Tag: Commonplace

“For Hugh always made her feel, as he bustled on, raising his hat rather extravagantly and assuring her that she might be a girl of eighteen,”

This quote leads to Mrs. Dalloway’s stream of consciousness leading to a past memory of Peter. I think it shows how human she is in the fact that sometimes throughout our day we see things that remind us of a past event and lead our minds to wander back into the past.

“What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had always seemed to her, when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air. How fresh, how calm, stiller than this of course, the air was in the early morning: like the flap of a wave, chill and sharp and yet (for a girl of eighteen as she then was) solemn, feeling as she did, standing there at the open window, that something awful was about to happen: looking at the flowers, at the trees with the smoke winding off them and the rooks rising, falling: standing and looking until Peter Walsh said, “Musing among the vegetables?”–‘”I prefer men to cauliflowers”–was that it…”
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (p.1 ).
In the previous paragraph Clarissa Dalloway, thinks about the men taking the doors off their hinges (indirect discourse) during the present. The only segway into her past is “a little squeak of the hinges” she remembers from the summer of her 18th year at Bourton, a childhood country home where she has a failed relationship with Peter Walsh, who in this same paragraph makes his first annoying remark about her preferring men to cauliflowers. And we are introduced to a key relationship in this novel and a place we will visit many times, Bourton. The transitions from different characters thoughts and switch in time are done sometimes mid sentence.
Valeri Drach Weidmann/September 30, 2023/Mrs. Dalloway

“A dim antagonism gathered force within him and darkened his mind as a cloud against her disloyalty: and when it passed, cloudlike, leaving his mine serene and dutiful towards her again…” (p. 178).

The beginning of chapter 4 consists of Stephen guiding himself through the church and his beliefs.  As he starts to think more about his potential involvement in university, his thoughts rapidly shift to anger towards his mother.  But as soon as the thought starts, it ends right at the end of the sentence and there is nothing more towards that in this passage. 

“His throat ached with a desire to cry aloud, the cry of a hawk’s or eagle on high, to cry piercingly of his deliverance to the winds. This was the call of life to his soul not the dull gross voice of the world of duties and despair, not the inhuman voice that called him to the pale service of the altar. An instant of wild flight had delivered him and the cry of triumph which his lips withheld cleft his brain.”

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (p. 143).

The early portions of this chapter are marked by Stephen dedicating his time and efforts towards rejecting physical senses and existence and forcing himself to focus on the sanctification of his soul and his deliverance to heaven. He avoids all positive sensory stimulation and strictly limits his expression, such as by not controlling his voice to be unnecessarily loud or joyful in song or whistle. Stephen turning away from nature and vibrance is reflected in the style of this portion, which uses dull and somewhat morbid language, especially when Stephen reflects on his future in religious profession. After realizing that his purpose cannot lie in priesthood and accepting that he cannot avoid “falling” religiously, Stephen’s world, and the style of the text, becomes vibrant again, and he begins to remember the joy of sensory observations and free expression. This builds up to a climax in which Stephen feels the urge to cry out in triumph, and feels as though he is flying freely, in stark contrast to his earlier muted, restricted expression and sensation.

“The muddy streets were gay. He strode homeward, conscious of an invisible grace pervading and making light his limbs. In spite of all he had done it. He had confessed and God has pardoned him. His soul was made fair and holy once more, holy and happy.” (122)

After pages and pages of hearing the punishment of hell and Stephen’s growing fear and agony towards the possibility of ending up in that situation, we read the forgiveness fill almost less than a single page of the book. While this contrast caught my eye, word choices further highlighted situations, one of them being “In spite of all he had done it.” The pages of fear towards hell over his adultery being summarized as “all” was an interesting choice, as if the sin were over-dramaticized. Right after, the passage says “He had confessed and God had pardoned him.” It seemed to be ironic to me, that God had the power to pardon him and, according to Stephen, only did when he confessed. When just two paragraphs before, God is said to have “mercifulness,” Stephen seems to leave out the agony he had gone through — agony God could have pardoned — and immediately credits his forgiveness to God. If God, in this story, were so merciful, then why did Stephen become physically ill upon the pages of the priest’s description of his possible punishment from his adultery?

