Beating a Bit Around the Bushy A Portrait and Genetic Structuralism
What’s there in between: James Joyce, Biography, and Symbolism….
If we know rather well about James Joyce’s life as a young man and read A Portrait, we will surely decide that this novel is his autobiography. It is because the great number of similarities between James Joyce as a young man and the protagonist of the novel, Stephen Dedalus, in many aspects. From the first page, readers can read how the young Stephen was told a story about “a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo” (. . .) by his father who later sings while his mother plays the piano. In many articles or writings about James Joyce’s family, it is often told about John Joyce, James Joyce’s father, who was one of the best male singers in Dublin and about Mary Joyce, James Joyce’s mother, who was good in playing piano. The Joyces are great people in music. Furthermore, as readers continue reading pages after pages, the similarities between Stephen’s family and James Joyce’s family unfolds. It will be told that Stephen’s father is a
“medical student, an oarsman, a tenor, an amateur actor, a shouting politician, a small landlord, a small investor, a drinker, a good fellow, a storyteller, somebody's secretary, something in a distillery, a taxgatherer, a bankrupt and at present a praiser of his own past,”
who is very much similar to James Joyce’s father. Besides biological parents, there are also two persons, man and woman, in Stephen Dedalus’ house, they are uncle Charles, a grand uncle of Joyce’s, and Dante, a relative of Mary Joyce’s. Both live in the Dedaluses’ house for some time as well as the two relatives of the Joyces’ named uncle William O’Connell and Mrs. Hearn Conway (www.robotwisdom.com). This seems to be the first similarity between James Joyce and Stephen Dedalus: family background.
The second clearest similarity is educational background. Both James Joyce and Stephen Dedalus go to Clongowes Woods College, Belvedere College and the University College of Dublin. These three educational institutions influence Stephen Dedalus’ life a lot. In terms of educational background, the only difference between them is that Joyce attended a Christian Brothers’ school after Clongowes while Stephen does not. The three schools really have certain meanings to Stephen as well as Joyce. For example, Clongowes gives Stephen the first experience of living away from parents complete with the homesick it causes and the experience with the Fathers, Belvedere gives Stephen mental influence as he was a model student there while, at the same time, it is the time when he makes his first sexual contact with a prostitute, and the University College of Dublin is the educational institution where he builds his “character and public image” as a poet, as Kershner states (. . .). The three schools are so influential in the two’s character building.
The third similarity is events in life. There are some events in Stephen’s life which are taken from James Joyce’s life. The most frequently referenced detail in A Portrait which is taken from James Joyce’s life is the Christmas dinner incident. In the real life the incident was the battlefield between two sides, they are the pro-Church side, James Joyce’s aunt, Mrs. Hearn Conway, and the pro-Parnell side, John Joyce and his friend, a Fenian named John Kelly. This Christmas dinner has a big influence on James Joyce’s perspective on politics and religion for the first time. Another event which is similar is Joyce’s achievement in essay writing competition. Like Joyce, Stephen also wins the essay writing competition when he studies in Belvedere College. Another real fact is the debate between James Joyce and a friend of his on Joyce’s idleness towards politics when he was in the University College of Dublin (Williams, 2002).
However, imagination, as the nature of literary works, unavoidably appears in many parts of A Portrait. It is true that, as Kershner ( . . . )writes, “when he came to write A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce relied heavily on autobiography”, but the story of the novel should face the risk to be illogical when it relies only on biography, as theorized by Warren and Wellek (1956: . . . ). Thus, in A Portrait, there are some parts which are imaginary or the result of refraction of real life events. Richard Ellman, a James Joyce’s biographer, who has done a study on the differences and similarities between Stephen and Joyce, states clearly some important differences between the two.
