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The search for self

Abstract

The research paper explains how the search for individual identity is portrayed by literature in

three novels of ancient great writers. In the nineteenth century modernization, people are met

with various changes in politics, religion, social ties. These changes have contributed to nations

undergoing through problems such corruption, domination of one religion as well as social

beliefs. Due to this, individuals have awakened in the quest for self-realization. They artistic

work in the struggle to identify their true identity. The authors of the novels used in this paper

have used the themes of religion, politics and work of artist as a tool that helps the individuals to

identify their true nature.

Introduction

In the times of First World War, literally modernism penetrates into the culture of Europe

as a complete self-consciously transition with respect to past with an aim to reject the legacy of

the nineteenth century. Modernism started and increased in the last years of nineteenth century

due to increased globalization (Minodora 58). People rejected the European culture which

preferred to maintain its image rather than embracing change. They accused this culture to be

morally bankrupt, complacent and corrupt. The result was a culture with a new identity that

undermined the authority and tradition of a society. Our identity is what we see ourselves in
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others. The world presents people who are different, people are coherent in nature and who act

and think independently in relation to each other.

This idea of individuality in the modern world has been changed. Currently, people are

seen to have many conflicting parts and various ways of being by developing connection and

relationships with one another. They change in terms of thinking and behavior when relating to

other people when they either move in or out of divergent cultures, ideas or cultures and even in

their inner self. Their performance differs in one context as compared to other contexts.

Modernization as a radical approach changed the way people viewed the art industry in the early

twentieth century. The search for self in the two novels uses various themes to display various

forces that the authors use to find the true identity of the main characters.

In the twentieth century, modernist writers rose above conflicts in their countries with an

objective to use their artistic skills to bring change to their countries. In this paper, modernism is

viewed by paying attention to two European countries, Ireland and Italy. Both countries lost their

identities due to political, social and nationalism. In the works of James Joyce and Pirandello,

they associate modernization as the main reason why both characters and heroes of their stories

seeks new identities. Both Stephen Dedalus and Mattia Pascal have similar characteristic though

they use different efforts to identify their self, they share same problems and experience same

results and achievements. All the questions of life they seek to get answers are similar and they

get similar answers. Paradoxically, James’ and Pirandello’s novel investigates the nature of

identity. They have taken the same stand on truth, illusion, reality and identity. Both characters

in the novel hide their identity by wearing masks that gives them new appearances which make

them susceptible to the social and political problems as they try to survive. They are both

imprisoned in their own reality.

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James Augustine Aloysius Joyce’s novel ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’

reflects how an individual in the Ireland society tries to find his true identity and inner

development. When Ireland was invaded by Britain, it lost her identity and its essence and

opened door for Protestantism which created division in Ireland society. His work shows how

Ireland society lost its identity for many years. Briefly, identity can be described as self-

definition. In his novel, James has displayed modernism to a changing world with questionable

institutions like capitalism, social life and religion. A person in the modernized world wants to

escape from the rules, to find their position in life and to experiment different forms and styles of

life as shown in the work of Joyce. He emerges from this modernization where he becomes a

senior modernist writer.

Similar to James Joyce’s work, Luigi Pirandello’s novel, ‘The Late Mattia Pascal’ is also

a clear reflection of the impossibilities an individual encounters in the quest for self. The main

character wears a new mask to completely flee himself from his own identity and start over with

a new mask. The novel takes the idea of a person’s identity and spreads it over the dark terrain of

a sudden astonishing suitable death. The whole context of Mattia Pascal demonstrates how he

tries to make a new life away from home which finally leads to his comic tragedy. He removes

himself from life by distancing himself from any and all life responsibilities. Mattia Pascal is an

Italian. He finds himself in a frustrating miserable social situation when a man who was

responsible to help them ruins his family after the death of his father. He did not have a happy

wedding since his brother-in-law hated him. The novel says when he moves to Monte Carlo, he

wins a lot of cash in a casino and boards a train back to his home after 12 days. It is on his way

back that he reads a newspaper and learns that his village is mourning his death. The villagers

find unrecognized body in his well and assume to be his. He changes his name to Adriano Meis.
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After travelling a lot, eventually he finds home in a family pension in Rome. The following

research paper uses the literary works of James Joyce and Pirandello to explore how the struggle

for search of identity is met with lot hindrances which include religion, politics and family as

James Joyce portrays in his novel and how Mattia Pascal masks himself to regain new identity

the work of Pirandello.

