Sexual Expression: Defining Joyce’s Characters James Joyce uses sexuality throughout his works to establish an intimate and relatable bond between the reader and the characters in his works. All of Joyce’s works address issues in sexuality, which presents the idea that sexuality was of upmost importance to him. Given that sex is a large part of human existence, it is a good way to get the attention of the reader. A substantial amount of characters throughout Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man are driven by sexual desire. In fact, there is so much sex throughout in Ulysses that “early publishers and critics refused to publish it because of its vulgarity; the sexuality featured in Ulysses was part of the claims that the novel was obscene” (Ivie). Sex is a wonderful way to connect the reader to the character, and Joyce is talented in being able to bring the reader right into the sexually suggestive minds of the characters. Each character in all of Joyce’s works are defined by their sexuality and are in search of some type of self-identity, and through that idea is how Joyce best portrays that sexuality itself may be defined by adultery, prostitution, and masturbation and other bodily functions. There is a clear difference between procreative sex and having sex only for pleasure. “Hedonistic sex is an act driven by human desire and obtained through sexual power” (Ivie). As Joyce was well aware of the human need for sex in both ways stated, he used it to create a bond between the reader and the characters, in which he was extremely successful. Ulysses is centered on sexuality. Every central character can easily be connected to the term. Sex is essential to the human race in terms of procreating and also in terms of pe... ... middle of paper ... ...are both represented largely in sexuality. In a world where women are secondary to men, these two female characters have managed to assert their sexual identities. Gerty’s and Molly’s identities are largely defined by sexuality, but are not simply ruled by men’s or their own. They are in control of their strong and unique sexual identities and they take advantage of their sexual powers. This source is useful when writing about how Joyce doesn’t often follow the ways of society. These two women are in control of what they want and how they act, which wasn’t usual for women of that time. Sondergard stresses how the reader’s first impressions of the two women may be overlooked. This source goes into great detail about the two women and how their sexuality can be more closely looked at to realize that the two of them are extremely similar in how they relate to Bloom.
...hetypes of these primary characters, both of these novels make a parallel statement on feminism. The expectations of both themselves and society greatly determine the way that these women function in their families and in other relationships. Looking at the time periods in which these novels were written and take place, it is clear that these gender roles greatly influence whether a female character displays independence or dependence. From a contemporary viewpoint, readers can see how these women either fit or push the boundaries of these expected gender roles.
Throughout the novel Dubliners, James Joyce renders the theme of paralysis and the aspiration to escape through his compilation of fictional short stories. Joyce depicts the impotent individuals who endeavor the idea of escaping, but are often paralyzed by their situations, resulting in their inability to escape the separate circumstances exemplified within each short story. Furthermore, the recurring theme of escape and paralysis is evident within the short stories, “An Encounter”, “Eveline”, and “A Little Cloud.” Consequently, these short stories imparts the protagonists’ perspectives to subdue the paralysis of their situations and conveys their inability to escape their undesirable conditions, constraining them to inadequate lives.
In the "Nausicaa" chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses, a virginal exhibitionist, Gerty McDowell, flashes her "knickers. . .the wondrous revealment, half-offered like those skirt-dancers" at Leopold Bloom, igniting his sexual fireworks on a beach in Dublin (366). In a film set almost 100 years later in an American suburb, another virginal seductress flips her dance skirt, giving admirers a peek at her panties, and inspires Bloom's modern incarnation, Lester Burnham, into a similar burst of auto-eroticism.
Everyday the North American media sends millions of sexually provocative images through the airwaves and onto television screens. According to a recent study, an overwhelming 56% of all television programs contain sexual content (Vieth, 2). Our society has become so immune to the representation of sex that, for the most part, it goes unnoticed. Although concerns regarding sexuality still remain, society's tolerance level has changed dramatically over time. The history of attitudes toward sex and sexuality is a cultural process that can be seen through the literature of an era. The Awakening was the first piece of American fiction to blatantly attack the nineteenth century notion that marriage, emotional intimacy and sexual intimacy were inextricably bound together. Chopin's novel was advanced in theme over other nineteenth century works. Her piece more closely reflects the modern novel. Chopin gives her readers the story of a married woman, Edna Pontellier, as she explores her sexuality and need for emotional intimacy outside her marriage. Edna's need for extramarital relationships challenged the nineteenth century ideas of femininity and propriety.