According to Ellman, in Kershner ( . . . ), Stephen attends Clongowes Wood College later than James Joyce. This, in fact, makes Parnell’s death occurs earlier than Stephen’s attendance to the school. This is not unintentional, of course. James Joyce holds the so called scrupulousness in his writing career that, according to John S. Kelly (Joyce, 1991: xviii-xix), “gives his work such concentration and resonance that it passes through realism into symbolism”. Scrupulousness is “a crucial element” in Joyce’s works. Therefore, this simple alteration of the year of attendance to a school means a lot in a work of Joyce’s. In the novel, Stephen has a thought of Parnell in a simple way. That is his remembrance of Dante who has “two brushes in [her] press, the brush with the green velvet back for Parnell and the brush with the maroon velvet back for Michael Davitt” (. . .), and Parnell was already dead and a “bad man” (. . .) at that time. This later will be a basic for my selection of symbolism and its interpretation in chapter III. Another difference Ellman proposes is the fact that James Joyce had a “cheerful disposition” that made him called “Sunny Jim” by his family, while “Stephen is more or less withdrawn and sullen”. In addition to James Joyce’s cheerfulness, it is also stated that Joyce was known for his singing ability of “professional quality” in parties, while Stephen, on the other hand, is aloof at parties, although he is also good in singing. Among his friends in Clongowes, Stephen is a student who does not seem to have any interest in sports, while, in opposition, James Joyce was good in race during his Clongowes years. Another fact which is not less important is Stephen’s relationship with his father as juxtaposed to James Joyce’s relationship with his father. Ellman argues that “Joyce’s relationship with his father appeared friendly to others, while Stephen’s is increasingly bitter and tense”. As I still hold tightly to James Joyce’s scrupulousness, those previously stated things are of great importance in studying A Portrait.
As Kelly’s notion I have proposed above, it is scrupulousness that “gives [Joyce’s] works such concentration and resonance that it passes through realism into symbolism”. In his full subscription to the school of realism, James Joyce treated every single detail in his story with the scrupulousness in that the use of language is limited so much as possible that every single detail stands for the vast image it causes. This is in a line with Kennedy’s loose definition of symbol as a signifier that gives only hints or, in other words, a signifier that “casts a long shadow” (Kennedy, 1978: 201).
His scrupulousness in treating elements of his stories can be seen in his letters to his brother Stanislaus Joyce or his relatives in Dublin written while he was writing most of his works. During the writing of one of his short stories collected in Dubliners—he was in Europe then—James Joyce wrote to Stanislaus asking whether it be possible for a municipal election to take place in October (Joyce, 1991: xx-xxi). The short story is entitled Ivy Day in the Committee Room. Why did he pose that question? What matters an election taking place in October? For Irish people, especially the pro Home Rule Movement Irishmen, the members of an organization struggling for the independence of Ireland from England, October is an important month. It is because Parnell, a leader of Home Rule Movement, died in October 6 1891. For the sake of strengthening the nuance of and create a symbol for Irish’s colonialism under England, James Joyce intended to make a story of a municipal election one candidate of which is a supporter of King Edward VII of England that takes place in October right on the anniversary of Parnell’s death which is called the “ivy day”—the emblem of Parnell’s party was the leave of ivy.
Another example, as John S. Kelly (Joyce, 1991: xix) suggests, showing “Joyce’s superbly alert and intelligent creativity [that] could invest everyday objects with a deeper thematic and symbolic significance” is as follows. In Eveline, also a short story in Dubliners, Eveline, a girl who feels trapped in his present life with her father who is “growing more cantankerous and brutal”, met for the first time an open hearted young man named Frank right when Frank is “standing at the gate”. This may be simple. Whether meeting Frank in a bar or in a church or in a store will not give any big difference to the story of Eveline, but for James Joyce meeting Frank while he is “standing at the gate” is the right place for their encounter since Frank is the one who will lead Eveline’s way to freedom, to new life, the life beyond the gate.
James Joyce, whose works are influenced much by the French symbolists such as Charles Baudelaire and Stephane Mallarmé ( . . . ), adopts a rather different symbolism. He does not only use a thing, a concrete object, for a symbol, but also an incident. Frank who is standing at the gate is a good example for it. It is in line with the definition of symbol as given by Kennedy (1978, 1966: 200-201), that a symbol should not necessarily be a concrete object and, vise versa, an action can also be made a symbol. Kennedy calls this sort of action a symbolic act. However, as Kennedy (www.gc.edu/Distance/English/dtaylor/302/poetry/ symbolism.html) insists, a symbol must be touchable. As symbol must be something that all at once can bring readers to another thing. To get a familiar symbol, it should be taken from something near. One example that can be seen is the use of season by poets, short story and novel writers and dramatists: summer for cheerfulness; autumn for maturity, wisdom; winter for old age, and even death, and; spring for birth, energy, hope. This use of four seasons as symbols is only applicable for readers familiar with it. These symbols will loose its significance as symbols if the readers are Indonesian and never feel himself how a winter feels, never find in their culture that winter was to bring death as its entailment and never know that winter means death for Europeans.
