James Joyce: A Rebel Without a Cause?

Peer Critique

The coat of arms which James Joyce inherited from his family bears the motto, "Mors aut honorabilis vita," meaning, "An honorable life or death." But was Joyce loyal to the creed of his more noble ancestors? Many would argue that he was not. After a Catholic education all the way through his undergraduate degree he denounced Catholicism. In the middle of a time of growing nationalism in which the role of bard was elevated to national importance Joyce abandoned his native Ireland in search of less constrictive lands. But the one thing to which Joyce remained true throughout his entire life was art. In repeated confrontations and against great pressure he remained true to what he felt was the only real morality in an artist's life, his truth in art.

"James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, in Rathgar, a fairly prosperous souther suburb of Dublin." (Kershner) The Joyces are thought to have a noble background, which is borne out by the existence of a coat of arms. But living as a Catholic in Ireland at the time of his birth severely limited his family in their ascension of the social ladder. He was the eldest survivor of twelve children (only eight lived to adulthood), and the son of a "disastrous father" (Kershner), but at the age of six he escaped his perhaps less than desirable home life. He was sent to Clongowes Wood college, a Jesuit school which was said to be the best preparatory school in Ireland. While the rigorous Catholicism of the Jesuits did not follow him for the rest of his life, their rigorous education did.

In 1893 Joyce began attending Jesuit Belvedere College. It was at this time that he began to read such authors as Meredith, Hardy, Ibsen, and Yeats. Although he won several awards nationwide and within his school for his academic achievements and perceived moral character his readings had begun to broaden his mind and a more worldly Joyce started to develop a contempt for both the society of Ireland and the Catholic Church itself. More importantly "from Yeats in particular he learned to see the wold of art as an autonomous sphere removed from the pragmatic world of everyday experience, and to see the figure of the artist as part prophet, part priest, [and] the potential savior of his race." (Kershner)

After Jesuit Belvedere he continued his education at the Royal University of Dublin, commonly known as University College. This college was formed as the Catholic answer to Trinity College which was commonly attended by the Protestant Ascendancy, but the strict control of the Jesuits "offered a conservative and intellectually undemanding curriculum." (Kershner) In an era of increasing modern thought, the Jesuits either condemned or refused to acknowledge any new or different thought. Joyce did not allow himself to be fettered.

Soon after he entered University, Joyce flew in the face of convention and, against the wishes of his faculty, produced a paper entitled "Drama and Life." His thesis, anathema to his more orthodox professors, stated that "art has a responsibility to represent life as it is actually lived, rather than as convention dictates, and indeed has its own laws and logic as an expression of the artist that is nearly beyond judgement." (Kershner) "Ibsen himself responded with an appreciative note" to an expansion of his Joyce's original paper, which was published in the British Fortnightly Review. (Kershner) Joyce's warm welcome into the community of modern art gave him a place for his new loyalty and allowed him to develop more fully his sense of artistic honor. This feeling of "responsibility" would cause him to maintain his artistic integrity for as long as he lived.

His introduction to the international community also made him acutely aware of the literary barrenness of Ireland. In his own words, "a nation which never advanced so far as a miracle play affords no literary model to the artist, and he must look abroad." (Kershner) He graduated University in 1902 and, by December, he had left his native Ireland for Paris. Only in mainland Europe did he find a environment in which he could write freely, and it was here that he began to flourish as one of the world's premiere modern writers.

But that was not to occur immediately. Only four months later he received word that his mother had fallen ill and would not survive much longer. He immediately returned home. In 1904 he taught for a time at a school in Dublin. In June he met Nora Barnacle, who was to become his lifelong companion and mother to his children, but not (until very late) his wife. By November he was to tire again of Ireland, and he and Nora left for Zurich. He never again returned to Ireland for any longer than a short visit.

