What Did James Joyce Mean When He Wrote Ulysses Anyway ?
Jane Murray. John Joyce was a failed businessman in several different occupations that included a distillary company, tax collection agency, and of all things politics. His mother was an accomplished pianist, who was a devout follower of the Roman Catholic Church. Apparently, the Catholic Church held a great deal of influence over his mother, so the young James Joyce would have been exposed to the symbolism of Catholicism at an early age. From all accounts, the family lived on the edge of poverty, but were able to portray the illusion of middle class wealth. This duality often emerges in many of Joyce´s short stories. But, it should be remembered that he is best remembered in the annals of literature for his use of a technique of writing entitled the literary subconscous. This form of writing implies writing directly from the subconscous mind, placing words and sentences down on paper, as the words and ideas first come to play on the blank page. The idea is to attempt to capture the first creative thought that comes to mind. Poets use this device constantly. As mentioned in some of my previous articles, Allen Ginsberg loved the use of this form of writing. His famous maxim, "first thought best thought", was directly due to the influence of reading Joyce at an early age. Joyce has also been noted for his use of experimenting with language through the use of the internal monologue, symbolism, mythological uses, and other historical references in literature. In some cases, he has been able to create new words or phrases, by joining syllables and words from old English or the Irish, and forming these sounds with these symbolic allusions. The combinational force of such a technique has placed Joyce at the top of the literary field.
By the age of six years old, James Joyce was attending Clongowes Wood College at Clane, an elementary school run by the Jesuits. He would attend Belvedere College between the years of 1893 to 1897. He would later attend the University College in Dublin in l898, where he would publish his first essay in The Fortnightly Review in 1900 on Ibsen´s play, "When We Dead Awaken." In 1902 he would graduate at twenty years old, and a very young James Joyce would move to Paris. He became a man of several occupations, a jack of all trades so to speak, but he did return to visit his mother as she died. In 1904, he would leave Dublin with Nora Barnalcle, a Chambermaid, whom he married in l931. Joyce was a prolific writer. Scholars are not sure exactly how or when he produced some of these works.
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