Joyce, James - Biography, Literary Production, Works

Birth and Relationships with Ireland

He was born in Dublin into a Catholic family and he had a strange relationship with his country, because of the provincialism and the strong Catholicism. He’s the perfect example of those feelings of isolation, paralysis. He also wanted to escape from his country, in fact he settled in Paris, then in Zurich, later in Trieste (where he taught English at Berlitz School).
His literary production could be divided into two periods:

• The First period in which he’s more preservative and follows the traditional features. The works that belong to this period are: “Dubliners” and “A portrait of the Artist as a young man”.

• The Second period in which there are many experimentations and the introduction of some features like: the stream of consciousness, the interior monologue and the multiple points of view. The work that belongs to this period is the “Ulysses”.

Ulysses and Symbolism

This novel is the adaptation of his life, it could be considered as an autobiographical story. The central character is an artist, Steven Dedalus, who mirrors the passions and the desires of the author. His name is so symbolical: in fact the name “Steven” reminds to the first martyr of Christianity (Joyce feels persecuted by Christianity), while the surname “Dedalus” reminds to the mythological craftsman, who built some wings of wax in order to escape (Joyce wants to escape trough the wings of art). In this novel we do not find some techniques’ novelties, but it is less realistic.

Dubliners and Main Themes

It’s a collection of 15 short stories set in Dublin, dealing with the theme of decay and stagnation of city’s life. It is divided in four phase, according to the stages of men’s life: childhood, adolescence, mature life and public life.

• All the stories are set in Dublin individualized by the name of streets, shops.

• There is the absence of the narrator’s point of view, which expresses his obiectivity, this point of view is replaced by the multiple point of view.

• In the different phases of the novel he changes his style according to the themes he dealt with: this is an innovation. The style is the perfect mixture of realism (description of Dublin) and symbolism (names of characters).

Epiphany and Eveline

• Another novelty is the use of epiphany: it consists into the sudden revelation of an hidden truth, that changes the view of the world of the character.

• The main theme is the paralysis, for example the story of “Eveline”: a woman who wants to escape from Dublin, but she is not able to do it, she falls in love with a man, but she could never escape from there because of her relationship whit his father (provincialism and Catholicism).

The Dead and the Christmas Party

“The Dead”: it’s the last short story of “Dubliners” and is also the most famous. It dealt with the Christmas party organized by two old ladies, in which Gabriel and his wife Greta took part. After Gabriel’s speech, they are going back to hotel’s room while Greta listens to an old song that they are singing upstairs. This song reminds her of a young lover who died for her (Michael Furey).