A Portrait of the Artist in Isolation: Exploring the Universality of Isolation in Joyce’s Work, and its Linkage to Individual Identity and Artistry

A Portrait of the Artist in Isolation: Exploring the Universality of Isolation in Joyce’s Work, and its Linkage to Individual Identity and Artistry

Regarded as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, Irish novelist James Joyce is the product of the uniquely disparaging and unencouraging social and political climate in which he was raised. Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1892, Joyce’s adolescence was plagued with political uncertainty and bitter pessimism, following the death of Charles Stewart Parnell, adored Irish Nationalist. As his family plunged into increasing poverty and financial instability, Joyce experienced a bleak and unprotected view of the dreary, dismal Dublin in which he lived. In this city that perpetuated an atmosphere of decay and disarray, Joyce grew up amidst an unstable political environment, oppressive religious forces, and a population of uninspired, downtrodden individuals. Feeling disheartened by the gloomy and rather unimaginative environment, Joyce recognized that his home in Dublin was no place for an emerging artist. In pursuit of honing the capabilities of his artistry, the author embarked in a self-imposed exile with his wife Nora to Trieste, seeking inspiration in the depths of his isolation.

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Only in isolation, is the artist able to look deep within themselves to produce a distinctly creative expression of artistry untainted by outside influence. The creatively stifling atmosphere of Joyce’s adolescence drove him to measures of extreme non-conformity and isolation; this mentality is mirrored by characters in his literature. Joyce expresses that the artist must emerge from a place of isolation. Joyce’s view “implies distance and objectivity on the part of the artist: the world is something to be re-created from a distance, not imitated from within” (Daiches 700). Joyce’s belief in the emergence of artistry from isolation is most fervently actualized in his depiction of the character of Stephen Dedalus from his 1916 novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Additionally, the theme of self-isolation and its relationship to personal identity and artistry is portrayed in his 1922 novel Ulysses, in which the character of Stephen reappears, in his fully emerged form as an artist, alongside main character Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly.

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Joyce possesses the unique capability to translate character’s personal narratives of self-imposed isolation in an engaging and fully immersive manner. His omniscient narration style creates profoundly intimate individual perspectives while simultaneously creating microcosmic stories that are both mythological and universal. Joyce’s intimate writing style explores the universality of isolation. He conveys similarities and differences between the isolated experiences of Stephen, Leopold, and Molly. These characters’ experiences with isolation reveal a dichotomy in their isolation narratives as they grapple with the pitfalls of social rejection and the flourishing of their personal artistic and aesthetic selves. In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man and Ulysses, Joyce uses the characters of Stephan, Leopold, and Molly as catalysts that perpetuate narratives of self-imposed isolation to reveal unique expressions of artistry and identity. In doing so, he presents a dichotomy of both the individuality and universality of isolation in his writing, as his narratives mirror Joyce’s personal emergence as an artist from isolation, and thus suggesting that exile is imperative to artistry.

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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel in which Joyce translates the trajectory of his life onto the character of Stephen Dedalus, his fictional alter ego. Through his uniquely innovative and remarkably visceral, writing style, Joyce recounts the events of Stephen's life from childhood to adulthood. Joyce’s writing and vocabulary evolves as Stephen ages. The novel begins in third person point as Stephen listens to stories of “moocows” and “baby tuckoo” (Joyce 5) as a small child, to an ending in first person, stream of consciousness style, as Stephen relates, with learned wisdom and maturity, that he will go “encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race” (224).

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During his adolescence, Stephen attends the Jesuit-run Clongowes Wood College, similarly to Joyce who attended Catholic schools in his youth. In an unrelenting struggle to find his true self, Stephen undergoes a series of successive rejections of his environment, rebelling against traditional Irish and Catholic conventions, ultimately leading to his emergence as an artist. “We see Stephen (who is Joyce) rejecting one by one his home, his religion, his country, growing ever more aloof and proud exclaiming "Non serviam" ("I will not serve") to all the representatives of orthodoxy and convention” (Daiches 699). As a child attending Catholic school, Stephen was always under the impression that he would become a priest. First seeking comfort in the restrictions and regulations of religion, Stephen believes that he will be able to take hold of his life and his own destiny by finding God, giving up his worldly pleasure to become a priest. However, he no sooner realizes that the same sense of solace he is looking for can be found within himself, rather than the conventions and invented structure of religion. “His destiny was to be elusive of social or religious order...He was destined to learn his own wisdom apart from others or to learn the wisdom of others himself wandering among the snares of the world” (Joyce 141-42). As he rejects Christianity and the certainties of a life path which he once had, the more restrictive and aloof he becomes, “and the more aloof he becomes, the more he removes himself from his fellow-men, the closer he comes to the objective vision of the artist” (Daiches 699).

