English 20th - Century Literature

Berta Vila Ortega

bertavilaortega@gmail.com

11/03/2022

Group 2, Francesca Blanch Serrat

Estudis d’anglès i espanyol

English 20th -Century Literature

James Joyce, an author with many enigmas

In 1904, one of the most significant writers of the 20th century and supporter of
the modernist avant-garde movement, James Joyce (1882-1941), published in the Irish
Homestead his short story named ¨The Sisters¨. The piece, which is the story of the
genuine connection between a boy with a deceased priest, is one of Joyce’s major
works. Later, the writer published ¨The Sisters¨, together with the rest of the short
stories’ collection, in the Dubliners in 1914. It was the first fiction of the author. In the
story, the author makes great use of linguistic strategies, such as symbols, which
represent one thing, their presence in the story has some meaning and sense, otherwise
they would not be there. In this essay I will analyze the use of linguistic strategies, like
the symbology, in “The Sisters¨ developing the idea of their use by the author of the
work and the reasons why they are there. The presence of linguistic strategies has a
much more meaningful and profound meaning than the simple option of being part of a
narrative. The author wants to make the reader think and with the use of each method,
and in some cases without doing it implicitly, he wants to make the reader see different
situations or opinions of himself and of the time in which he lived.

Firstly, the author uses the ellipses as a linguistic strategy to make the book
reader see that the character of the story says what the others are expected to listen.
James Joyce’s short story is concentrating on the predominant enigmas that the text
presents. In fact, this is accentuated by using ellipses, themselves representing the
impossibility of naming what is missing in that sentence. They are exclusively in the
talk of the characters and never in the narration itself.

My aunt waited until Eliza sighed and then said: "Ah, well, he's gone to a better world."
Eliza sighed again and bowed her head in assent. My aunt fingered the stem of her wine-
glass before sipping a little. "Did he... peacefully?" she asked. "Oh, quite peacefully,
ma'am," said Eliza. "You couldn't tell when the breath went out of him. He had a beautiful
death, God be praised." "And everything...?" "Father O'Rourke was in with him a Tuesday
and anointed him and prepared him and all." (James Joyce 1914: p.4)
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This scene is reproducing a moment of mourning towards someone who has passed
away, and the best is wished for him. In this passage, it seems that the different
characters that are participating in the conversation, are trying to say the most accurate
words that they need for the situation that they are involved. They are selecting those
words so, that they can make a good impression with the other person and, say what
everyone expects them to hear, considering the ideals of the time. In this case, when the
author wrote his work, the use of the ellipses was a way of giving the character time to
think and find the ideal words to continue the conversation, even though on many
occasions, they do not believe what they were saying. For instance, the aunt of the main
character seems embarrassed for asking and at the same time, she is reasoning the way
she will ask about the defunct, without any offending. In this context, she is searching
the appropriate and archetypal words to ask in that circumstance, which is not far from
our current reality. Consequently, there is a kind of oppression and preoccupation of the
characters to always use the right words and not be able to express yourself freely.
Accordingly, to the oppression that was mentioned before, the writer of the story
probably would have used that linguistic resource to show the tyranny that was present.
The oppression that existed was caused by the confrontation called ¨The Troubles¨, an
ethno-nationalist conflict that was in Ireland, his native country, between the Catholic
Ireland and Protestant England. During this armed-conflict, Irish identity was banned in
Northern Ireland: Irish nationality was rejected, the use of its flag was made illegal, and
its history along with its language were included within the educational system. All in
all, that repression felt by the characters in the story, by saying what is expected of them
and what had to be said according to the society of the moment, it can be thought that
the author wanted to compare and reflect the oppression suffered by his Ireland. That
conflict, mentioned above, began as a religious one, and ended up becoming a national,
religious, and political conflict.

Secondly, Joyce uses puns of words to express the situation of the time from his
point of view. In the first place, we have this quote:

“I am not long for this world," and I had thought his words idle. Now I knew
they were true. Every night as I gazed up at the window, I said softly to myself the word
paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid
and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some
maleficent and sinful being. (James Joyce 1914:1)
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The principal character defines the sensations that the word paralysis produces in him.
He describes it as something strange, that sounds like the name of an evil and sinful
being. Consequently, with this definition, it could be possible that the writer was talking
about his ideas. Joyce’s consider that Irish society and culture, along with its economy,
had been paralyzed for ages and ages for two reasons. The first one was the Roman
Catholic Church, whose teachings were learned to most Dubliners, and the second was
England, which had occupied Ireland in the 17th century and resisted granting the
country independent until 1922. Meanwhile, and referring to the above cite, the
protagonist mentions as an example to be able to explain the word paralysis ¨ The word
simony in the Catechism¨. The relator of the story discourse about the word simony,
which is defined, in Christianity, as the pretense of buying or selling the spiritual
through material goods. The narrator of the story discusses the word simony, which is
defined, in Christianity, as the attempt to buy or sell the spiritual through material
goods. In the same way as before, the deceased priest symbolizes the corruption
exercised by an ecclesiastical institution by selling blessings, pardons, or other favors to
its members so that they could gain acceptance by the church. Simultaneously, Father
Flynn, the priest, symbolized the church, he symbolizes all the clergy of the Catholic
Church, he followed the rules and instruct some children as the protagonist explains:

