Different Points of View in Ulysses - Essay Example

?Different Points of View in Ulysses submitted Introduction Some literary works deliberately exploit a number of different styles. A good example is James Joyce’s Ulysses. In this case, style of at least some of the different episodes of the book should be identified with the style, not of the implied author ‘James Joyce,’ but of the narrator of that episode. The personality expressed by the style of the Cyclops episode, for example, is not the personality which the author seems to have; the coarse and unpleasant personality expressed belongs only to the nameless narrator of the episode (Dayton 290). We can detect the way in which Joyce appears to manipulate the narrative point of view, treat the Ulysses theme and characterize Molly Bloom. There is the presence of many different narrators with different styles. This is itself a feature of Joyce’s style and it is expressive of certain traits that Joyce seems to have, such as boisterous creativity, a delight in the expressive capacities of language and an interest in the way reality can be viewed and reported from so many different points of view (Dayton 290). The Different Points of View and the Split Narrator Function in Ulysses Ulysses manifests different points of narration facilitated by the numerous characters in the novel. There are three distinct and consistent points of narration throughout Ulysses: the first and third person omniscient and direct address involving amongst characters. In the Cyclops episode (episode 12), there is the uninterrupted third person narration; this could suffice for a forth point of narration. Ulysses’ author, Joyce, incorporates a traditional narrative technique, including familiar uses of character development and narrative style and voice. The novel begins by focusing on the voice of the artist, Stephen Dedaulus. Stephen considers writing and artistic creation. However, his efforts stall in the complexity of his thoughts and reflections that form the heart of the ‘Proteus’ episode. Joyce uses the third-person narration, dialogue and dramatization of scenes as examples of his use of traditional novelistic elements (McKenna 178). The first page of Ulysses displays third person narration as in the excerpt below: “He peered sideways up and gave a long low whistle of call, then paused awhile in rapt attention, his even white teeth glistening here and there with gold points. Chrysostomos. Two strong shrill whistles answered through the calm” (Ulysses 1). The author tells about Stephen Dedaulus from a third person narration point of view. Furthermore, the author uses interior monologue. The choice of the word ‘Chryssostomous’ characterizes the interior monologue in question. Interior monologue is invaluable to the reader as he is able to gain a personal touch with the character’s interior personality. ‘Chrysostomos’ here refers to Stephen’s stream of thought with Buck Mulligan in his mind. Interior monologue is also evident in Bloom as is discussed in a subsequent page (page 5) of this paper. Joyce permits different narrative persona to take over the presentation of the material of each episode. The precise limits of this Presenter’s authority are admittedly hard to establish and they vary from one episode to another (Newman, Thornton 248). It also important to note the way Joyce uses third person clarifiers such as ‘Stephen said’ and ‘Mulligan said.’ For instance,   - He was raving all night about a black panther, Stephen said. Where is his gun case?       - A woeful lunatic, Mulligan said. Were you in a funk? Thus we see ‘Stephen said’ and ‘Mulligan said’ occurring in the middle of direct character quotes from those characters. Stephen didn’t say ‘where is his gun case’ as may be interpreted, he was quoting the raving lunatic of whom he was speaking. And obviously Stephen didn’t say ‘Stephen said’ in the middle of his own remark, so we quickly figure out that these are third person markers or clarifiers (Greene 1). The different points of view in Ulysses represent the richness of speech and language. Joyce speaks through a variety of languages. Evident from the novel are heterogeneous stylistic unities which include: (1) Direct authorial literary-artistic narration (in all its diverse variants); (2) Stylization of the various forms of oral everyday narration (skaz); (3) Stylization of the various forms of semi literary (written) everyday narration (the letter, the diary etc.); (4) Various forms of literary but extra-artistic authorial speech (moral, philosophical or scientific statements, oratory, ethnographic descriptions, memoranda and so forth); (5) The stylistically individualized speech of characters (Bakhtin 34). An episode like ‘Telemachus,’ for example, displays a wide array of authorial literary and artistic narration. “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stair head, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed" (Ulysses 3). The use of the word ‘bearing’ instead of ‘carrying’ is part of the ‘novelese’ characteristic, as Kenner reminds us of the first episode, both it and the two adjectives used to describe Buck also reflect his particular rhetorical pomposity. But it is not exactly as if Buck himself had written that sentence; nor do we have an otherwise ‘neutral’ narrative vocabulary pervaded by ‘a little cloud of idioms which a character might use if he were managing the narrative.’ Rather, Buck’s verbal mannerisms are a necessary part of a wholly objective presentation of him. ‘Plump’ somewhat deflates ‘stately.’ The sentence is at once seduced by Mulligan’s rhetoric and coolly observant of his person. This does not imply that Buck would have been incapable of writing that sentence. The sentence objectifies the point of view which it takes (Attridge 208). Narration is also evident when Joyce tells us about Bloom: "Mr. Bloom glanced from his angry moustache to Mr. Power’s mild face and Martin Cunningham's eyes and beard, gravely shaking. Noisy self-willed man. Full of his son. He is right. If little Rudy had lived" (Ulysses 73). This stylistically individualized speech of characters is dominant in chapters such as ‘Proteus’ and ‘Penelope’ in which, mainly by means of stream of consciousness, the reader encounters the speech of both Stephen and Molly. Ulysses contains therefore an elaborated dialogue of languages which do not exclude each other but intersect in many different ways. The book stands as a conceptualization of the world in words with its specific views as they co-exist in the consciousness of real people. In the narrative discourse words ‘become flesh’, live a real life and struggle, evolve, echo, mingle and intrude upon each other. They are drawn in by Joyce for the orchestration of different themes and the expression of different intentions (Bakhtin 35). Still focusing on Bloom, there is the introduction of Bloom's interior monologue. This is effected by means of a number of short phrases, moving from narrative and narrated perception (here recognizable from pronominal reference and syntactical peculiarities) to interior monologue, with two instances of indirect/reported speech to ease the transition from the third-person reference of the narrative proper to the first-person reference in the interior monologue (refer to the second and third paragraphs at the very beginning of ‘Calypso,’ 107/57/55.) From that moment onward interior monologue can occur with or without flanking narrated perception and increasingly appears in an interpolative manner, punctuating continuous stretches of dialogue or narrative. This kind of juxtaposition has a totally different effect from that in "Telemachus," which is due to the general tone of the narrative in ‘Calypso’ (Fludernik 22). The dominance in narration surrounding Mr. Bloom is evident in subsequent texts. We notice that he was initially referred to as ‘Mr. Leopold Bloom’ but subsequent mentions in most parts of the novel refer to him as simply ‘Mr. Bloom.’ Not only are Bloom's most casual movements recorded with circumstantialities, this report is also complemented by extensive extracts from his seemingly quite banal mental notes. The effect of the slight ‘distanciation’, however, cannot be explained without reference to the shape and style of the narrative itself, which stylistically mirrors Bloom's scientific and commonsensical mind in the same way that the narrative in "Telemachus" aped Mulligan and then Stephen. Whereas the narrative in "Proteus" is so unobtrusive that it helps to enhance Stephen's point of view, the juxtaposition of narrative and interior monologue in "Calypso" sometimes has a distinctly intrusive quality (Fludernik 22). Furthermore, according to Fludernik, the reader is now frequently reminded of the narrative voice and of its external perspective on Bloom. Nevertheless the narrative is still flexible enough to allow a consistent interpretation from Bloom's point of view. It has not yet become insistent enough for the reader to be forced to refocus his reading from Bloom's perspective on that of the narrative. There is only one sentence of undeniable external perspective in ‘Calypso’: ‘His vacant face stared pityingly at the postscript’ (131/68/66). In the narrative of ‘Calypso’ one also comes across fewer instances of "Mr. Bloom" than one finds in "Lotuseaters" or "Hades." The plot concentrates on Bloom (he meets fewer people than in the following two chapters), and for long stretches of text he is referred to by personal pronoun only. In comparison with the two succeeding episodes "Calypso" also exhibits the greatest number of empathetic instances of narrated perception: "He pulled the hall door to after him very quietly, more, till the foot leaf dropped gently over the threshold, a limp lid ("Calypso’ 111/59/57) (Fludernik 22-23). The narrator has also conceptualized a psychological state of mind as a material action, associated with fighting, where Stephen is portrayed as a conscious human actor endowed with volitional power and command over himself. If in Buck’s case the material processes used to represent behavioral activities appear to deny the character’s conscious involvement in the emotional sphere, in Stephen’s case the material action is an intention process where the character is represented as being in total control of the act. The different way in which the meaning is encoded in the clauses casts some light on the different