I’m
going to talk a little bit about the book in general and then move to look at
what I think are its two most important chapters: Eveline and The Dead in a bit
more detail. Dubliners, published in
1914, is made up of 15 chapters which are in themselves separate stories.
Written in a naturalistic style, the book serves as a map of middle class
Dublin. It’s not a Dickensian novel with a great number of characters whose
lives intersect, but each story takes place in Dublin without impacting upon
the other stories. Thus, just through the structure of the novel, Joyce
highlights the alienation central to bourgeois society. These characters aren’t
even aware of the existence of the characters of the other chapters, nor do
they particularly care a great deal about those who are a part of their story.
Joyce
wrote Dubliners when Ireland was
struggling to create a definitive identity – the nationalist movement was at
its peak, but unity within Ireland would be required to succeed in breaking
away from British control. Clearly change was needed, and radical change at
that. The majority of the stories in the book highlight the cyclical nature of
life in Dublin at the time. Eveline longs to break away from her life of domestic
drudgery, but avoids doing so at the very last minute, Jimmy from “After the
Race” spends his time get into more and more debt and making the same bad
choices as he did when he was a boy, and so on.
Joyce
appears to be calling for traditional Irish class-structured society to be
overhauled. This is incredibly potent in “The Dead”. Gabriel is the only
character in the novel to voice his frustration with the current state of
things when he exclaims “I’m sick of my own country, sick of it”. He speaks out
about the new educated generation who are going to be a force for change in the
country. When he does this, the distinction between him and the traditionalists
and him and radicals is made clear: he makes a speech about this new generation
of new principles, but condemns it as a movement away from traditional values
such as hospitality. However, by voicing this movement in itself he raises
awareness of it to both the reader and his own audience. Importantly, Gabriel
chooses this speech so that it will be appropriate for the members of the class
which he understands to be beneath him. Thus, perhaps Joyce is indicating that
this “new generation” is vital for the working class to see progress happen. At
this point I think the reader has to ask him or herself whether this “new
generation” is to be found in the book. The youngsters we meet are often unable
to throw off the weight of societal expectations and the influence of their
elders. For example, the first person narrator in “the sisters” has an
unexplained relationship with a priest, who is evidently a very influential
force for the young boy. Perhaps one could read into this the “hyper-education”
which Gabriel speaks off. The boy has learnt about a great many religious
doctrines as a child and questioned them – this could lead to deeper
questioning as he grows older and the potential to throw off religious
concerns.
The
other story which I’m going to talk about in a bit of detail here is “Eveline”.
On a purely structural level, this story is striking and marks a dramatic
change in the progress of the book. It’s the first story with a third person
narrator, the first to focus on a female protagonist, and the only story to
have an eponymous protagonist. Ironically, Eveline herself is a rather selfless
figure, abandoning her hopes of love and happiness abroad in order to look
after her family. Unlike Gabriel, Eveline is a figure of stasis in the novel.
She has the chance to escape Ireland, and in fact knows that her life will only
progress if she goes there, yet she is held back by the bonds of tradition. In
this way I think we can see Eveline as a synecdoche for Irish unionists, and
her father as a figure for tyrannical Britain. She seeks to break away from
this domineering presence who has been abusive in the past, but clings to the pleasant
memories of the past and fears abandoning her former life for the sake of
independence. The reader is aware that she is making a mistake – she sacrifices
her freedom because she deems her father not responsible for himself and her
family. Her life of endless repetition of submission serves as a warning for
the people of Ireland.
Now
I’m going to talk a little bit about the book in relation to the reading we’ve
done over the past two weeks. A quote from Marinetti’s “The Futurist Manifesto”
struck home about what Joyce appeared to be getting at: “up to now literature
has exalted a pensive immobility” – Joyce revolts against this (although not
quite in as extreme a manner as Marinetti does) as Dubliners points out the flaws in the cyclical state of literature.
Gabriel, who is arguably socially awkward and unaware of class friction and the
endless movement which is part of the modern world, is also behind in his
appreciation of art. In the Cubist manifesto, Apollinaire states that “real
resemblance no longer has any importance”. However, Gabriel talks about
painting an accurate portrait of his wife, calling it “Distant Music” as that
is what she is listening to at the time. He has no interest in understanding
the woman behind the surface, and so has no desire to create something abstract
or surreal. Perhaps one could describe Gabriel as making a move towards
surrealism as his story begins to draw to a close. Here we have him unable to
combine his thoughts, or dreams, with the reality before him: he sees only the
reality and only wishes to express that. When he finally talks to his wife and
starts to get to know her, he gains an appreciation of the thoughts in her
mind. At this point fears arise, seemingly from his unconscious, about not
being the “best” man in her life. As they start to overcome him, he begins to
slip into a dream-like world, in which a “vague terror” seized him and he
begins to “pass boldly into that other world”. If we are to assume that he is
not dying, then it makes sense that this “other world” is the state of dreaming,
or a kind of voyage into his unconscious. He feels his “identity” dissolving
almost before his eyes as this occurs. Here I believe for a brief time Joyce’s
writing can be described as surreal. He has somewhat achieved a union between
dream and reality in which nothing is known, and everything is immaterial.
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