Background information

Both Ireland and Italy uses literary works to explore modernization in Europe. Modernist

writers Pirandello and James Joyce uses artistic work to recapture their countries from religion,

political, social and nationalism problems to give a new appearance free of struggles of the old

regime. Literatures in Ireland society have unique techniques and one of a kind style of artistic.

Most Ireland writers live in exile but despite this fact, they use their art work to show us the

Ireland spirit. Their work is unique in form, style and concept which is influenced by renowned

writers like Woolf Virginia and Faulkner William among others. James Joyce is one of the

famous and talented Ireland writers. He realized his artistic creativity while in school. James

Joyce spent ten years writing ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ novel. It was rejected

while having a title ‘Stephen Hero’ at the beginning, but he later changed it by making it shorter

and changing its title to ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ in 1907. He printed it in 1914

and published it in book form 1916 (Minodora57).

The novel illustrates about the psychological development of a young man

(bildungsroman) while other critiques illustrated it as young artist’s development

(kunstlerroman) (Rossman 46). The novel displays the struggles in which a person experiences in

the quest of looking for his or her place in society in bildungsroman while in kunstlerroman, the

novel shows how a person finds his own world by rejecting his society. James’ novel reflects
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how inner development aids an Ireland person in the quest of his or her true self. In a wider

context, the book shows how a country, Ireland invaded by Britain lost its true identity.

The relationship between Ireland and Britain started in 1801 where they enacted an Act

of Union. The results of this union was introduction of new religion, different political system

and a new look of Ireland. This country became unstable after a great famine and other related

problems which caused millions of death of Ireland people. People in Ireland did not respond to

these problems instead they gave in to Britain. This continued to happen until the dawn of new-

Ireland generation called the nationalist, with new beliefs and ideas. The nationalists fought the

British using various ways in order to free themselves. Their intention was to be free from the

influence of Britain. The country was divided into nationalist who wanted independence and

unionists whose struggle was to remain under British influence. This instability of Ireland

resulted to the loss of identity of his people. They lacked particular identity and they fought with

a need to discover themselves. Their situation turned to be ambivalent. Writers in Ireland were

affected by this ambiguousness, due to this; they tried to seek new life of identity of the Ireland

society. Every writer tried to derive a new meaning and form of identity of Ireland society in

their own vision.

The search for self-identity is also seen in the work of Luigi Pirandello novel, ‘The Late

Mattia Pascal’ published in 1904. Mattia Pascal is one of the earliest Pirandello’s works. He has

exhaustively dealt with personal identity theme throughout his novel. He has explored this theme

in many of his later plays and novels. This novel due to its popularity has been used in many

films severally with the 1925 French silent movie being the first and the Italian version of 1985.

James Joyce modernist novel ‘A Portrait of an Artist of a Young Man’ and Pirandello’s

novel ‘The Late Mattia Pascal’ provide an insight of the real world based upon the assumption
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that there is a logical connection between the outward reality and the narrator’s inward reality.

The novels show their association to Ireland, English and Italy with respect to work of Pirandello

the artistic history of the European nations and their sociological facts. The novels are the link

between the tradition of real world and the narrator’s world of art that creates the self of an

individual. Generally, the text reads the political, social, literary, economic and intellectual fields

within the novels and outside it.

The struggle to find new identity

James’ and Pirandello’s novel are a predecessor of the modernist novels written to

respond to the realistic style that prevails in the nineteenth century. Their novels responded to a

quickly changing world in institutions like capitalism, religion and social order. Both novels of

James and Pirandello, reflects profound sociological crisis in the European society in the

twentieth century. They both put emphasis on individual characters. They relate individual

identity with individual feelings, how it changes, and its relationship with reality. Pirandello

asserts that identity is not a fixed concept but instead it’s a delicate mask a person wears for a

short period of time because the situation demands and then removed if a different situation

demands change. The individuals surrounding a person are a major factor that can be used to

provide the nature of identity. Relationships, similarities and differences of people to other

people can be used to perceive the identity of an individual. Basically, however, identity is

differential in nature. This is proved when you compare the attributes that the heroes have in the

novels of James and Pirandello.