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Stephen's emergence as an artist demands his separation from the external forces that govern his life. At the end of the novel Stephen tells his friend Cranly, “I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it calls itself my 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” (Joyce 218). The novel ultimately ends with Stephen’s decision to leave Ireland, and live in exile in Europe. Rejecting the social conventions that oppress him, “he looks out on the world with the eye of the artist – not of the Catholic, or the Irishman, but as a "naked sensibility," a pure aesthetic eye–he has renounced the normal life of compromise and adjustment” (Daiches 699). Absolving himself from his cultural and religious affiliations, Stephen has been stripped down to the truest version of himself, “the artist”.

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Stephen Dedalus makes a reappearance in Ulysses, with the first three chapters focusing on his return to Ireland following the death of his mother. Stephen reimerges in Joyce’s literature after his exile in Europe, back into the Dublin society in which he was raised, as a fully-fledged, self-actualized artist. Stephen plays the role of the artist in Ulysses, opposing the force of the main character Leopold Bloom, who not only portrays characteristics of an artist, but also a scientist. Stephen, whose thoughts are drawn inwards by his own philosophical musings, mostly pertaining to his artistic and aesthetic self, is contrasted by Bloom, who possesses an affinity for practical and logic as well as a scientific curiosity in the external world around him. Stephen Dedalus is portrayed as “the aloof, uncompromised artist, rejecting all advances by representatives of the no world, the incomplete man” this is starkly contrasted with “the complete Leopold Bloom, who is the representative of compromise and conciliation” (Daiches 703).

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Similar to Stephen, Bloom's narrative in Ulysses is one that perpetuates isolation in a manner that brings about personal artistic and aesthetic growth. However, unlike Stephen, Bloom's isolation appears to be the result of external forces rather than an internal reaction to these external forces, like it is for Stephen. Bloom’s isolation appears to be more of a subconscious effort to distance himself from others due to “his anxiety and his desire for freedom” which ultimately “results in his social alienation” (Farahmandian 1). Hamid Farahmandian and Lu Shao’s article “The Social Isolation of Neurotic Bloom in James Joyce’s Ulysses” explores the implications of Bloom’s isolation through the lens of neurosis. The authors argue that Bloom inherently feels as though he does not belong among other people due to the attributes of detached personality he exhibits.

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According to Farahmandian and Shao, “isolation occurs when an individual feels that he or she is not meaningfully connected to their society through shared beliefs, practices, and values” (Farahmandian 1). In Ulysses Bloom is seen as a cultural and religious outsider, largely in part due to his Jewish heritage, which was seen as a “national problem” (Joyce 30) in Ireland at the time. Bloom’s depiction as an isolated social outsider is first seen in the episode “Hades.” “Bloom who identifies as Jewish, but who has... ‘a problematic relationship to his Jewish heritage,’ suffers the uninhibited anti-Semitism of his carriage mates, which casts him as an outsider, even among those he calls his friends” (Devine 157). The social isolation he faces in the funeral carriage causes him to delve inwards, spiraling into “thoughts about his father’s suicide, the tragic death of his son, Rudy, the impending affair between Molly and Boylan, and his general thoughts on death and funerals” (157-59)

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In the “Cyclops” episode, Bloom’s identity isolates him from social situations once again. Bloom feels isolated from a group of his peers in the pub, as they discuss political and social

views, and the conversation drifts to their definitions of a nation. Bloom, who faces social alienation due to his differing religious views, provides an all-encompassing, inclusive definition of a nation. He states that “a nation is the same people living in the same place...or living in different places” (459). “With neither a positive nor negative example of nationhood available to the nationless Jew, Bloom’s definition of nationhood is expectedly pedantic”(Farahmandian 3).

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Bloom feels isolated at home as well as in society at large. He has grown emotionally distant from his wife Molly after the death of their infant son, Rudy. After leaving home one day, Bloom remembers that he accidentally left his key at home. Not wishing to disturb or confront his sleeping wife, he instead spends the remainder of the day wandering through the streets of Dublin. His refusal to return home also seems to be charged by his inclination that Molly will be having an affair with Blazes Boylan that afternoon.

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Wandering around the city of Dublin for a day, Bloom’s constant seclusion from his societal and homelife manifests itself into a sort of self imposed mental exile. While Bloom remains in the city all day, and interacts with multiple characters throughout the day, he remains emotionally distant and wanders alone, dwelling on his inner thoughts and relationship to his own identity. Exile in this sense can be seen as freedom. In Bloom’s decision to not return home, he is thus actively working to free himself from social and cultural conventions and “to free his mind from his mind’s bondage” (Joyce 306). Unlike Stephen, Bloom’s isolation is moreso imposed upon him rather than self-imposed. Bloom undergoes exile in the midst of his daily routine in his native city. Therefore, Bloom’s isolation feels universal. Many can relate to Bloom’s experiences of feeling alienated from work, home, and social life, due to their different beliefs and values. This concept of universal isolation is exemplified even more so through Bloom’s parallels to the Homeric prototype of Odysseus, and the text's narrative parallels to the

Odyssey. Joyce humanizes the archetypal hero figure of Bloom, mythologizing his isolation and humanity. Therefore,“Bloom becomes Everyman and Dublin becomes the world” (Daiches 703)

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While the majority of Ulysses is written from Blooms perspective, with the acception of the first three chapters, written from Stephen’s perspective, Joyce decides in his final chapter, “Penelope” to narrative the entire chapter in a first person, stream of consciousness narration of Molly Bloom’s thoughts. During the middle of the night, Molly lays in bed next to her sleeping husband, and reveals her thoughts and memories to the reader. The plot of this final chapter is fairly simple and blatantly uneventful. As Catherine Flynn puts it, Molly thinks and remembers. She hears a train go by. She discovers that her menstrual period has begun. She gets up to use the chamber pot, finds a sanitary napkin, and gets back into bed, all while thinking and remembering.