“A restless feeling of guilt would always be present with him: he would confess and repent and be absolved, confess and repent and be absolved again, fruitlessly……But the surest sign that his confession had been good and that he had sincere sorrow for his sin was, he known the amendment of his life.

—I have amended my life, have I not? He asked himself” (Joyce, 166).

Throughout Chapter 4 Stephen is constantly trying to justify himself through devoting his life to being a good Catholic, down to the weekday. His tone changes however, when he becomes angry and ashamed that his past temptations come back for him and he has to repent again. Though he says “The very frequency and violence of temptations showed him at last the truth of what he had heard about the trials of the saints” (165) he finds the cycle of penance and “sin” to be constant humiliation and pointless. He changes his tone again when he comes to the realization that his life has changed for the better and he’s saved himself from an eternity of misery. Stephen lets his guilt consume him and keep him secured to his Catholic faith.

“His tormentors set off towards Jone’s Road, laughing and jeering at him while he, torn and flushed and panting, stumbled after them half blinded with tears, clenching his fist madly and sobbing” (Joyce 69).

Through the first chapter our perception of Stephen dealing with his emotions or expressing it was rather passive. Contrary to chapter one, this chapter shows anger, anxiety and guilt.

“Nothing stirred within his soul but a cold and cruel and loveless lust. His childhood was dead or lost and with it his soul capable of simple joys, and he was drifting amid life like the barren shell of the moon.”
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce, Chapter 2, p.97
His growing up, his adolescent years has led him to a dark recking of his father’s choices, drunkenness and poverty for his family. He is embarrassed by his father’s behavior as they tour his old college and haunts.
Valeri Drach Weidmann/ September 15, 2023/ Judgements on his life especially his father, James Joyce, disillusionment

“He had been rash, been stupid, had gone out too soon, stayed out too long. He oughtn’t to have exposed himself to strangers, he ought to have taken his servant. He felt as if he had fallen into a hole too deep to descry any little patch of heaven.”
James, Henry. “The Middle Years.” (pg. 345).

James’s description of how Decombe feels about his illness brings insight to how defeated the main character is. The continuous drawl of self scolding for simply going out details how much Decombe has fallen from the peak of his career.

“He should never again, as at one or two great moments of the past, be better than himself. The infinite of life had gone, and what was left of the dose was a small glass engraved like a thermometer by the apothecary.“

– Henry James, The Middle Years page 335

I think this portion was a strong way to introduce the theme of the next few pages. It’s later described as something “passing away,” this deep loss of ever having another chance, and how strong and helpless it makes an aging person feel.

“Dencombe had told him what he ‘tried for;’ with all his intelligence, on a first perusal, Doctor Hugh had failed to guess it. The baffled celebrity wondered then who in the world would guess it: He was amused once more at the fine, full way with which an intention could be missed.”

– Henry James, “The Middle Years“, page 349

Dencombe conteplates the death of the author phenomenon while approaching his deathbed himself.  Missed intentions are found throughout the work, most notably Dencombe missing what Doctor Hughes seems to be “trying for” in regards to their relationship. 

“To these things the young man with the book was still more clearly indifferent; lingering, credulous, absorbed, he was an object of envy to an observer from whose connection with literature all such artlessness had faded”

James, “The Middle Years,” p. 336.

Dencombe is a man who is ill and lost the thrill for life, and watching a young healthy man be so encapsulated by art and literature makes him envious because his illness and criticalness of his own art doesn’t allow him to be. Through the lens of the observer, it is tragic to have a love of yours dwindle because you can no longer find meaning for it, while others young and willful can be so engrossed so effortlessly.

“‘A second chance- that’s the delusion. There never was to be but one. We work in the dark-we do what we can-we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art”

When making any type of art, becoming stuck in the mindset of making the piece perfect hinders the artist from creating. The text beautifully illustrates the observation of letting go through the development of Dencombe’s character.

“This was the pang that had been sharpest during the last few years–the sense of ebbing time, of shrinking opportunity; and now he felt not so much that his last chance was going as that it was gone indeed.”
James, The Middle Years, p. 337
“Sense of ebbing time” and “shrinking opportunity”, do these phrases mean career as a writer are over or his very life. Is shrinking opportunity really the waning of his talent as a writer.
VDW/September 9, 2023/Henry James, theme, career past prime, fleeting life force