Throughout Dubliners James Joyce deliberately effaces the traditional markers of the short story: causality, closure, etc. In doing so, "the novel continually offers up texts which mark their own complexity by highlighting the very thing which traditional realism seeks to conceal: the artifice and insufficiency inherent in a writer's attempt to represent reality.(Seidel 31)" By refusing to take a reductive approach towards the world(s) he presents on the page - to offer up "meaning" or "ending" - Joyce moves the reader into complex and unsettling epistemological and ontological realms. Meaning is no longer unitary and prescriptive, the author will not reveal (read impose) what the story "means" at its close and therefore we can't definitively "know" anything about it. Instead, meaning, like modernism, engenders its own multiplicity in Joyce's works, diffuses into something necessarily plural: meanings. An ontological crisis is inextricable from this crisis of meaning and representation. In Joyce's stories the reader is displaced from her/his traditionally passive role as receptor of the knowledge an author seeks to impart, and "positioned as both reader and writer of text, in some ways playing as integral a part in constructing the work as the author does.(Benstock 17)"
Shakespeare, Browning and Duffy all create four very similar characters female characters which are considered to be disturbed. This is due to the fact that they all went against the expectations of society in their respected eras. The speaker in ‘The Laboratory’ as well as Havisham and Medusa in Duffy’s monologues are all considered to be “disturbed” because of their common motives: jealousy and revenge. Despite these similarities, Lady Macbeth’s main motive is her hunger for power. This subverted expectations of females as they were supposed to be loyal to their male partners and shouldn’t want to take their power. In this essay I will talk about their desire for power and revenge, and why this has lead them to be portrayed in such a disturbed manner and how this goes against people’s expectations.
Justin Levenstein. ‘Ulysses, Dubliners, and the Nature of Relationships in the Modern World’. Emergence: A Journal of Undergraduate Literary Criticism and Creative Research. Available from(WWW) http://journals.english.ucsb.edu/index.php/Emergence/article/view/21/100 Date Accessed: 11/12/13
To me, Ulysses was a necessary evil, in that I thought that I would not be able to call myself a literature student unless I had read the entire novel. While my journey through Ulysses was laden with moments of bewilderment, exasperation, and self-pity, I was able to power my way through the novel with a deeper appreciation for the way James Joyce was able to create a linear story told through a series of non-linear writing styles. In retrospect, the grueling challenge of reading Ulysses made me a better student, in that I was able to grow as a reader by adjusting myself to Joyce’s train-of-thought writing style, and that I could add Ulysses to my personal canon of academic literature.
Theme of Love in Joyce’s Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Ulysses
While the reactions to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man were not as severe as were those of Ulysses, it was still considered shocking, and was judged by critics including "The Times," "The Manchester Guardian," and even Edward Garnett, who had encouraged D. H. Lawrence. Criticisms and complaints about the book's "occasional improprieties" (The Times), and "astounding bad manners" (Manchester guardian) were common, and it is easy to see why taking into account the reserved culture in 1916. This aspect of supporting whether or not I agree with the accusations of the books morality and appropriateness is difficult because one cannot base the subject matter and use of language on today's culture and acceptance. Surely the material written by Joyce does not provoke the same feelings today as it did when it was first published, but, putting the time period in respect, I would agree that it was inappropriate material to have presented. Considering that even the bed-wetting event which takes place on the first page of the book was considered unsuitable, I feel that while it may have been practiced, such matters of prostitution and sexual promiscuity were certainly unnecessary.
Mooney, Polly and Eveline, Joyce was able to openly address the lack of women’s rights in a way that appeases the public eye and the critical thinker. It seems as though Joyce’s female characters were mirror imitations of women in the 1900s. Women’s suffrage was not a myth by any means and James cunningly portrayed that in Dubliners. He was able to address the cruelty women faced in marriage and from men in general. In addition, women were under scrutiny from the Catholic Church and society as a whole. They had to accept where they were in life and deal with the suffocating sorrow that came with it. However, Joyce portrayed a side of women that was stronger than the oppressive men and the capability of making the heroine choice of self-sacrificial
Sexuality has always an issue of conflict and debate. Who controls sexuality, and is male and female sexuality really distinguishable. People have always been having sex; for reproduction and for pleasure. Even though it is a women’s and a man’s rightful claim to this intercourse women tend to feel as if sexuality is against them. This would also be contingent on the type on society one lives in. In some societies the mere topic of sex is tabooed and the subject is not confronted with clarity, meanwhile in other societies it is encouraged, praised, and advocated to speak about it openly. Sexuality in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood was one that was tabooed and against the strict, empowering rules of the Gilead state. Sex was forbidden for men and women; but women were the ones who reproduced the babies. Therefore, they were forced into having sex with no pleasure to conceive children. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, sex for only sexual pleasure is what society actually strived at. The feeding of the physical as being more essential than anything else that can bring about happiness and repress the truth.
In the short story Eveline by James Joyce, the author challenges the morals of a young woman torn between desire and familial obligation. Joyce manipulates the theme of reflection as a tool for Eveline to make a life altering decision of staying in the comfortable atmosphere where she confined and controlled by her father and her boss, or to run off to the unknown with a man who loves her and offers her a life of security. This essay will analyze and explain the deixis, cohesion, process and participant type, discourse types and narrative structure in the text that enhance the emotion effect of the story.
Pope, Deborah. "The Misprision of Vision: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". James Joyce. vol.1. ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 113-19.
By showing in full the transpiring of one single day and the effect it has on two distinct yet dynamic character, James Joyce has made Ulysses a book about the success of humanity. It is hard to believe that a novel that has had such a battle with censors due to its "obscenity" can portray society in a moral, positive manner. But in the less than 24 hours of action, almost 800 pages of language, can be found many things. One is the struggle of the family, shown through Stephen (son), Bloom (father), and Molly (mother). More importantly is the power of one day, with its events and epiphanies, and the fact that that day could be any day or every day.