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Contrasting the previously male-dominated space of the novel, Molly offers an unprecedented stream of consciousness narration style in which she creates an environment of intimacy and honesty. Molly’s blatant, unembarrassed truthfulness leaves the reader to wonder whether Molly expresses these thoughts in the non judgmental privacy of her own mind, or if she is rather putting on a subconscious performance for an imagined audience. In the privacy of her own mind, Molly dwells in her mental isolation, not saying a single word to her husband Bloom sleeping next to her. Molly’s isolation reveals a new perspective of artistry, that of which is performance.

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Molly’s “emergence as an artist,” may be understood more accurately as her textual debut of her identity, told through the semi-performative lens of her isolated thoughts and imagination. “Molly often conceptualizes human behavior as dramaturgical performance, dictated by putative gender ‘traits’” (Devlin 71). Molly’s identity and her conceptualization of her artistic and aesthetic self is governed by the performative aspects of gender. Molly sees herself, not as an artist, but as art, the ideal woman, wife, and mother. In her mind she is a symbol of beauty and seductiveness, as she recounts memories of her past lovers and relishes in the male attention and affection she has received.

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Molly’s personality is akin to that of an actress, she conceptualizes herself as a woman, wife, mother, and as her younger teenage self. “She stages herself as Venus in Furs, the indignant and protective spouse, the jealous domestic detective, the professional singer, the professional seductress or femme fatale, the teenage flirt, the teenage naif, the unrepentant adulteress, the guilt-ridden adulteress, the narcissistic child, the exasperated mother, the pining romantic, the cynical scold, the female seer/fortuneteller the frustrated housewife, the female confidante and adviser, the female misogynist, et cetera, et cetera” (Devlin 72).

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Molly’s words simultaneously suggest a submissive desire to be perceived by men, contrasted by a domineering sense of superiority over men, which precedes perception. Molly thinks about one of her past lovers, stating, “Ill make him feel all over till he half faints nnder me then hell write about me lover and mistress publicly too...when he becomes famous” (Joyce 930). In these lines Molly expresses a desire to be wanted by men. She actively adheres to the male gaze as she expresses a desire to be this man’s lover and mistress. Moreover, she wishes to be perceived as this man’s lover in the public eye. Creating a mental image of herself, imagining a performance as the ideal lover and mistress. Yet, later in her internal monologue she expresses exasperation with men, stating “they dont know what it is to be a woman and a mother” (932). Molly’s thoughts present a dichotomous relationship between the male and female gaze, as Molly perceives herself through both lenses.

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Molly’s relation to femininity is interesting, as it can be difficult to discern if her obsession with traditional gender roles and female sexuality can be seen as an empowering view of female expression or a demeaning patriarchal view that confines femininity to the limitations of the body. The ambiguity of these concerns can be resolved if Molly’s monologue is “read as a savvy critique of gender performance, as Joyce's self-conscious anatomy of feminine as well as masculine roles—roles in the sense of theatrical personae” (Devlin 77) Molly perceives herself as an actress, expressing her femininity as it is perceived by both male and female audiences. In this acknowledgement of gendered perception in mind, “Joyce creates in Molly a woman who is frequently conscious of her own theatricality, shrewdly aware of the assumed nature of her own gender acts.”

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Through Molly’s internalized dialogue and intrinsic isolation, she creates a “stage,” so to speak, for herself to perform. Her emergence as an artist is actualized in her theatrical expressions of female domesticity, sexuality, and liberation. Unlike her male counterparts, Bloom and Stephen, she is restricted by her societal limitations as a woman, and cannot fully emerge as an artist. Rather she hones her artistry and aesthetic in the comfort of her own mind and in her performance before an imagined audience. Striving to become the perfect imagined woman, Molly’s isolation encourages her emergence as art, rather than an artist.

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Artistry flourishes in isolation. In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses, Joyce creates three extraordinarily complex characters who translate their narratives of isolation, which thus produce elements of artistry. Each character preserves through their isolation in order to achieve their own artistic emergence. The ways in which these three unique characters all use the similar experience of isolation in order to fuel their individual artistry and form their unique identities displays a university of isolation. By drawing upon the events of his own life, and

referencing mythological narratives, James Joyce is able to portray the universal experience of human isolation and how this isolation sparks within each of us a uniquely personal capacity and understanding of art and artistry.