John S. Kelly’s theory on James Joyce’s symbolism, saying that it is the result of his scrupulousness in treating realism, and the examples he has taken from Dubliners also echoes Warren and Wellek’s (1956: 189) idea of symbolism which consists of two elements, object and reference, each of which needs certain attention. A symbol does not only function as an object to refer to another object intended by the writer, but also stands for its own sake as an important part of a literary work. Therefore, it “demands attention in its own right, as a presentation” (Warren and Wellek, 1956: 189). A symbol should be logical, I should say. James Joyce’s symbolism really reflects this idea. To symbolize Irish’s colonialism under England by using the death anniversary of a defeated Home Rule movement leader, James Joyce asked his brother to give the information about the possibility of a municipal election to take place on October. If only Stanislaus had answered telling that a municipal election could not happen on that month, readers could not have had been able to find Ivy Day in Committee Room as they have today. Once again, scrupulousness is the key.
It is true that examples taken for James Joyce’s symbolism presented above are all taken from Dubliners, but it does not mean that James Joyce used symbolism only to write stories for this short story collection. So far, I have not found articles or essays mainly discussing symbolism in A Portrait. Symbolism in A Portrait is discussed in fractions in some essays. There are some well-known symbols from the novel referred in a minimal degree such as the episode when Stephen Dedalus waits for his father coming back from the director of Belvedere College to talk about the possibility for Stephen to enter the school freely. During this waiting, Stephen walks to and fro between the roof of Clontarf Chapel and Byron’s Public house. This part, according to Richard Brown, symbolizes Stephen’s confusion in making choice between religious life, as represented by Clontarf Chapel, and worldly life, as represented by Byron’s Public house (. . .).
In this study, symbols in A Portrait will be studied in terms of their motifs. Motif here means the structure as it is exemplified in Theories of Literature in the Twentieth Century (Fokkema and Kunne-Ibisch, trans., 1998: 78-79) in Propp’s use when he compares in his illustration:
1. A king gives an eagle to a hero. The eagle takes the hero flying to another kingdom. 2. An old man gives Sucenko a horse. The horse takes Sucenko to another kingdom. 3. A witch gives Ivan a small boat. The boat takes Ivan to another kingdom. 4. A princes gives Ivan a ring. Some young men come out of the ring and takes Ivan to another kingdom.
Or the understanding of structure in Lucien Goldmann’s (. . .: . . .) study entitled the Hidden God in which
(a) Junia talks to Britanicus for the last time (b) Titus looks at the woman he loves for the last time (c) Berenice says good bye to him for the last time (d) Phaedra looks at the stars for the last time.
Although the two uses are not the same to each other, both propose the use of structure as the basic of data collection. Here, I will use the same pattern to collect symbolism in the novel to analyze in Chapter III.
As a conclusion, James Joyce mainly used many autobiographical sources for his A Portrait. However, he did a lot of alteration for the sake of scrupulous use of language that can create maximum effect, which by some critics is considered as James Joyce’s symbolism. The symbols, mainly in the form of incidents or actions, in A Portrait will be analyzed to know its motifs. The motif or structure in the symbols will be compared to the world vision of Irish people in the early 20th century, because as Goldmann believes, the structure of a work of art, especially literature, has a reciprocal relationship which is mediated by world vision. This is the basic thesis of Lucien Goldmann in a simple sentence. Meanwhile, the following section will discuss Lucien Goldmann’s genetic structuralism as well as world vision.
What on Earth Genetic Structuralism is ….
Literature, in genetic structuralism, as in other schools of sociology of literature, with its connection to its social background is in the spotlight—thus, it can be categorized to be what Hawthorn, in his book entitled Studying the Novel: An Introduction (1985), calls contextual approach. For the adherents of genetic structuralist approach, this is due to their assumption that literature is facilitated with a structure similar to the structure of the community inside which it is born. Yet, this similarity does not mean that literature is a direct mirror of a society in a certain period of time. The explanation of this goes back to Goldmann’s—the founder of genetic structuralist approach—conception.
