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Carol Allain

Dr. Michael Meade

2016F_ENG601_VB_Topics in English: British Novel

30 September 2016

James Joyces Ulysses: An Epic Journey on the Stream of Consciousness

PREFACE

In order to clearly comprehend my analysis in this essay, the reader should note that I am writing

under the assumption that Joyces character, Stephen Dedalus, from his epic novel Ulysses, is an

autobiographical representation of Joyce himself. This is not an uncommon perspective since

most critics, Joyce included, support this belief (Farrell). Therefore, very often I may be using

the name Stephen or Dedalus with the expectation that the reader understands that I am making a

statement which pertains to both the character Stephen Dedalus as well as the writer, James

Joyce.

It should also be noted that, pursuant to records maintained by James Joyces brother,

Stanislaus, the edition of Homers The Odyssey that was heavily referred to by his brother was

the Samuel Butler translation. In his article entitled, Homers Sticks and Stones, (a title

connoting the architectural similarities between Homers The Odyssey and James Joyces

Ulysses), North American literary critic, Hugh Kenner, explains that the Butler translation of The

Odyssey characterize[s] the Homer of Joyces time, a Homer legitimately derived from the

archaeological discoveries that had rendered the Victorian Homer obsolete, a Homer with an

almost nave sense of fact (296-97). For these reasons I have chosen Butlers work for use in

my analysis as well.
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Thirdly, it is important for the reader of this essay to be in line with my interpretation and

use of the terms, interior monologue and stream of consciousness. While some may use these

terms interchangeably, in my opinion, they are distinct in meaning. The reader should note that I

define interior monologue as the constant movement of thoughts in the subconscious which

make their way into the conscious mind for interior expression. And, my definition of stream of

consciousness is the literary practice of putting into written form the interior monologue of a

character as imagined by a writer. An understanding of my use of these two terms will offer

clarity to the reader in my discussion.

INTRODUCTION

Modern American Poet, Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), never learned to drive. However, he

would wake up each weekday morning to walk the two-mile journey from his home to his office

at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company. The year before his death he explained the

relationship between that daily walk and his writing, stating, A great deal of my poetry has been

written while I have been out walking. Walking helps me to concentrate and I suppose that,

somehow or other, my own movement gets into the movement of the poems (Stevens 844).

While this essay is not about Wallace Stevens, his writing habit speaks loudly about the nature of

mans mobility as it relates to James Joyces lifestyle as well as the epic configuration and stream

of consciousness styling of his masterpiece, Ulysses.

THESIS

In his epic novel, Ulysses, James Joyce (1882-1941) spearheaded modern fiction writing by way

of his enthusiasm for Homers The Odyssey, his lack of inhibition in capturing internal
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monologue, and a raw, but pure, understanding of an eternal truth which he perceived in the

written word.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Fill out the place for me to wash, said Stephen.

Katy, fill out the place for Stephen to wash.

Booty, fill out the place for Stephen to wash.

I cant, Im going for blue. Fill it out, you, Maggie.

When the enameled basin had been fitted into the well of the sink and the

old washing glove flung on the side of it, he allowed his mother to scrub his neck

and root into the folds of his ears and into the interstices at the wings of his nose.

Well, its a poor case, she said, when a university student is so dirty that his

mother has to wash him.

But it gives you pleasure, said Stephen calmly. (J. Joyce, Portrait 203)

For any parent who might be curious to know the formula for raising-up a child to become an

egoist, the above scene from James Joyces first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

(1916) spells out the means to perfection. Here we see a teenaged Stephen Dedalusa character

that is the autobiographical representation of Joyce and one that will be carried forward into his

epic saga sequel, Ulyssesimposing on his entire family to help him get out the door and off to

school in the morning. Master Stephen has dallied around the house all morning and now that he

is late, the balance of the family seems to feel obligated to straighten out the situation.

Amazingly, this first born male son is completely comfortable in assuming the role of the golden

boy, a role that has been perpetuated by his enabling family.

