Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Interlude -- Does He Mean That
Explain whether or not you believe that James Joyce “knew that he was doing that.” In your post, be sure to include specific quotes from the text, with page numbers, to support your conclusions. Do not repeat a comment already made on this thread. However, you may respond to and/or extend another student’s comment.
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In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce knew exactly what he was doing when he described the feast scene at Christmas dinner. Joyce described the spread of food as “the warm heavy smell of turkey and ham and celery rose from the plates and dishes and the great fire was banked high and red in the grate…”(24). He knew that by describing the scene in depth he would draw the reader into the story, by setting a universal image for most Christians. Christmas dinner in most homes is a time of the year in which family come together to break bread in the spirit of a last dinner ordeal. Though this is a merry time of year, it is still before the cold long months of winter. By connecting the reader’s own personnel memory of events to an event in the story Joyce knew that this would engross the reader into the story. Joyce also knew what he was doing also when he had the family quarrel during the dinner because everyone can relate to it. Joyce knew what he was doing again due to the fact that most people can also relate to family arguments around the holiday table. Overall, Joyce had a method to his madness when he wrote the Christmas dinner scene due to its stunning ability to be relatable to many readers, thus gaining their attention to the story.
ReplyDeleteWhen James Joyce described the horrors and torments in hell, he "knew he was doing that." Religion plays a huge influence on Stephen and the people around him. It is religion that drives everyone to become better people, because with God watching and loving them, sinning is a huge disrespect. By describing hell in Father Arnall's speech, Joyce indirectly displays Stephen's sins and how he is slowly beginning to regret them--without saying so literally. Descriptions such as, "The torment of fire is the greatest torment," gives both the reader and Stephen an image strong enough to make us despise hell even more (Joyce 106). These images are not there to show the reader what hell looks like. Instead, it is to show us the guilt growing inside Stephen, for he has committed sins that God would not favor. At one point in Father Arnall's speech about hell, he states, "God spoke to you with many voices but you would not hear," (Joyce 108). Joyce words this speech so well that it seems like the speech is Stephen's conscience talking to him, and telling him that his sins need to be repented. Without writing this part of the story, Joyce would have had to make use of religion in another way to make Stephen's guilty for his actions. Hence, this scene about hell is a sign that Joyce knew what he was doing.
ReplyDeleteJames Joyce starts “A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man” off in an unusual way. He starts off by talking about “moocows” and “a boy named baby tuckoo” (Joyce, 1). This first draws the reader into the story and causes the reader to be intrigued and want to continue reading to figure out why Joyce wrote what he wrote. The reader begins to realize the family has a tight family bond and this is the story told to a young Stephen before he went to bed. The first few pages allow the reader to visualize the closeness of the family especially at bedtime. Joyce by starting the novel off this way set up the basics for Stephen’s moral background before bringing the religion aspect into the work. His moral background and his religious background are intertwined throughout the entire work. All of it comes back to the first few pages. Joyce also knew by starting off the novel with a childhood story it would cause the reader to feel an immediate connection because everyone when they are younger has bedtime stories read to them. At first glance this story makes no sense but as the reader begins to understand and unfold it meaning it proves to be very relevant.
ReplyDeleteIn “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce knew exactly what he was doing when he described the foreclosure that affected his family. James Joyce describes the vehicles that took away their belongings as “two great yellow caravans” (57). By choosing the vehicles of gloom to be yellow, Joyce attempts to downplay the sorrow of being foreclosed on. Joyce also knows what he is doing as he describes the dreary and stark living conditions the Daedalus family is faced with after the caravans leave. The house seems desolate, with a lamp “shed[ding] a weak light that showed a room “half furnished” and “uncarpeted” (57). No longer are there tables, chairs and sofas, in their place is the bare floor “muddied by the feet of the vanmen” (57). He uses pathos to draw one in, and creates an emotional appeal to the reader. By doing this, Joyce creates a connection with the reader, and the horrors of foreclosure and loss of possessions ring close to home for many. Joyce knew what he was doing when writing this passage of the novel, that losing one’s possessions and becoming poor would relate to many readers, and increase their attention to the story.