Joyce ended up teaching in Trieste, and, in 1905, his son, Giorgio, was born. In 1907 Nora bore him his daughter, Lucia Ann. It is interesting to note the conflict Joyce had with himself during this period. He felt that marriage was simply a societal and Church convention and not of any significance, and thus he and Nora never married. He did, however, assume the role of both husband and father. "At times, he doubted whether he should be with Nora. The responsibility of a family weighed upon him, especially as he never doubted that his primary responsibility should be to his art." (Kershner) A longtime friend and observer of Joyce's, Constantine Curran, remarks:

Repudiating the claims of family and country, Stephen also repudiates the Church and any discipline that might fetter his imperious will 'to walk nobly on the surface of the earth, to express oneself without pretence, to acknowledge one's own humanity'. All this -- so far as it reflected Joyce's attitude -- seemed to me, as I have said, precipitate, a burning of bridges before one came to them, but '...mind has mountains; cliffs of fall / Frightful, sheer, no-man fathomed. Hold them cheap / May who ne'er hung there. (Curran 55)

Though Joyce's social life was never to stabilize completely, his life as a writer finally began to take shape. At this point, his life is most commonly followed through reference to his books. This, of course, is only natural. Joyce had started writing short stories for his book, Dubliners, in 1902. By 1907 he had the collection in a publishable form, but its unconventionality prevented the book from making it to market. His original publisher demanded that Joyce make changes, but Joyce, remaining true to his art, refused until finally Dubliners was rejected. Four publishers later, the book was finally accepted by Maunsel and Company in 1909. But, fearful of being sued on the basis of libel or obscenity, their printer refused to print it. Joyce retaliated by publishing a satirical poem and distributing it in Dublin. Joyce visited more and more publishers, but was rejected repeatedly until finally, in 1914, Grant Richards, his original publisher, took a second look at it and had it printed. Again, Joyce's unwavering dedication to his art stood him in good stead.

Meanwhile, Joyce was working on his next revolutionary work, Ulysses. Ignoring classical form he entered into a naturalistic adventure of prose.

Starting around the ninth chapter, the narration, which had begun in a mode something like the last chapter of [A] Portrait [of the Artist as a Young Man] (although with more internal monologue), begins to vary wildly. There are interpolated episodes in play form, a chapter narrated by an unnamed barfly, one that is told as if it were a poorly written domestic romance, one told in ludicrously abstract question-and-answer form, and so forth. (Kershner)

His final triumph was his publication of his provisionally titled Work in Progress, now known as Finnegan's Wake. In the waning days of his life, Joyce took on his most ambitious project. Finnegan's Wake was a finely detailed and elaborately planned masterpiece that even his more enlightened friends such as Ezra Pound and Harriet Weaver had trouble deciphering. His friend's lack of faith did not deter Joyce. The work, which was published in 1939, survived production despite even the emotional trials through which Joyce went. During the time of the writing, Joyce's eyesight was nearly gone. In 1929 it became apparent that his daughter, "whom he had grown to cherish passionately" (Kershner) was mentally unstable. By 1932 she was institutionalized. In 1931 his father died. And, as a final blow, he was separated from his wife due to her breakdown in 1939. In the midst of all of this, Joyce managed to remain true to his art and finish his publication.

In view of the coming war, Joyce managed to get his family and himself admitted to Switzerland, but less then a month later he was diagnosed with a perforated duodenal ulcer. On January 13th, 1941, James Joyce passed away. "He was buried in the Fluntern cemetery above Zurich." (Kershner)

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Stephen Daedelus, Joyce's autobiographical counterpart, says,

I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself home, my fatherland or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use, silence, exile, and cunning.

Ezra Pound at Joyce's Grave

Works Cited

"The Brazen Head." Online. Internet. Available http://www.microserve.com/~thequail/libyrinth/joyce.html

Curran, C.P. James Joyce Remembered. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.

Kershner, Brandon. "Brandon Kershner's Portrait Page." Online. Internet. Available http://www.ucet.ufl.edu/~kershner/port.html