¨I wondered at this for, as my uncle had said the night before, he had taught me a great deal.
He had studied in the Irish college in Rome and he had taught me to pronounce Latin
properly. He had told me stories about the catacombs and about Napoleon Bonaparte, and he
had explained to me the meaning of the different ceremonies of the Mass and of the
different vestments worn by the priest¨ (Joyce 1914:3)

The scribe was a critic of the Catholic Church, he criticized its teachings and how they
were taught, as we can see in the quote. Father Flynn dies of a stroke, taking his life
away, which is very symbolic in the story and unfolds another possible way of
interpreting the meaning of the word paralysis in the story. Father Flynn is the symbolic
representation of the Catholic Church in history, his paralysis represents the inability of
the Catholic Church to adapt to the times, it means no evolution and no intention to do
it. Furthermore, there was a conversation between the Old Cotter, a friend of the family,
and the boy's uncle where they talked about the protagonist spending a lot of time with a
cleric. Because of that situation, the novelist speaks of the possible corruption that the
church exerts to gain the followers and convert Catholic believers into Protestants,
where the forms, in some cases, by not changing their religion, could be exposed to
unthinkable consequences of, like dead. All in all, Joyce, with the use of a single word
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and that apparently may not seem like a very relevant word, once its meaning is known,
it can convey and mean so many things.

Thirdly, Joyce uses symbolism in his story that reflects his thought about the
reality of the time. Symbolism has a very important role because once its interpretation
is achieved, the story can be understood much better. As for the symbology of this
composition, it is fundamentally religious. We have the reference of the wine and
crackers and the chalice, which Father Flynn accidentally broke. In the first case, there
is this quotation:

¨We crossed ourselves and came away. In the little room downstairs we found Eliza
seated in his arm-chair in state. I groped my way towards my usual chair in the corner while
Nannie went to the sideboard and brought out a decanter of sherry and some wine-glasses.
She set these on the table and invited us to take a little glass of wine. Then, at her sister's
bidding, she filled out the sherry into the glasses and passed them to us. She pressed me to
take some cream crackers also but I declined because I thought I would make too much
noise eating them. She seemed to be somewhat disappointed at my refusal and went over
quietly to the sofa where she sat down behind her sister. No one spoke: we all gazed at the
empty fireplace. ¨ (James Joyce 1914:4)

The narrator refuses the little glass of wine and, latterly, the cream crackers. The two
components are symbolized, on the one hand the body and on the other hand the blood
of Jesus Christ, used during the Eucharist. Immediately afterwards, the same narrator
rejects both catholic sacraments by using a very ridiculous excuse. Consequently, it was
symbolizing a rejection of the religion for not wanting the two elements that
metaphorically symbolize Jesus Christ. Finally, in the novel, in Roman Catholicism,
chalices are used in the Mass and communion ceremonies, it represents the union
between the priest and his church. In this story, at the end and in one of the cleric's most
vulnerable moments, he breaks the chalice. That action indicates the author’s religious
opinion, that act represents not wanting that implanted religion the Protestant. He
demonstrates it in the most significant way that he could do, adding importance not only
to the act, also to the person who develops it, an ecclesiastical member. In other words,
the composer using inconsiderable symbols whose interpretation is not clear without
being explained, he criticizes certain aspects of his time, such as religion, in a hasty
manner. We can see that his thoughts can be clearly exposed once we know its meaning.
At all, we can see that in many cases it is not necessary to use words to demonstrate
something, with some actions such as the two examples mentioned above. It is clear,
and it is a fact, through actions you can express what you cannot with words.
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To sum up, in ¨The Sisters¨ the use and presence of linguistic strategies, as has been
observed throughout the text, have much more meaning than the simple fact of being
part of a narrative composition. In addition, the author uses these resources mentioned
in the writing, such as symbols, puns, and the use of ellipses, to make his public, the
readers, see his points of view and his opinions of the reality of that moment. The use of
these resources by the author, in some cases, may be discreet and in others more direct,
but without being shown their meaning directly and without knowing their
interpretation, it is difficult to understand what he wants to transmit.

Bibliography

Booker M.Keith (1991) History and Language in Joyce's "The Sisters". Wayne State
University Press.

Joyce, James. ¨The Sisters¨. PDF- Moddle, 1914.

Paredes Norberto, ¨Por qué Irlanda se dividió en dos hace 100 años¨, BBC News
Mundo (Accessed 11 March 2022)
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The Dubliners, Cliff Notes https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/d/dubliners/summary-

and-analysis/the-sisters (11 March 2022)