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Friends Much as I have enjoyed reading Joyce's stories in Dubliners, when I read "scholarly" writings and interpretations of the stories, I feel bewildered. I may have said this earlier, but I have a genuine feeling that many of the interpretations go simply over board in the excitement of interpreting. It is like concentrating on the details of the passage the Gulab Jamun takes when you are enjoying eating a perfectly prepared one. (Why does one try to explain one's feelings by giving examples of food ;-? ) Anyway, I read the following on The Dead in "Dubliners - Modern Critical Interpretations", edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House, 1988. It is taken from an article titled, "What is a woman ... a symbol of?" and is by Tilly Eggers, who teaches at the Uni. Wyoming. "At the turning point in "The Dead", when the story shifts from a social situation to a personal experience, Gabriel asks himself, "What is a woman standing on the stairs in the shadow, ...., a symbol of?" Many critics interpret the question as further evidence of Gabriel's isolation, for he not only perceives his wife Gretta as "a woman" but also regards "a woman" as a symbol; others consider the question as insight into Joyce's conception of art. But no readers have met the challenge to answer the question directly, despite the surrounding clues of colour, clothing, and attitutde used throughout Dubliners and "The Dead" to associate particular women with the Blessed Virgin.....I would not try to defend Joyce as a feminist, but I believe the categorical charge of anti-feminism directed at Joyce and the easy identification of him with Gabriel have ironically provided the excuse to simplify if not overlook the women in "The Dead". ....(The point is) Gabriel's perception of woman. Although he perceives only his wife, and her indirectly, as a virgin-figure, his confrontations with the apparently more verginal women - Lily, Miss Ivors, and the spinster relatives - evoke details and issues associated traditionally and in the preceding stories with this ideal of womanhood. ..... Lily, whose name is that of the flower traditionally associated with the Blessed Virgin, is a "slim, growing girl" who is developing from the child with the rag doll, whom Gabriel remembers, into a sensuous woman, to whom Gabriel has difficulty adjusting.... Miss Ivors also challenges Gabriel's perceptions of woman by not behaving in the manner he expects of a female, friend, colleague, and dance partner... ....Gretta is a human symbol of the Virgin ideal, ..(and) is a composite portrait of women in Dubliners, the symbol of all women. Like many characters in the collection, Gabriel identifies a woman with the Virgin, but unlike any of them he can perceive the woman as spiritually and physically desirable; what Gabriel cannot do is perceive her an integrated person, independent of himself....." How do you read the above thing? I have lots of problems with this image of the "Blessed Virgin". I don't understand the importance given to that figure, more so in the light of what I understand from the last sentence quoted above. If Joyce would indeed see Virgin Mary in all the women characters, he could not be looking at them as being "physically desirable", and the whole concept of Virginity being debatable, I don't understand the importance attached to that concept. Finally, I feel it is much nicer to read the stories as stories, simple and pure stories, instead of looking everywhere for symbols. I could be saying this because I am such a novice (with the biggest N you can ever think of) in matters regarding Joyce. Am the only one in the group who feels "repelled" by all these meaning-seeking-exercises? This is for this week my contribution to The Dead. I did like Brown's comments on Dubliners as a whole, and would try to share it with you all some time next week. Looking forward to your comments, and explanations Chandra |
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