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James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on 2 February 1882 in Rathgar, a village of

Dublin, Ireland, the first-born (surviving) son of ten children to parents, John Stanislaus Joyce

and Mary Jane May Murray. Perhaps it was young Jamess conveyance to a boarding school

at the premature age of six and one half years in addition to his familys frequent relocations

moves necessitated by his fathers squandering and unemploymentthat developed in Joyce a

lifelong acceptance of displacement as well as a preference for a refugee lifestyle; one that he

would maintain until his death in Zurich, Switzerland on 13 January 1941 (Bowker 11-44). It

was fortuitous to the literary world that Joyces genius took on an early and powerful start since

he was only 58 at the time of his death. Joyces closest brother, in both age and affection,

Stanislaus Joyce, reveals the providential nature of his brothers literary accomplishments in his

memoir entitled My Brothers Keeper: James Joyces Early Years, writing:

It seems to me little short of a miracle that anyone should have striven to cultivate

poetry or cared to get in touch with the current of European thought while living

in a household such as ours, typical as it was of the squalor of a drunken

generation. Some inner purpose transfigured him (84).

To some degree, for the purposes of this essay, I will also be focusing on this type of mystical

influence upon James Joyces creation of Ulysses.

I think that it is useful to make some comments about the state of the world in which

Joyce lived and worked in the period leading up to and including his composition of his epic

undertaking, Ulysses. In an interview for the Voices and Visions film series, literary critic,

Marjorie Perloff, explains the magnitude of the changes taking place in the world between 1900

and World War I. It was during this period that James Joyces literary career was taking off.

Perloff explains:
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You have the invention of not only the airplane and that the automobile really

became ubiquitous, you had high speed trains, you had the Marconi radio, you

had, for the first time, the possibility of beaming radio beams around the world,

therefore you could simultaneously be in two places at once. It just means that

the world probably changed more quickly at the beginning of the century.

Certainly as it sits, I dont think that weve had, in the twentieth century, anything

like the kind of acceleration that you have in the years before 1914. It was just an

amazing period.

I feel that Perloffs statement accurately illustrates the concept of motion that existed in the

world during Joyces fertile creative period and that it projects a reason why the idea of

movement is a dominant theme in Joyces Ulysses. After all, the novel revolves around the

actions of his hero, Leopold Bloom (Joyces self-professed model of Homers hero, Odysseus)

and depicts the day in the life16 June, 1904as Leopold makes his way around the streets,

byways, roadhouses, homes and municipal establishments situated in Dublin Ireland during a

less than twenty-four hour period on this date (J. Joyce, Selected Letters 271; Johnson xiv).

A BROTHER BY ANOTHER FATHER:

Connecting Joyces Ulysses to Homers The Odyssey

Joyce was very confident that his epic Ulysses was a baffling text since he felt, quite correctly,

that his illustrious circle of literati associates would require some supporting information in order

to understand the overall scheme of his convoluted design. While Joyce originally created this

codebook in 1920 in order to assist a few select literary critics and friends (a selectiveness which

Joyce admitted was in order to ensure his immortality by keeping the experts busy for a very
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long time), eventually, the cryptograph found its way into the hands of the general public within

the pages of Stuart Gilberts 1931 edition of Ulysses (Ellmann 521).

One of the greatest benefits of this skeleton key was that it improved upon the novels

absence of chapter headings since all published editions of Ulysses were printed sans table of

contents, with each chapter change feebly identified with only an opening line in small capital

letters. Despite the fact that Joyce prepared a few different versions of this schema, the reader of

Ulysses would now be able to mentally appropriate each chapter with a title commandeered from

similar scenes in Homers The Odyssey. Additionally, Joyce revealed that each chapter was,

also, loosely delegated a connection to a bodily organ, color, and symbol (On 21 September

1920). In addition to this conceded association with The Odyssey, Joyce also liked to mention

that he thought of Ulysses as a type of encyclopedia. In a 1921 letter to Carlo Linati in inquiry

about a French translation of the novel, Joyce wrote, For seven years I have been working at

this bookblast it! It is also a sort of encyclopaedia (Letters 146).