Goldmann opens his theory of genetic structuralism with the so-called humanity fact, a phrase which is then very frequently referred to in this section. Faruk (1995: 12) describes this as the result of the activities or behavior of human beings, verbally as well as physically, that science always tries to reveal. It involves physical social activities and cultural creation, in which literature is included.
Basically, as Faruk (1995: 12) cites, Goldmann divides humanity fact into two: individual humanity fact and social humanity fact. The former is the kind of humanity facts resulting from individual desire, such as dreams, which is the result of libidinal process, and the behavior of a mad man. Contradictorily, the latter is of social process in a certain community. We can take the political reform taking place in Indonesia on 1998 – a moment involving many people – as an example. Additionally, social humanity facts are usually historical, having a certain role in the history of a certain group of people.
Although there are many kinds of humanity facts, there is a universal characteristic shared by all: being significant. Goldmann, in his essay entitled Genetic Structuralism in the Sociology of Literature, (. . .: 112-113), writes that
“[e]very time a man acts, he is faced by a situation which constitutes a task or a problem for him to resolve; and he tries to transform the world by his behavior as to obtain a response which is significant for the problem facing him”.
Solving the problems human beings have is the significance of a humanity fact, or, in another words, cultural creation. Something is said to be a humanity fact, or cultural creation, only if it is significant for a man in his efforts to resolve his problems. It is significant because it contains the essence of human beings’ struggle to make a balance relationship between themselves and their environment. Significance seems to be the starting points of all dialectical thoughts, thoughts to do something for a man’s life. So is the thought to create a literary work as one of cultural creation.
Goldmann (. . .: 311) asserts that “a [literary] work is the expression of the ideas or intuitions of the individual who created it”. In a simple sentence, a literary work is a sort of language to express ideas. The echo of this can be felt in Ahimsa-Putra’s (2002: 263) quoting a writing of Umar Kayam telling that Umar Kayam actually poses a question through the writing of one of his best short stories entitled Musim Gugur Kembali di Connecticut. Kayam’s question was around the rightness or wrongness of someone’s joining the communist party in Indonesia. The writing of this short story is also a significant thing to do, an effort, as Umar Kayam’s response to his confusion surrounding the capture of many members of the communist party in Indonesia around 1966-1968.
Not all literary works, however, are humanity facts (Faruk, 1995: 14; Damono, 1984: 42). Only great literary works are considered to be humanity facts. Great literary works are those having, as their subjects, a universe with a strong inner coherence among their element – for example, themes, characters, plots, etc (Damono, 1984: 42-43). Faruk cites Goldmann’s statement that great literary works are those talking about a universe with its laws and problems appearing out of the laws (Faruk 1995: 15). It is so because coherence is derived from the understanding of world vision, while the world vision is the result of a long process in life in which a society is faced to a condition that forced it to behave in a significantly coherent pattern. Goldmann, then, asserts with his own term saying that the subject of a great literary work is “trans-individual.” Trans-individual here means that there is a group of individuals with a certain similarity uniting themselves into a group as well as differing them from other groups of individuals. Or, a great literary work is not a work of an individual, but a work of a group of people in the sense that the world vision owned by a group of people in a certain place is the dominant element in the work. Here, a great work of art is differentiated from the dream of one person, the dream which was only the result of a libidinal process in someone’s subconscious mind.
In this point, the connection between society and literature becomes so ambiguous that it may be thought that a great literary work must be as similar as possible to the social condition. Instead of a direct relationship, meaning that the structure of the society determines the structure of a literary work, the relation between them is indirect with the so-called world vision mediating the two (Damono, 1984: 42). The similarity is in “the conceptual extrapolation in the most coherent possible manner of the real, emotional, intellectual and even motory tendencies of the members of a group”, or called world vision (Goldmann, . . .: 312).
The idea of the mediation by world vision in the creation of a literary works is not against the characteristic of a literary work as something imaginary. A literary work, however, is the result of a creative process. By creative process, Ratna (2003: 4) means that the birth of a literary work should go through an effort to invent things—similarity means plagiarism in art. Beside creativity, another characteristic of a literary work is subjectivity. Subjectivity here deals with the way a writer interpret the social condition and also the way he imagines the themes for his literary work. However, being imaginary does not mean to be different at all from a literary work’s social background. Related to world vision, great literary works are those the writers of which can catch the world vision of a certain group of people (Faruk, 1996: . . .). Goldmann argues that world vision is too vague to see and feel by the social group having it. Only special persons can uncover this world vision. These special persons will be the creators of great literary works if they use this world vision in their writings.
