Reading "The Dead" by James Joyce
Reflective Essay #4
Mar. 28, 2013
Some tend to criticize the
lengthiness of “The Dead” while highlighting its articulate epiphany at the
end. Those people complain about the whole loose part at the front which
doesn’t directly deal with the problem which will later be brought up to the
issue of epiphany. Even though I agree that the part until to reach the
epiphany is quite long, I share different perspective from others in that I
believe this part is somewhat essential in bringing the story to the moment of
epiphany. Epiphany, experience of sudden realization within one’s situation,
ironically should not come out of nowhere, or else its emotion might not be
fully sympathized with the readers. Imagine “The Dead” with only the last part
with epiphany. Without knowing how Gabriel thinks of himself, his wife Gretta,
or all others he met, his reaction to Gretta’s story of her first love and his
alternation of the emotion towards Gretta from frustration to “a strange,
friendly pity for her”. If story didn’t tell of Gabriel’s supper speech which
speaks of cherishing “the memory of those dead” and his firm statement to not “linger
on the past”, would the eruption of emotion have been the same? Rather, it is
this previous stance of him that emphasizes the sudden change within his belief
and allows for more dramatic scene. Especially with James Joyce, Joyce tends to
have his own way of dramatizing the epiphany, by putting a delineation of his sublime
awareness of his own problem, as can be seen in his recognition of himself
unable to control others to think of him as “airing his superior education”. By
foreshadowing the event and implying the readers that the protagonist knew of
his problem beforehand, Joyce furthermore develops what is to be destructed in
his Joycean Epiphany. This nature, to develop in order to destruct, perhaps is
what the epiphany is all about, how Joyce comes to be widely recognized and
renowned.
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Behind
the stage
Imagine
a grandiose show: all the beautiful actors and actresses, bright spotlight,
majestic music from a well-organized piece, variety of stage equipment that
captures audiences' sight.....The plot goes on..... And....The show reaches its
climax.
All
the audiences rise up from their chair and give their unstinting, endless
applaud towards the stage.
But,
what about the things and the people behind the stage?
In
order to bring one show, numerous staffs whose names don't even get an
infinitesimal amount of spotlight undergo several severe, complicated tasks.
Throughout their arduous efforts, the show is finally possible to be put on the
stage and to meet its audiences. However, many audiences do not acknowledge the
important roles of these shadow-like people. They only applaud at the main
character, or the climax scene. Though the people behind the stage take a huge
part in the show, they do not get acknowledged well to the viewers.
Epiphany,
I believe, shares the same structure with the show stated above. The moment of
epiphany is astounding not only for the protagonist in the story, but also for
the readers of the story. For a highly well structured epiphany, critics with
no doubt praises the piece and shed lights on this unique moment. Compared to
the light that the epiphany gets on the stage, rest of the writing seems
relatively dark.
For this reason, some tend to
criticize the lengthiness of “The Dead” while highlighting its articulate
epiphany at the end. Some complains about the whole loose part at the front
which doesn't directly deal with the problem which will later be brought up to
the issue of epiphany. So, was it mandatory for James Joyce to have the long stretched
front part of the story to bring up this short epiphany?
“Yes,”
would be my answer, for I believe they are essential to bring an eruption of
emotions at the moment of epiphany. I believe the moment of epiphany is a star
on the stage which essentially has to be backed up by the staffs behind the
stage. My position here has its root of reasoning in the ironical state of the
epiphany. Epiphany is usually defined as an experience of sudden and striking
realization. Here I would like to focus on the word ‘sudden’, for I think the
epiphany cannot wholly come out ‘suddenly’: Certain antecedents always come
before the epiphany.
Imagine,
if you were only given the part of the story “The Dead” of which the main
protagonist Gabriel is exposed to the past memory of his wife Gretta’s first
love Michael Furey, who “died for her sake.” Would you be able to sympathize
with Gabriel about his description of his own emotions that arouses from
hearing Furey’s story? Probably you will have more hard time to actually ‘feel
like him’.
As
stated above, there is this irony in the literary usage of epiphany; the
narrator has to illustrate a lot beforehand for short laconic epiphany to come
afterward. And especially for Joycean epiphany, I believe three distinctive
illustrations appear in almost all stories of James Joyce: Sublime recognition
of one’s own problem, aspects in the character to be broken, and the outside
force that comes to demolish this characteristic within the protagonist.
Sublime recognition takes place as he acknowledges of himself being too antique for the society, in the narrator's quote of "they would think that he(Gabriel) was airing his superior education". Sublime recognition complicates readers' emotion as the epiphany, conscious recognition is then to be highlighted, and to be sympathized and to be missed in the belief he might have fixed the problem before the epiphany in disastrous way to take its place. This, I believe, is what makes Joycean Epiphany to be different from that of other previous writers.
In addition to the sublime recognition, outside force that shakes the main protagonist should take place before the epiphany. Here, his constant conflict with women, as seen in the conversation with Miss Ivors and her speaking of "West Briton" to Gabriel, gradually overtime Gabriel is confronted to the problem understanding the women. His stack of facing challenges are then popped out as his wife Gretta speaks of her first love, and the epiphany then takes place.
Then, there is this unique characteristic in the protagonist to be broken, as seen in Gabriel's own dinner speech of cherishing “the memory of those dead” and his firm statement to not “linger
on the past”. In order for the epiphany, break of his consciousness or his characteristic, to take place, something must be built beforehand. It is this previous stance of him that dramatizes his shock and his epiphany.
James Joyce's epiphany, I believe, is different from that of others in the aspect that he can dramatize the moment of epiphany in a realistic way by delineating and giving background information humbly and in length. After all, I believe it is these elements behind the stage that make Joycean epiphany special.