The fact that Joyce prepared, what he termed, a sort of summarykeyskeleton

schema (Selected Letters 270), in which he retrospectively instituted episode names in tune with

Homers The Odyssey, serves to validate the presence of intentional connections between the two

works of art. Based upon the immeasurable number of analyses already published on this topic,

even now nearly one hundred years after Ulysses publication, I believe it is apparent that a

discussion comparing the two works must be finely fixed. Therefore, I have chosen a few

specific parallels between the two works that I feel are provocative. I have entitled these

categories: (1) Every Man; (2) Male Dominance; and (3) Slaughter and Libations.

(1) Every Man

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In a conversation with his friend and artist, Frank Budgen, Joyce explained the idea

behind a new book, an epic novel, that he was working on and which he intended to entitle

Ulysses. In this conversation, Joyce explained the way that he envisioned his hero as a modern

day Odysseus and like his Homeric counterpart, Joyce planned to design his leading man as an

all around man. When Budgen challenged the notion of Odysseus as a complete man Joyce

defended his rationalization by enumerating the many different hats that Homers

Odysseus/Ulysses could own. Joyce explained:

Ulysses is son to Laertes, but he is father to Telemachus, husband to Penelope,

lover of Calypso, companion in arms of the Greek warriors around Troy and King

of Ithaca. He is subjected to many trials, but with wisdom and courage came

through them all [emphasis mine]. (Budgen 258)

It was under this model that Joyce constructed Leopold Bloom, a proactive son, father, husband,

lover, companion, and civic leader. And while Joyce never insinuates that either Odysseus or

Bloom are perfect, both characters are noteworthy because of their industrious natures and their

desires to serve those in need.

After discovering Joyces description of Bloom as a complete man I was immediately

reminded of Homers humorous Noman scene (Butler 112-13; ch. 9). In this sequence we see

Odysseus held captive by Cyclops Polyphemus with the knowledge that, unless he is able to

escape, he will be devoured by his cannibal captor. As part of his stratagem for escape, Odysseus

cleverly tells Cyclops that his name is Noman. And after Odysseus successfully blinds Cyclops

with a wooden stake to the eye, the giant appeals to the townspeople for help by crying out,

Noman is killing me by fraud! Noman is killing me by force! Unfortunately for Cyclops, the

townsfolk respond by saying, if no man is attacking youthere is no help for it and therefore
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they went away [emphasis mine] (113). While the homonym Noman assuredly reflects a play

on words, it might also be purposed to reflect Odysseus as not like any other man, in other

words, that he should be considered equal in status to the gods.

(2) Male Dominance

While both Homers The Odyssey and Joyces Ulysses include major roles for both men

and women characters, it stands out to me that the male characters roles carry a greater

distinction and influence than those of the female characters. For example, Odysseuss wife,

Penelope, while possessing greater social standing than most of her suitors, is still in a position

of helplessness when the gold-digging courters move in during the absence of her husband and

son (Butler 54; ch. 4). One telling example occurs when Penelopes manservant, Medon, comes

in to inform her about something he has overheard while eavesdropping on the suitors. Feeling

frustrated and powerless in her role as a woman she cries out upon his entrance, Medon, what

have the suitors sent you here for? Is it to tell the maids to leave their masters business and

cook dinner for them? I wish they may neither woo nor dine henceforward, neither here nor

anywhere else, but let this be the very last time, for the waste you all make of my sons estate

[emphasis added] (54).

A few things stand out in her tongue-lashing. First of all is her use of the word wish. It

points to her awareness that she can only desire to make a change because she has no authority to

actually do so. Secondly is that her words connote the inclusion of her manservant, Medon,

among the other men in the household whom she objects to. She does this by saying, for the

waste you all make of my sons estate, as if her words indicate her overall resentment of a

system where her gender is an unjust limitation. Penelopes message is one that draws a line
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between the sexes. On one side she places herself and all of her handmaids, and on the other

side is anyone else who has a penis.