The European nations had many challenges with her people suffering for a long period of

time. The novel ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ in chapter one reveals how the people

in Ireland society could not live in union and peace due to the problem they suffered. Every
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Ireland member in the society struggled to look for true identity. Through the work of writers,

the struggle to create a new identity of Ireland with no problems is displayed by James in his

novel. They remained tied to their nation Ireland even those who ran away from Dublin. Even

though James was against Catholicism, cultural and political nationalism and the entire Ireland,

he was still tied with love for his nation. His novel is all about Ireland and its struggles to gain

independence from the British related problems through his struggles to achieve his true identity.

James Joyce could not cut ties with his motherland; he remained loyal to Ireland in spite of

spending most of his time in exile. In order for James to achieve self-definition, he uses his novel

to reveal the streets of Dublin secrets. The main theme of Ireland is all about politics and religion

which helps in discovering the true nature of Ireland society.

There are various factors that influence the search for new self. They include the

significance of the names of the main characters, religion and its effects on Ireland, love for art

and Ireland politics.

a) Change of name

In the modern world, in a world that is disillusioned world, people can no longer put their

trust in appearances (Nourit 359). There exist a great similarity on the significance of changing

the names of their main characters between novels; Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist as a Young man

and the Pirandello’s The Late Mattia Pascal. The identity problem begins with the hero of the

novel being named Stephen Dedalus. Stephen is a name given to the martyr, the first Christian.

Dedalus is a Greek myth name Daedalus which meant a cunning worker. Daedalus was an

artisan and a very talented craftsman. He is known to design a building that hold a Minotaur, half

man and half bull creature at Knossos for the king Minos of Crete (Sahnoune 4). The king

restrained him in his tower in order to prevent the spread Minotaur to the public. Daedalus
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decided to escape the kings building by creating wings which he tied feathers together using wax

for his son Icarus and himself. His son drowns because he did not heed the advice of the father

not to fly close to the sun because the wings would melt. This myth revealed the role of an artist

of Daedalus and it’s a novel basic structure. James Joyce changed the name Daedalus to seem

more Ireland to Dedalus (Sahnoune 48). At the beginning, Stephen does not understand whether

his name is Greek or Ireland. Stephen is unable to answer when asked by a boy student what

kind of a name is Stephen Dedalus. He realizes later in chapter four that he has to escape as

Daedalus did in the myth of Minotaur. Instead of wings, Stephen flies his words and his

dedication to art to escape. He escapes from Ireland and creatively uses art to regain himself.

According to the myth, Daedalus son dies because he did not take advice from his father.

Stephen develops a sense of fear that his escape would result to a bad ending (Minodora59).

According to Pirandello’s The Late Mattia Pascal novel, the change of name signified a

new beginning, a life with a new identity. After fleeing to Monte Carlo, Mattia Pascal through

gambling wins a large amount of money which made him wealthy and independent. While

returning back home after 12 days, news of his death shocks him. He learns from a newspaper

that the villagers had retrieved a body of unknown man whom they believed to be him at the

local mill. He quickly accepts the death and decides to start a new life all over again. He decides

to completely destroy Mattia Pascal. According to him, this would bring a new face of a man

with only identity known to him. He changes his appearance and changes his name to Adriano

Meis. At the beginning of the novel, the author reveals that he found freedom in his new life

from his past experiences. In that, he does not need to contribute to the society or please anyone

rather than himself. In fact he was lucky; his little gambling experience enabled him to earn

enough money to cater for his needs in his new life. Later at the end of the novel, Pirandello
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portrays how Mattia changed back his name from Adriano to Mattia by killing Adriano. He goes

back to his home only to realize that he is still forgotten, and his wife has been remarried to his

well-known friend.

b) Religion and its effects on Ireland

Aspect of religion and its effects to the society is best elaborated by James Joyce in his

novel. There is a conflict between the catholic education and personal desires as reflected in the

novel. Through the main character of his novel, Stephen Dedalus, James lives a catholic life.

