James Joyce's "Ulysses"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the dialogue quoted in the paper from James Joyce's "Ulysses", between Mr. Deasy and Stephen Dedalus, illustrates the manner in which two distinct characters of the novel conceptualize the impact of history upon identity. The author points out that, as the dialogue of these two characters shifts between two extremes, Stephen serves to contrast the views personified in Deasy. The paper suggests that, whereas Deasy constructs an inaccurate world history infused with religious certainty upon which to construct his identity, Stephen discovers only abstractions, which fail to define him. The paper states that the reference to Parnell concludes Deasy's comments on the dangers of women, which projects this theme of the novel that is expressed in the central conflict of another character in the novel, Bloom.

From the Paper:

"Living without Deasy's reconstructed history, Stephen is unable to find any certainty by which to define himself. "[I]n this episode Stephen moves from a questioning of the veracity and solidity of world history to similar questions about his own personal history, oscillating between a realization that the past is real and inescapable ("And yet it was in some way") and a desire to escape the past his memory has fabled." Stephen's constant questioning of the nature of history sets him up in opposition to Deasy's convenient rationalizations, yet leaves him equally unable to actualize himself."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Joyce, James. Ulysses. New York: Random House, 1961.
• Lyons, F.S.L. Charles Stewart Parnell. London : Collins, 1977.
• Thornton, Weldon. Allusions in Ulysses. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,1968.
• Rickard, John. "Stephen Dedalus Among Schoolchildren: The Schoolroom and the Riddle of Authority in Ulysseys", in Studies in the Literary Imagination. Vol. XXX, No. 2, Fall 1997, pp. 17-36.

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