Another example of male dominance in The Odyssey is seen in the imbalance between

the male and female gods. Despite having supernatural powers, the goddesses carry less weight

than the male gods and are obligated to comply with their instructions. A case in point is seen

when Jove, also known as Zeus, king of all of the gods, sends the male god Mercury to insist that

Calypso release Odysseus who has become despondent because she is holding him against his

will. After Mercury proclaims Joves orders, Calypso reluctantly agrees. The text reads,

Calypso trembled with rage when she heard this but after venting her discontent over the way

things stand for female goddesses, she grudgingly reveals her submissive state by saying, still I

cannot cross Jove, nor bring his counsels to nothing; therefore, if he insists upon it, let the man

go beyond the seas again [emphasis mine] (61; ch. 5). Like Penelope, the goddess Calypso

grudgingly caves into the edicts instituted by a male-driven society. While both women do

concede, however, Homer at least expresses the universal female dissatisfaction with the rules of

the boys club.

The male characters in Joyces work are also depicted as more dominant than his female

characters and I would even venture to claim that the women in Ulysses are depicted even more

helpless than their Homeric counterparts. For a brief rundown, we have Stephen Dedaluss

mother who, even on her deathbed, is unable to have her son submit to her wishes for a measly

prayer over her departing soul (J. Joyce 5; Telemachus). Then there is Molly Bloom, who

spends the entire epic tale in bed and is depicted as nearly helplessrelying upon her husband to

bring her breakfast and romance novels, and seeking his greater intellectual ability to define a

word (61-65; Calypso). Joyces greatest appreciation of female characters seems to be

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revealed through depiction of their sexuality. These characters include the barmaids, prostitutes,

and their madam along with poor, lame Gerty MacDowell, the virgin he sees from a distance on

the seaside rocks (346-82; Nausicaa). In all of the cases, the value of these characters seems to

be restricted to their ability to stimulate a mans sexual desire. Unlike his complete man

definition, Joyce offers little or no appreciation for women as mothers, wives, sisters,

companions, or leaders. I would have to say that in considering Joyces depiction of women in

Ulysses, the significance of women has only suffered during the thousands of years that have

transpired from the composition of Homers The Odyssey.

Joyce also depicts the importance of male bonding that is enacted in The Odyssey,

although it is not driven by war themes but instead upon the workplace and social gatherings.

Nonetheless, it is a critical factor in both books. James Joyce exhibited great affection and

respect for his father; a trait that may have influenced a similar respect and understanding for the

male characters he produced. As described in a biography about Joyces father written by John

Wyse Jackson and Peter Costello and entitled, John Stanislaus Joyce: The Voluminous Life and

Genius of James Joyce's Father, upon the death of the elder Joyce, James was named as the only

heir despite Jamess numerous surviving siblings (4). This hints at the close affinity the elder

had for his first-born son. But I believe that the exceptional bond between James and his father

was perpetuated not only because of birth order, but also because they shared many similar traits

and interests. As further expounded by Jackson and Costello, After his father's death, James

Joyce admitted to close friends just what he owed him, not only as a man but as a writer: much

of his own work had come directly from his father, and from his father's circle of Dublin friends

(4). And, as detailed by his brother Stanislaus, despite his fathers obvious faults, young James

looked up to his father with great admiration. Stanislaus describes the level of his brothers trust
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and affection for their father when detailing the way that James handled being sent off to

boarding school at such a young age. After all, at six years of age, James was the youngest

student enrolled at the Jesuit-run boarding school at that time. Stanislaus recounts, when my

father decided to send him [James] to Clongowes, he was eager enough to go and enjoyed being

the centre of such important preparations, including visits to shops up in Dublin and lunch and

tea in town [emphasis mine] (S. Joyce, Keeper 40). He goes on to say that James was extremely

sociable just like their father. It was in these early years when the elder Joyce treated James as a

sidekick, that is as more of an equal, that he believes James experienced male bonding and all of

the benefits it could hold. The city of Dublin depicted in Ulysses was a male-driven society

where it is the men who gather together to attend funerals, sit down together to talk over a drink

to hash out politics, and it was the men who had the power to make all of the decisions that

pertain to their families.