The church controlled all aspect of human life of every individual in Ireland, their social and

intellectual life and personal thoughts. People are supposed to observe the holy rituals of the

Catholic Church. For instance the Holy trinity that is very important which indicates the Father,

Son and the Holy Spirit existence to the church. There is also the mortal sin which people believe

that if you do it, you die because is acting against God’s will. Catholics believes that you have to

confess to a priest for you to be forgiven because if you do not, you will live in eternal hell. The

catholic religion outlined seven sins that Ireland were not supposed to go against; sloth, gluttony,

envy, lust, pride, lust, covetousness and lust. Another practice of the catholic religion which

dominated the Ireland society is the acceptance of Sacrament which signified the baptism in the

Catholic ceremony. There is also Communion Sacrament preceded by confession and both are

practiced at least once per year. Even though Stephen is courageous to rebel, he never treated a

holy thing badly (Sahnoune 3).

More so, Stephen is accused of Heresy by believing something that is not catholic

religion when he wrote a sentence in his essay by his English teacher. This made Stephen to

reject catholic religion because of controlling even people’s thoughts. In James’s novel, there is a

clear reflection of Catholic life in Ireland as portrayed by Stephen’s family. There is a clear
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indication of the strictness to observe the Catholic religion, worshipping God and no questions

asked. A good example is seen when Stephen’s mother asks him to apologize after saying that he

will marry his friend, Eileen form a Protestant family when he grows up. Catholics forbids

marriage between non-Catholic and Catholics. Another attribute of this religion is denial of

rights of children as they have to follow their adults; they are educated by the Jesuits in Jesuits

schools in Dublin. The schools program included are sermons that teach the Catholic principles

to the children. Stephen rebels the religion and refuses to celebrate Easter with his family (Payam

7).

c) The role politics in Ireland

Ireland lived with troubles. Despite this, Ireland society taught their children to be loyal

to their country. The nineteenth century marked the beginning of new generation; the Catholic

priests took over power in Ireland. They removed nationalist Parnell from power because of

engaging in adultery. There existed division of Ireland society, anti-Unionists and Unionists,

Protestants and Catholics, and after the death of Parnell, Ireland divided into anti-Parnell and

pro-Parnell. Dante, in Stephen Dedalus family, represents one division of Ireland society. Dante

is a Catholic devoted member who sides with Parnell and Davitt. She rejects Parnell when

church condemns. John Casey, a friend to Dedalus represented the pro-Parnell division of

Ireland. In his quote in the novel, John Casey remarks that the priests should leave politics or the

people will leave their church.

Each person wanted to be free form troubles in Ireland. The fight for independence for

their country was unique to every individual in Ireland. University Students are used to describe

the fight for independence, they rejects the literature and English culture and defends their Gaelic

culture independence. Stephen’s friend Davin remarkably says that every man’s country will
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always come first and so Ireland was. In addition, James Joyce described the beauty of Dublin

with many monuments which are attractive and Georgian houses made of bricks of the

eighteenth century with dark streets. River Liffey added a natural beauty to Dublin Bay.

According to James Joyce, Ireland was a prison and living in such a society was difficult for him.

In the midst of all the troubles Ireland experienced, he struggled to look for his Ireland identity

and later on, went into exile to search for his identity (Sahnoune 4).

The fate for the search for self

Stephen, as the novel ends, he decides to flee from the problems of his family, Ireland

nationalism and the tradition of the Catholic religion by flying to abroad. In his new home, he

reveals that being an artist is his new identity. Eventually, Stephen comes to a resolution to

abandon all the ties of society, nationalism and morals that were inflicted on him and start a new

life without limitations as an artist. However, he realizes that whatever he abandoned formed a

unique basis of his art. He undergoes through a lot of struggles in the quest of becoming an artist

and he encounters several important developments during the entire novel which helps him with

the basis of his personal inherent. Stephen undergoes through several establishments with his

spiritual exposure being the first.

