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Guys, (Cj included), you have made me work again on Grace! I read all your mails and read the story once more. First of all, I would like to say thanks to you all - Gillen, Kiri and Jay - for being part of this group. Your thoughts are much appeciated. Gillen, that was a great comment on the omitting of the consonants. I had to form the words loudly to follow you, and would not have done it if you had not mentioned it. And would not have seen the significance of the broken words. to understand the significance one has to think of the word gnomon. In Harold Bloom's book you read this on gnomons: "It is true that in the Euclid, gnomon ..... is a sort of drunken letter L; but that information does not take us very far. If instead we have recourse, as Joyce so often did, to Skeat's Etymological Dictionary, ... we find that a gnomon is the index of a dial, i.e., a pointer, from the Greek word meaning an interpreter, one who knows...." If we combine both the meanings, is gnomon something which by its not being complete (like the left over parallelogram) draw attention (point out) to the missing part? So is Joyce drawing our attention to the missing tongue by leaving out consonants which are not formed by the tongue??? That would be very clever indeed. My "respect" for his writing increases by this thought of mine!! Kiri, you had drawn my attention to the friendly atmosphere among the friends. After re-reading the story, I have to agree with you. There is a cheerful banter among the friends in the scene at Kernan's bedside. Still the friendship amongst these people sounds hollow to me. They are all so different age-wise and social class-wise. McCoy is really nobody's friend there. He makes use of them like when he takes Power's suitcases and sells them off. Even Mr. Fogarty is not a friend. And the scene at the beginning. It is not said so, but I assume that Kernan had fallen off the steps (or at least was lying at the foot of the steps) which led to the bar. So, is my assumption true that Kernan was getting drunk in that bar? In the same bar at the far end of which Power was present too? They were friends, and had not noticed each other! Strange. Jay, I enjoyed reading what you wrote about the different meanings Joyce ascribes to the word, Grace. In this respect two other words are very important too. Purdon and red light. In my first reading of Grace, I wondered whether Joyce was playing with the word, Pardon, whether he was indicating that the friends here will be pardoned. That was before I read the critics. (In a sense it is a great pity to read the critics. Their ideas don't leave you afterwards!!) There I read that Purdon is the name of the red light district in Dublin. Similar is the reference to red light in the sentence, "They sat well back and gazed formally at the distant speck of red light which was suspended before the high altar." The notes in Brown's book says "speck of red light: The sanctuary lamp which burns to indicate the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, in the wafer blessed at the Sacrament of the Eucharist, contained within the chalice in the locked tabernacle on the altar. The red light district of a city is of course the brothel area, like Purdon Street in Dublin." This explanation becomes all the more important, when you read the following sentence which comes soon after: "Father Purdon knelt down, turned towards the red speck of light, and, covering his face with his hands, prayed." What a hidden way of indicating moral decadence! There is another gem of a thing whose implication I had totally missed till I read the story now. When the friends introduce their intention of going into a retreat, they start it saying, that they will meet on Thursday night. And "We can meet in M'Auley's, " said Mr. McCoy. That'll be the most convenient place." M'Auley's is ofcourse a pub, one block away from the Jesuit church where the friends were going for the retreat!!! Chandra |
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