(3) Slaughter and Libations

From the onset, the notion of slaughtered meat stands out in Joyces tale as he goes to great

lengths to discuss such topics as Leopold Blooms appetite for animal organs. Joyce describes in

detail the way in which Leopold purchases, cooks and eats these innards (J. Joyce 65;

Calypso). There is also the weaving of concern over foot and mouth disease spread by cattle

as initiated by the headmaster at the school where Stephen teaches (33; Nestor). And then

there is the humorous running theme of Plumtrees Potted Meat (75; The Lotus Eaters). I

believe that all of these examples, along with many more throughout the book, are Joyces take

on the ancient Greek practice of slaughter, sacrifice, and homage to their gods. In her

Introduction to the Butler translation of The Iliad, Louise Ropes Loomis explains that, men

must earn the gods good will with sacrifices of so-called hecatombs of bulls and sheep. The
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ritual slaughter and burning is fully described in the first book of the Iliad and more briefly many

times in the later books (xv-xvi).

This topic calls to mind an interesting analogy that I perceived during the scene when

Bloom is frying up his kidney breakfast. Forgetting that the meat is cooking on the stove, the

kidney begins to burn and smoke enters the bedroom where Leopold is talking with Molly.

Bloom rushes out to rescue his meal, stating that it is only a little burnt after which he

relievedly settles down to eat (J. Joyce 65; Calypso). I believe that Joyce is using this eating of

the burnt innards to express Blooms attitude about life and death. To express this more clearly,

by boisterously and enthusiastically consuming the semi-burnt organ, Bloom is in essence, taking

a bite out of death. For on this day he will be attending the funeral of one of his similarly aged

cronies and therefore, death could be just around the corner for him as well. But by stuffing the

slippery and charred kidney into his mouth, along with its scant juices, he is symbolically taking

a hold of death, gnawing it and breaking down its hold, and choking it down with relish, resolved

to live through this day. This idea of smoke and burning being associated with death is seen in

both The Odyssey and Ulysses. For example, when Odysseus meets his fallen comrade Elpenor

in the afterlife, Elpenor implores for the retrieval of his remains and pleads for Odysseus to,

burn me with whatever armor I have [emphasis mine] (Butler 133; ch. 11), and Stephen

describes his dying mother with the smell of wetted ashes [emphasis mine] (J. Joyce 5;

Telemachus).

Along these same lines is the way in which both Ulysses and The Odyssey handle the

topic of libations. Alcohol, in both stories, is depicted as a very potent product in the characters

lives. In the ancient Greek tale, libations serve for both entertainment and worship, the latter

being a result of the great value given to alcohol, that is, the pouring out of the precious elixir as
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a form of honor to the gods. Joyce also depicts alcohol for its social implications. The Dublin

men partake of its benefit throughout the day as a means of fraternizing and networking.

Alcohol serves well in these situations because it breaks down inhabitations and encourages

loose talk. Some believe that this is the reason why no one can keep anything a secret in Ireland

because talk spreads like fire when it is ignited with the power of the drink. As novelist Anthony

Burgess explicates in the docu-film, James Joyce: Ulysses:

Joyce had various reasons for going into exile, and they call it that. Of course, in

the first place, a very banal reason: you cannot write in Dublintheres too

much talk. Anybody who's tried to write a book in Dublin knows that the book

can be spent in a couple of pub conversations. You dont want to write the book

after that. (James Joyce: Ulysses).

Also to be considered is Joyces depiction of the mind-altering influence of alcohol, a stimulus to

the imagination as well as a catalyst to reckless behavior as depicted throughout the novel

whenever a character reaches a certain level of inebriation.

OPENING THE FLOODGATES INTO THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS:

(1) Experience Equals a Thousand Words

In order to be a master in the writing of stream of consciousness, I believe that a writer would

need to be well practiced in the consideration and expression of his own interior monologue.

That is to say that, in order for James Joyces writing in Ulysses to be prominently regarded for

its employment of stream of consciousness, Joyce must, also, have had substantive personal

experience in its practice. In order to explain this further I ask the reader to suffer a description

of my own experiment in this process.

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It was because I found Joyces replication of interior monologue so incredible that I

attempted to practice his art using my own thoughts. The process of doing this involved

considering my subconscious activity while I was in a conscious state. One morning while

driving to the park, I tried to mentally express everything that was moving about deep in my

mind. The types of thoughts that I would be expressing naturally occur each and every moment

only, under normal circumstances, we are only subconsciously aware of their existence.