The theories of aesthetic develop his understanding of the art. He used art to rewrite his

encounters in life. As mentioned before, Stephen fled to exile in order to run off from Ireland

family ties, religion, nationality and morality to that he can embrace his desire of becoming an

artist. A Portrait describes a journey of the ability of an artist who abandons all his social ties for

purpose of art and an expedition of an artist’s ability that foretells a tale of young man

transforming into an artist. James Joyce uses his novel to bring to light the occasions of

Stephen’s life that forms a character who would demonstrate both emotional and physical
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struggle of a young artist in the fight against all barriers that held him captive in a maze. James

Joyce displays Stephen as a critical thinker, a character different from others back from the start

of his growth, in his growth into maturation; he examines and demonstrates his aesthetic and

philosophy of art while he desires for becoming an artist.

At the end of Portrait, there are series of events happening in the novel as Stephen

prepares to flee to exile. The final entry of the novel brings to light the Daedalus’ myth into

focus, Stephen realizes his new identity resemble that of Icarus, the son of Dedalus who drowns

after flown up high in the sky near the sun against his father’s advice. Stephen rebels against his

family and religion runs into exile.

The dawn of artistic development of Stephen is shown at the beginning of the novel, the

opening part displays Stephen’s childhood which starts with a story that remembers Stephen in

his childhood. He reveals his ability to become a future artist in the way he uses songs and

rhymes, his manner of speech and what he says about the world surrounding him in writing or

discussions. It is also evident in the language use at the Stephen’s life early beginning that affects

him in the entire novel. In the first lines of the novel, it is stated that the seeds of artistic are

germinating in Stephen’s life (Payam 10).

The work of Pirandello uses masks to deliver the overall feeling and impossibilities of

living without masks completely outside the society. Even though he majors mostly with the

impersonation masks and shares the belief that underneath one’s mask there is a real or true self,

it appears that the truth always have a form of mask for Pirandello. His work reflects the society

where if an individual peels one mask after another, another mask appears underneath it (Nourit

370). Past, community, upbringing and family ties determine the kind of people we become

when we grow. It is ultimately difficult to change or escape from our ‘self’ because the past
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‘self’ is linked to the present of our ‘self’. In addition, our deeds have repercussions, and these

repercussions are completely absent the consciousness of Pascal at this time. Pascal is

objectively driven by the fact that he want to start over again and live spectrally without any

responsibilities in the world. Pascal does not account for his death when he is thought to be dead

by people in his village. His link to the society of the living has been cut off as he thinks

irrevocably. Nevertheless, Mattia mistakenly ignores the fact that a person leaves behind things

when he or she dies (Martino 9).

In relation to James Joyce’ work, Pirandello’s novel is a clear illustration that if an

individual flees from his home in the search for self, it is difficult to be accepted back in the

society and one cannot run away from his own identity and start over. Pascal attempted to bring

some order to his life after his father’s death but this is met challenges and chaos. He had high

hopes of a comfortable life because his father was wealthy in his young age. However, in his

adult age, he finds his life to be disappointment. His father had left his wealth in the hands of a

man who was responsible for the family matters. This man destroyed Mattia’s inheritance

causing him to work in job that he was not passionate about and being involved in marriage that

was so miserable to his life. Due to hate from his brother-in-law, arguments with his mother-in-

law and his wife, he decides to flee to Monte Carlo.

The novel shows that life in Monte Carlo was suitable; he won a large amount of money

which made him wealthy and independent. The news of his death shocks him. He learns from a

newspaper that the villagers had retrieved a body of unknown man whom they believed to be

him at the local mill. He quickly accepts the death and decides to start a new life all over again.

A decision pops up that he should completely destroy Mattia Pascal. According to him, this

would bring a new face of a man with only identity known to him. He changes his appearance
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and changes his name to Adriano Meis (Martino 6). At the beginning of the novel, the author

reveals that he found freedom in his new life from his past experiences. In that, he does not need

to contribute to the society or please anyone rather than himself. In fact he was lucky; his little

gambling experience enabled him to earn enough money to cater for his needs in his new life.