viewpoint from which the narrator represents the characters. If in Buck’s case the narrator’s external perspective undermines the character’s psychological depth, in Stephen’s, the internal viewpoint highlights the character’s inner complexity and reveals how the narrator’s proximity to the young Dedalus is reflective of his psychological empathy with him (Cecconi 63). Joyce's intention in Ulysses is precisely to offer an account of the different alien voices which conform not only to one's speech but also to one's consciousness. Therefore, the presentation of the female protagonist's indirect monologues becomes at times a veritable collage. It incorporates a continuous ‘parodization’ of the languages of the romantic novelette, women's magazines and columns of practical advice (Bakhtin 36). In the ‘Nausicaa’ episode, when describing the female protagonist's physical appearance, the narrator's voice seems to adopt the point of view of an artist. The language used recalls the speech of a painter or sculptor but it is suddenly disrupted by the intrusion of a voice which introduces certain terms extracted from a beauty magazine. The shift is anticipated by the conjunction ‘though’: "Her hands were of finely veined alabaster with tapering fingers ...’though’ it was not true that she used to wear kid gloves in bed or take a milk footbath either" (286,) (Bakhtin 37). Likewise, in the following example, both narrative voice and the character's speech (through indirect style) merge, their boundaries being however established by the introduction of the conjunction ‘but’ twice. The first time it announces the character's speech, the second time it announces the return to the narrator's voice: The twins clamored again for it and Cissy told her to kick it away and let them fight for it, so Gerty drew back her foot ‘but’ she wished their stupid ball hadn't come rolling down to her and she gave a kick ‘but’ she missed and Eddy and Cissy laughed (Ulysses 292) (Bakhtin 38). Joyce gathers all those voices and exercises his freedom as author, a freedom connected with the relativity of literary and language systems. He never defines himself in one language but transfers the language of all those different and multiple voices. In the new Joycean’ proposal, narration is equated with breakdown, disintegration and fragmentation of boundaries (Bakhtin 40). The Split Narrator Function The split narrator function serves some functions in the novel. Readers and texts are present as reflexivity in Ulysses. The characters reading within Ulysses is a reflexivity due to the fact that we are seeing a mirror image of ourselves, for we are watching someone read a text that is part of the text that we are reading, that is, we are ‘reading’ reading. For this to happen there must be a text. In Ulysses there are plenty of ‘Strips of paper’ that ‘wander through the day’. Among the many texts that appear multiple times in the book, we have Elijah in pamphlet, ‘The Sweets of Sin’ (which is the book Bloom buys for Molly) and H, E, L, Y and S of the Wsdom Hely’s ad, the latter being one of the more emphatic recalls of language within Ulysses (Pape 22). The narrator voice carries the reader throughout Ulysses. This voice functions simultaneously as a unique and autonomous narrator and as a voice that adapts to certain situations. The narrative voice often assumes the diction and use of language particular to the character the narrator observes, melding the stable narrative voice into a new form that functions as a hybrid voice, enhancing characterization while advancing plot. The familiar narrative voice gives the readers a familiar and stabile ground that enables readers to adjust to Joyce’s moral radical narrative innovations. It provides a sense of continuity between the early episodes of Ulysses and Joyce’s earlier works, including ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ but also the more familiar narrative voice in ‘Dubliners’ (McKenna 179). Work cited Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Attridge, Derek. James Joyce's Ulysses: A Casebook. Oxford [England: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print. Cecconi, Elisabetta. Who Chose This Face for Me?: Joyce's Creation of Secondary Characters in Ulysses. Bern: P. Lang, 2007. Print. Dayton, Eric. Art and Interpretation: An Anthology of Readings in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, 1998. Print. Top of Form GreeGreene, Charles. The Ulysses Sage: Part III. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000. Print. Bottom of Form Joyce, James. Ulysses. New York: Random House, 1946. Print. McKenna, Bernard. James Joyce's Ulysses: A Reference Guide. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2002. Internet resource. Newman, Robert D, and Weldon Thornton. Joyce's Ulysses: The Larger Perspective. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1987. Print. Pape, Daniel J. 'up Out of This': Metatextuality in Joyce's Ulysses. , 2008. Internet resource. Ulysses and Heteroglossia: a Bakhtinian Reading of the "nausicaa" Episode. Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Filologi?a Inglesa, n.d.. Internet resource. 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