Attempting Joycean form, following is a brief representation of the less than one mile drive to

my destination:

Nothing behind me, good thing.No traffic. [left-right- go]. What a

color blue; yikes. I love this old car. [look left] Jesses gone to work.

Howardhmmmm. Not too fast here.

Whin-wiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrr.

This suckscant see; all right. Brakebraaaaaake

stop.Here we go.

Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroooooom, fwooooooooouuuuuussssh.

Blinker.

Clik-clikclik-clikclik-clikclik-clik

Comoncomoncomoncomoncomoncomonfinally.

Sheesh. Its freakn hot [frown]. Cant do anything about it. Ahhhhh,

shade. Flickled light on leaves [smile]. Not too fast here.

eh-UUUUUuuuuem.

eurm-eurm-eurm

This is exhausting; could this make me go crazy?

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Almost there girls; she loves this place[smile]. No coffee[frown];

Am I hungry? Is itis itis it busy here? Why dont I like a lot of people

herethey have a right to come here too. Better not to be alone in the

woods. Watch for the kids. All right. Gottafindsomeshade.

Here we go.

Hey, Chloe; here we are girls. Brake, windows

urrruuuuuuuuuuuumshhhhpt.

keys, butt-bag, poop bags, phone, pepper spray. Lets go.

Surprisingly I learned that the exercise was exhausting and even bordered on overwhelming. I

say this because the act of consciously pulling up subconscious thoughts takes great effort and

yet, Joyce composed in this frame of mind for pages, and pages, on end. It should come as no

surprise, then, that reading Ulysses pushes the readers patience and stamina to the breaking

point. But I believe that it is for this same reason that the reading of his epic feels exhilarating in

an uncommon way. Personally, I believe that studying Joyces life and work may have made me

a better writer because I can now look at his eccentric, albeit tireless, writing practices as a form

of justification for writing in a conscientious and yet unconventional manner.

A closer look at Joyces application of stream of consciousness reveals some specific

details about what is taking place as he writes in this way. One way to describe it is that he is

capable of capturing the nuances of the human mind and body. That is, Joyce depicts all of the

senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. In addition to the physical senses, he is

also able to chronicle human emotions such as anxiety, fear, happiness, sadness, anger and does

so honestly, unabashedly, and pithily.

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Also noteworthy is the way in which Joyce captures a characters thoughts as they occur

in the present while also including thoughts from past experiences along with those being

contemplated to occur in the future as well. I believe that one way to consider what Joyce is able

to accomplish is to say that he must put himself in the place of the character, in essence, imagine

that he is that character, in order to compose a characters inner thoughts. I would even go so

far as to say that I believe that all of the characters in Joyces epic novelthat is the characters

for which he depicts their interior monologueare in actuality, depictions of Joyce himself.

Another interesting method of stream of consciousness in Joyces work is his ability to

capture the variations in each character. That is, the voice that he attributes to each character is

very specialized. Things such as mental acuity, station in life, ethnicity, race, education, and

personal beliefs all come through in very specific ways. For example, in Blooms thoughts,

Joyce depicts a concern over a weakness in his memory, most likely because of anxiety of

inheriting his fathers dementia. This comes up frequently in his thoughts as Bloom grows

concerned when he cannot immediately remember something, when he challenges himself to

recall bits of information, and when he acts relieved when the information eventually comes to

him.

Also intriguing is the way that Joyce is able to develop his characters through these

interior monologues. For example, while the events of Ulysses all take place in less than twenty-

four hours, we see the internal banter of his main hero, Bloom, developing throughout the day

based upon the people he meets and the places he visits. What is most interesting about Joyces

depiction of this evolution of thoughts is the complexity of each characters thinking, all in the

course of one day. It truly holds up to the idea of an epic when we consider the magnificent

complexity of the human psyche.