ReplyDeleteFoster's claim in regard to an author's understanding of his or her text at such a deep level indisputably applies to Joyce's writings in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. One such scene occurs while "the Christmas table was spread" (Joyce 23) for a celebratory feast amongst uncle Charles, Dante, Mr. Casey, as well as Stephen and his mother and father. Although the dialogue explicitly illuminates the argument concerning Irish politics between mainly Dante and Mr. Casey, Joyce further emphasizes the importance of the argument with both imagery and symbolism. Dante's allegiance to Christianity and the Catholic Church appear immediately through the "maroon velvet dress and...green velvet mantle" (23) Joyce colorfully garbs her with. These colors, of course, symbolize the sacred Christian holiday the family sits to eat. Dante also reacts peculiarly as the conversation escalates to an altercation, yelling with "her cheeks shaking" (34) due to anger and shoving "her chair violently aside" (34). Joyce includes these description not in vain, but with the intent of using Dante as a symbol of heaven's wrath, and the power associated with that wrath. While Dante eats only to honor God and the clergy, Mr. Casey and Mr. Dedalus seem to feast in the memory of Parnell, a sinner in the eyes of heaven. Furthermore, as the argument escalates, Mr. Casey forces his rhetoric with yelling and crude language and gestures, all the while "his dark flaming eyes" (34) burn, like a "'Devil out of hell'" (34) rather than a mere man participating in trivial political debate. The author clearly aligns Mr. Casey the man with the burning hellfire and sin associated with Parnell, but more importantly the devil. Joyce uses carefully depicted images and language to transmute an average scene into a battle of biblical proportions while simultaneously setting up a black and white spectrum of morality Stephen weighs himself against later in the novel. Thus, Foster's words apply to Joyce's novel, as he wastes not a bit of prose, but rather uses it to its fullest in creating both a moral spectrum for his growing protagonist, and a bit of familiarity in unrelatable Irish politics to his readers, proving the best of writers truly intend every word.
ReplyDeleteThe very abrupt and somewhat confusing beginning to “A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man” is at first glance, a little daunting. However; James Joyce definitely “knew what he was doing” when he wrote this. By relating Stephen to a story, he immediately establishes two of Stephen’s identities: the son, and the boy. From the very beginning, we are introduced to the “nicens little boy named baby tuckoo” and the fact that “he was baby tuckoo” and “his father told him that story” (Joyce 1). Later on page six, Stephen comes up with his first piece of original work, a rhyme simply including “pull out his eyes, apologize”. I believe that this is foreshadowing the way the rest of the novel plays out. Stephen first must come to terms with the fact that he is an innocent boy. Once the innocence is broken, he must understand that he is a son, eventually forming his own opinions from what his family and tradition tells him to believe. Finally, Stephen must learn to define himself by the ways of the artist, after he has accepted and evolved from the first two.
ReplyDeleteDante, or as she is sometimes referred to by Mr. Dedalus, Mrs. Riordan, is one of the first characters introduced in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Through the eyes of a very young narrator, the fact that Dante possesses two different colored brushes is simple and unimportant. "The brush with maroon velvet back was for Michael Davitt and the brush with the green velvet back was for Parnell," but young Stephen hardly understands the reasoning behind these colors, (Joyce 5). Dante makes her viewpoint clear when she tells young Stephen that "the eagles will come and pull out his eyes" after he makes a comment about marrying his Protestant friend Eileen Vance, and even when Dante "ripped the green velvet back off the brush that was for Parnell one day with her scissors and had told [Stephen] that Parnell was a bad man" (Joyce 6, 14). Stephen understands this to the extent that "that was called politics. There were two sides in it: Dante was on one side and his father and Mr Casey were on the other side" (Joyce 14). After Dante is established time and again as a very devout, sometimes to the point of being stubborn, Catholic traditionalist, there is a fierce debate at dinner between Dante, Mr Casey, and Simon Dedalus, where Dante defends the Church at all costs and the other two eventually cry out, "No God for Ireland!" to her great dismay (Joyce 34). Later in the story, after Stephen experiences repeatedly the mortal sin of being with prostitutes, he experiences a revelation. A Catholic lecture has forced him to think about the consequences of his sinful nature, and he has frightful nightmares about eternal damnation in hell. Joyce describes hell as a "lake of fire [that] is boundless, shoreless, and bottomless," a description that very much parallels the description of the Inferno in Dante Aligheri's Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy) (Joyce 106). The parallel between this allegory and Mrs. Riordan herself accurately portrays Joyce's viewpoint on extremely traditional and overbearing members of the Catholic Church.
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