Nevertheless, after using this new chance in life to visit all the famous Italy sites, he finds

that his new identity though unchained, has left him disconnected from the world and lonely.

Practically, he is unable to participate in any societal affair due to lack of identification. The

advantage of this is that he is free from paying taxes. He discovers that the level of loneliness has

increased and had made him even unhappier than before. In addition, he is cut from making

friends because he feared he might secretively reveal his true life. The novel states that Mattia

Pascal decides to kill Adriano Meis in order to reclaim his true identity of the past and return

home to his family. It is very unfortunate for him, he realizes that people in his village had

moved on with their life and he was forgotten. In fact, his wife remarried, she was married to a

man that he had no respect in his life time in that village (Martino 6).

Freedom of Pascal was just an illusion. He loses his power and capabilities to alter his

own identity when he loses his identity. He is more imprisoned in the past than he was before.

This makes him to realize that the reality of people only exist in their past and other people’s

relationship. Practically, he had destroyed his own life.

Conclusion

Modernization is a radical approach that changes the way people viewed the art industry

in the early twentieth century. This idea of individuality in the modern world has been changed.

Currently, people are seen to have many conflicting parts and various ways of being by

developing connection and relationships with one another. They change in terms of thinking and
Surname 15

behavior when relating to other people when they either move in or out of divergent cultures,

ideas or cultures and even in their inner self. Their performance differs in one context as

compared to other contexts. The search for self in this paper has been greatly been influenced by

factors such as religion, love, need for change, politics and the calling of artistic.

In his novel ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’, James Joyce reflects how an

individual in the Ireland society tries to find his true identity and inner development. His work

shows how Ireland society lost its identity for many years. In his novel, James has displayed

modernism to a changing world with questionable institutions like capitalism, social life and

religion. A person in the modernized world wants to escape from the rules, to find their position

in life and to experiment different forms and styles of life as shown in the work of Joyce. He

emerges from this modernization where he becomes a senior modernist writer.

The Late Mattia Pascal novel by Pirandello portrays how it is impossible for a man to

completely flee himself from his own identity and start over. The novel takes the idea of a

person’s identity and spreads it over the dark terrain of a sudden astonishing suitable death. The

whole context of Mattia Pascal demonstrates how he tries to make a new life away from home

which finally leads to his comic tragedy. He removes himself from life by distancing himself

from any and all life responsibilities. No one can live as one. Everybody is a combination of

different ‘I’ that can appear or disappear, change, give up, dominate, change place as time

passes, through changes of position or opinion and other related factors. The ‘I’ is perceived to

be just an illusion.
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Work Cited

Minodora Otilia SIMION. Modernist Techniques In A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

By James Joyce. Annals of the „Constantin Brâncuși” University of Târgu Jiu, Letter

and Social Science Series, 2013.

Nourit Melcer-Padon. Mattia Pascal Punitive Mask. Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Italica, Vol

92. No. 2 Summer 2015.

Payam Othman Karim. Stephen Dedalus between Disappointment and Self-discovery in James

Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. University of Sulaimani; Department of

English Academic Year: 2015-2016

A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, 2019.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/portrait-artist-young-man

Sahnoune Sara. The Uniqueness of the Search for Identity in J. Joyce’s Novel: A Portrait of the

Artist as a Young Man. A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in Partial

fulfillment for the Degree of Master in English Language, Civilization and Literature,

2010.

History of Modernism

https://www.mdc.edu/wolfson/academic/artsletters/art_philosophy/humanities/history_of_moder

nism.html

Andrew Martino, The Misplaced I: Il fu Mattia Pascal and the Spectrality of Identity: Southern

New Hampshire University, 2007.

Rossman, Charles. “The Reader’s Role in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” In James

Joyce: An International Perspective. Eds. Suheil Badi Bushrui and Bernard Benstock.

Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble, 1982: 19 –37.

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Transforming Identity: Self and Persona in Luigi Pirandello's Il fu Mattia Pascal, PSA: The

Journal of The Pirandello Society of America Volume XXVIII (2016)