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(2) Sometimes Its What You Dont Say

It is often said of music that it is the moments of silence that distinguish the composition as a

whole. The same idea holds true in Joyces composition of his characters thoughts. Joyce knew

that it does not make sense to include information in stream of consciousness writing that would

not normally take place in human thought or speech. In a letter written in 1904, when Joyce

would have been twenty-two, he complained to his brother, Stanislaus, about what he considered

to be an inexcusable absence of verisimilitude in a novel written by fellow Irishman, George

Moore. The youthfully opinionated Joyce expressed his agitation about a scene in Moores story

entitled The Wild Goose (The Untilled Field 364-66), writing:

A lady who has been living for three years on the line between Bray and Dublin is

told by her husband that there is a meeting in Dublin at which he must be present.

She looks up the table to see the hours of the trains. This on D[ublin] W[icklow]

and W[exford] R[ailway] where the trains go regularly: this after three years

[emphasis mine]. (J. Joyce, Selected Letters 44)

Joyces point is that the lady would have been very familiar with the train schedule since she

lives in such close proximity to the train line and therefore should not have needed to consult a

train schedule. In other words, Joyce believed that in order to accurately create stream of

consciousness a writer might need to withhold information from the reader in order to accurately

capture the way that people act and think.

In some ways I believe that this way of writing may have been easier for Joyce, an egoist

with a lesser amount of concern for others, than for a more solicitous writer who is inclined to

accommodate his readers. As an example of Joyces absence of concern for others I turn to a

scene from his autobiographical, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In this scene Stephen
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Dedalus, who would have been in his twenties at the time, was seeking advice from a fellow

college mate named Cranly. The conversation was initiated by Stephen who had specifically

sought out Cranly because he felt he would be of the most use to him. It seems that Stephen was

feeling some remorse about refusing to say a prayer for his dying mother at her request. The

conversation unfolds with Cranlys inquiry to find out more about Stephens family life. Cranly

asks:

Has your mother had a happy life?

How do I know? Stephen said.

How many children had she?

Nine or tenStephen answered. Some died. (J. Joyce, Portrait 284)

In the above conversation, Stephens indifferent responses depict a young man that is extremely

self-absorbed with little or no concern about his mothers happiness or his siblings well-being.

An individual like Stephen, that is, Joyce, with an egoistic personality, in some strange way may

actually take pleasure in making his novel wearisome to his readers. Joyces callousness may be

in part a result of a mixed feeling of guilt and resentmentguilt because he was the only one of

his ten siblings provided with a strong education and resentment because he may have perceived

that his parents had placed all of their hopes in his success in return for their skewed indulgences

to him.

When reading Ulysses one may sense this willfulness in Joyces abstrusely sophisticated

style of writing. But, in my own experience, while reading the novel was challenging and

frequently incomprehensible, by the time that I had reached the end of the novel and after many

days of consideration, I began to understand that Joyce had succeeded in providing his audience

with an experience of epic proportions. Additionally, Joyces insistence on pushing the limits of
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the reader, whether the result of his own obsessions, a desire to playfully antagonize, or even

because he enjoyed challenging himself, leads me to find that, for whatever reasons, his actions

are responsible for stretching the latent and inherent capabilities of every human brain and for

this I am personally thankful.

(3) Space, Time and Motion

Our thoughts and feelings are timeless. Therefore, the feeling that an experience leaves us with,

in the form of our memories, transcends time. In this way we can say that Joyces representation

of stream of consciousness is also capable of a movement through space and time. Joyce was

impressed with the fantastic nature of Odysseuss journey. And despite his disagreements with

the doctrines of the Catholic Church, he continued to appreciate and enjoy the mystery and ritual

aspects of the Catholic ceremonies. As late as the 1930s, in a conversation with a friend from

Paris, Joyce acknowledged, that good Friday and Holy Saturday were the two days of the year

when he went to church, for the liturgies, which represented by their symbolic rituals the oldest

mysteries of humanity (Reynolds 121).

