SONS AND LOVERS: A NOVEL OF DIVISION AND DESIRE by Ross C Murfin
THE SUN ALSO RISES: A NOVEL OF THE TWENTIES by Michael S. Reynolds
by Alice van Buren Kelley
To THE LIGHTHOUSE: THE MARRIAGE OF LIFE AND ART
by Nancy K. Gish
THE WASTE LAND: A POEM OF MEMORY AND DESIRE
DubJiners: A Pluralistic World
Craig Hansen Werner
Twayne's Masterwork Studies No. 20
Copyright 1988 by G. K. Hall & Co.
All rights reserved.
Published by Twayne Publishers
A Division of G. K. Hall & Co.
70 Lincoln Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02111
Copyediting supervised by Barbara Sutton
Book production by Gabrielle B. McDonald
Typeset in 10 /14 Sabon
by Compset, Inc., Beverly, Massachusetts
Printed on permanent/durable acid-free paper
and bound in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Werner, Craig Hansen, 1952-
Dubliners : a pluralistic world / Craig Hansen Werner.
p. cm.-(Twayne's masterwork studies; no. 20)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8057-7970-1 (alk. paper). ISBN 0-8057-8021-1 (pbk. : alk.
paper)
1. Joyce, James, 1882-1941. Dubliners. 2. Dublin (Dublin) in
literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PR6019.09D885 1988
823'.912-dc19 88-5241
CIP
CONTENTS
. NOTE ON REFERENCES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .
. CHRONOLOGY: JAMES JOYCE'S LIFE AND WORKS .
. 1· Historical Context . 1
·2· The Importance of the Work ·7
·3· Critical Reception ·11
A R·E·A·D·I·N·G
·4· Dubliners and the Modernist Milieu ·27
·5· Paralysis and Epiphany: Theme, Structure, Style ·33
·6· "The Dead": Process and Sympathy ·56
.7 . Constructing Joyces ·73
·8· "A Little Cloud" and Joyce's Democracy of Consciousness ·112
.g. The Plurality of Interpretation and ·121
the Moral of Dubliners
. NOTES ·123
. BIBLIOGRAPHY ·125
. INDEX ·133
. ABOUT THE AUTHOR ·138
NOTE ON REFERENCES
AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
All citations of Dubliners are from the Viking Compass edition, which
incorporates Robert Scholes's textual corrections. Every widely avail
able edition of Dubliners uses the Scholes text. Because of the large
number of texts available for specific stories (many of which are fre
quently anthologized), I have elected not to include page references in
the text. References to specific works of criticism are noted in the text.
Full publication information is available in the Bibliography.
The spelling of the name Stephen Daedalus/Dedalus varies as such
throughout this book because Joyce changed his mind about the spell
ing between Stephen Hero (which uses the former, classical spelling)
and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (which uses the latter
spelling).
Any critic working on James Joyce owes an immense debt to the
many individuals who have provided essential information and ex
plored some of the potential pathways to Joyce's work. While I have
attempted to identify the most influential of these critics (particularly
in Chapter 3), I would like to single out for special thanks Florence
Walzl, whose work on Dubliners over three decades establishes a stan
dard of excellence for all later critics. Bernard Benstock has encour
aged my interest in things Joycean since my graduate student days at
the University of Illinois. Specific support for this project has been
provided by the Research Committee of the Graduate School and by
the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wis
consin-Madison. I would like to express my thanks to my wife, Leslee
Nelson, and my daughter, Riah Wakenda Werner. Finally, I wish to
dedicate this book to Barbara Talmadge, who always wanted me to
J
be a oycean.
• Vll •
Adam and Eve Church, Dublin.
Photograph by Christine Bond.
© 1987 by Christine Bond. Used by permission.
CHRONOLOGY: JAMES JOYCE'S
LIFE AND WORKS
1882 Birth of James Joyce on Groundhog Day, 2 February, a coin
cidence the writer loved. The first of ten children born to John
Stanislaus and Mary (Murray) Joyce. Intensely proud of the
family heritage, John Joyce imparted to his son a gift for story
telling, a tendency toward excessive drinking, and an inability
to cope with finances. Unlike her anticlerical husband, May
Joyce was a devout Catholic whom James remembered as a
source of unshakable love.
1888 Enters Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare. Although
Joyce was to reject most of the specific teachings of his Jesuit
masters, he maintained a high level of respect for their intel
lectual rigor.
1889 Fall of Charles Stewart Parnell, leader of the Irish Home Rule
movement. Parnell's death in 1891 inspired Joyce's first liter
ary production, a satirical poem titled "Et Tu, Healy," which
his father distributed to friends.
1892 John Joyce loses his position at the Rates Office, accelerating
the economic decline that forced a series of moves to less com
fortable living quarters that would continue throughout
Joyce's youth.
1893 Brief enrollment in the Christian Brothers' School of Dublin,
which Joyce disliked and rarely mentioned. Subsequently en
ters Belvedere College, a Jesuit day school, where he received
basic training in Latin, French, and Italian. Begins to take the
long walks that provide the base of his encyclopedic knowl
edge of Dublin geography.
1896 Chosen prefect of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary at
Belvedere. Probably experiences first sexual encounter. Begins
work on Silhouettes, a series of prose sketches, and Moods, a
book of poems. The association of religious fervor, sensuality,
• IX •
DUB LINERS
and creative inspiration recurs throughout Joyce's published
work.
1898 Enters University College, Dublin, the Jesuit alternative to the
prestigious, but Protestant, Trinity College. As his family's eco
nomic condition worsens, Joyce begins aesthetic discussions
with friends. It was probably during 1898 when Joyce stopped
considering himself a Catholic. When questioned later as to
when he left the Church, he would respond "That is for the
church to say."
1899 Following riots over The Countess Cathleen~ Joyce defends
Yeats's play against Catholic and nationalist criticism.
1900 Defense of Ibsen's drama inspires vociferous debate at Univer
sity College. Review of When We Dead Awaken published in
the Fortnightly Review elicits a letter of thanks from Ibsen.
Begins work on the sketches that will develop into his "epiph
anies" and writes an Ibsenesque play, A Brilliant Career.
1901 Writing to Ibsen on his seventy-third birthday, Joyce crypti
cally announces his own imminent appearance on the stage of
European letters. "Day of the Rabblement," Joyce's broadside
condemning the Irish Literary Theatre for narrow nationalism,
is privately printed.
1902 Direct contact with the Irish literary movement, particularly
George Russell (AE), Yeats, and Lady Gregory. Although parts
of the story are apocryphal, Joyce was widely believed to have
told Yeats on their first meeting, "You are too old for me to
help you." Leaves for Paris on 1 December, ostensibly to con
tinue medical studies begun at Royal University Medical
School in Dublin. Returning home for Christmas, he meets
Oliver St. John Gogarty, the model for Buck Mulligan in
Ulysses.
1903 Returns from Paris to Dublin in April after receiving a tele
gram announcing his mother's imminent death, which occurs
on 13 August. Asserting his independence, Joyce refuses to
honor her deathbed wish that he take communion.
1904 Earliest version of "A Portrait of the Artist." Begins work on
Stephen Hero and the poems collected in Chamber Music. On
16 June-the date on which Ulysses takes place-Joyce has
his first extended meeting with Nora Barnacle, his future wife.
"The Sisters," the first of three stories from Dubliners to be
published in the Irish Homestead~ is published on 13 August.
In October, Joyce and Nora leave for the Continent where he
• x •