Through his Catholic upbringing Joyce was familiar with scriptural messages and he even

included numerous scripture referencessome accurately and some intentionally punned

within the pages of Ulysses. And since Joyce was a writer, the written scripture form with its

messages pertaining to the Word must have proved especially compelling to Joyce. In Ulysses

chapter 14 known as Oxen of the Sun, a growing number of men begin to gather in a tavern

that happens to be incongruously located in the lower level of a hospital. The mens drinking

and carousing behavior appears in stark contrast to the experience of Mrs. Purefoy who is

occupying a room upstairs in the maternity ward and is struggling through a prolonged labor. In

a medieval-esque dialect the conversation of the drunken, male-based counsel frequently turns to
 Allain 20

topics of birth, life and death. It is here that the poet Stephen Dedalus makes the following

comment, Mark me now. In woman's womb word is made flesh but in the spirit of the maker all

flesh that passes becomes the word that shall not pass away [emphasis mine] (J. Joyce, Ulysses

391). The biblical equivalent is found in the New Testament in John Chapter 1 and begins like

this:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was

God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and

without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life

was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness

comprehended it not. (Authorized King James Bible, John 1.1-5)

Just a few verses later, John 1 continues with, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among

us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and

truth (14). I feel that Joyces inclusion of the concept of the Word in conjunction with the

discussion of birth and death is Joyces way of identifying with that which he considers to be

truly eternalthe eternal Word.

According to this biblical teaching, which Joyce was obviously familiar with since he

included it in the above scene, the word came first; it existed before man; and it became man (as

in the Word was made flesh). What this might signify in Joyces composition of Ulysses is his

own model of authenticating the undying nature of the written word. And through Joyces

incisive application of stream of consciousness, he is able to make a record of a brief moment in

history, less than one full day in the lives of numerous meneternal spirits-in-the making. If the

word is truly eternalmeaning it was, is, and will be (past, present, and future)then Joyces
 Allain 21

expression of thoughts, feelings, and sensations has succeeded in moving the word, which he

created, through space and time.

There exists a continuum clearly evident in the activity of the human mind. Our thoughts

are a means of transportation through time. I believe that this notion of the movement in time by

way of our thoughts is directly related to Joyces physical and emotional movement of both

Leopold Bloom and Odysseus. In Chapter 9, the Library scene, Stephen Dedalus, involved in

some intellectual conversation with friends and library staff, construes the time/space

phenomenon in his following monologue:

As we, or mother Dana, weave and unweave our bodies, Stephen said, from

day to day, their molecules shuttled to and fro, so does the artist weave and

unweave his image. And as the mole on my right breast is where it was when I

was born, though all my body has been woven of new stuff time after time, so

through the ghost of the unquiet father the image of the unliving son looks forth.

In the intense instant of imagination, when the mind, Shelley says, is a fading

coal, that which I was is that which I am and that which in possibility I may come

to be. So in the future, the sister of the past, I may see myself as I sit here now but

by reflection from that which then I shall be. (J. Joyce 194; Scylla and

Charybdis)

Now while Dedaluss above rant was given in support of his Hamlet hypothesis, his words also

serve to wrangle together the notion that our movement and passage through time is connected

with our mind and imagination. Novelist, Anthony Burgess defined Joyces proclivity for

looking beyond the ordinary and expressing the esoteric when he said, the desperate

importance of transmuting ordinary experience into what he called epiphaniesviews of the

 Allain 22

truth, the shining truthcoming out of ordinary things. Thats what art is to Joyce, but not to

many other writers (James Joyce: Ulysses).

CONCLUSION

Joyce saw a light when his young mind was illuminated by the words written in Homers The

Odyssey. Its influences are evident in countless ways throughout Joyces epic novel Ulysses.

But there is a mystical quality that calculatingly blends Joyces passion for this ancient tome with

his genius in capturing and delivering interior monologue onto the written page. If we believe

that Joyce considered the Word to be that which transcends time, then we should also appreciate

that his lifes work succeeded in demonstrating his faith. In the same way that the gods of

ancient Greek legend were employed to give meaning to lifes mysteries, so too, Joyces faith

was progressive. Therefore we should expect nothing less than to find out that Joyces

demonstration of faith could never be constrained by the limitations of the human imagination.
 Allain 23

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Burgess, Anthony, novelist. James Joyce: Ulysses. Directed by Nigel Wattis, LWT Production,

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