A study on a work of art and the study of the artist may be of two different fields, but it can support each other. Studying the relation between a literary text altogether with the writer as well as the social structure of the birthplace of the novel is something unavoidable in the genetic structuralism—it is a holistic approach.
In a conclusion, a literary work, however imaginary it may, still reflects the world vision of its social background. Nevertheless, it is only for a great literary work the author of which is a man who can catch the tendencies in his society, the tendencies people are not conscious of. To do a study with this approach, I will need a certain method suggested directly by the founder of this approach. It will be discussed in the following section.
How on Earth Genetic Structuralism Should Nicely Performed….
In executing his study, Goldmann makes use of a dialectical method (Faruk, 1995: 19). As suggested by the word, we can assume that there is a two-way track in it. The study starts in one point and then moves to the other point. After studying the second object, the study goes back to the other. Since what will be studied is a literary work with its correlation to its social background, the attention goes to and fro between the work and the background society. It is in accordance with Damono's statement that the attention always moves from the literary work and the socio-historical background, but then it goes back again to the work (Damono, 1984: 43).
This method involves two basic inseparable concepts. They are concept of “wholeness-part”, which is applied to the literary work as an autonomous structure, and the concept of “understanding-explanation,” which is, in turn, applied to the literary work as a part of a bigger structure (Faruk, 1995: 19-21). These two concepts will be subjected to two different objects, but what each does supports what the other works on.
The concept of “wholeness-part”, which is implemented to the literary work, focuses on the inner coherence of the work. As stated above, in this stage, a literary work is treated as a structure due to the elements of the structure. The first effort is revealing the parts that build up the structure such as, following Goldmann (. . .: 312), “styles, images, syntax”. In this study, I will focus on the structure of symbolism only since, as stated in the introduction, James Joyce is the expert of symbolism. This belongs to the “partial” analysis. Later, the elements found will be studied to understand its role in establishing the complete structure; the coherence, among the elements, that creates a “wholeness,” is researched. It does not stop here yet. This effort to understand the wholeness can only be successful by the increasing comprehension of the partial facts studied firstly, it is a two way process; the partial elements can only be understood by putting it in a wholeness, but the wholeness can only be comprehended by studying partial elements in detail.
Before dealing with the concept of “understanding-explanation”, there is notion Goldmann makes in Moral Universe of Playwright (. . .: 312) stating that there are two levels of necessary correspondences in aesthetic fact, especially literature, that can be used as bases for a literary study. They are:
1. The correspondence between the world vision as an experienced reality and the universe created by the writer; and
2. The correspondence between this universe and the specifically literary devices—styles, images, syntax, etc.—used by the writer to express it.
Out of the two approaches, Goldmann uses the first one in many of his studies and discusses it in many of his writings, while Goldmann refers on the second one in a very minimal degree.
The next stage, the concept of “understanding-explanation”, is a higher process than the previous one. Here, we are faced to the work as an element which, viewed in structuralist perspective as stated by Lye (www.brocku.edu), acquires its meaning through its coherence with other elements. The first to be done is the so called “understanding”, which means an attempt to describe the structure of the work. The stage of “wholeness-part” discussed previously is categorized into “understanding”. Then, the second activity is “explanation,” which means “placing the work in the bigger structure, that is, its socio-historical background.” We are again faced to the fact that this effort is to know the meaning of a literary work, as an element of a bigger structure, by revealing its coherence with other elements, the socio-historical aspects of the birthplace of the work as mediated by the world vision.
However, those steps are still too abstract, so that a set of concrete stages needs to be presented. Firstly, a model that is a conclusion of world visions, the existence of which can be felt in a certain literary work, must be built. In this study, the tendencies found in the literary work are collected to make a hypothesis about the world vision reflected in the work.
Then, a process of checking the model by comparing it to the wholeness of the work by: (1)identifying to what extent the elements of literary work are represented by the model; then, (2) finding elements excluded in the model and modifying the model; and, finally, (3) understanding the strength with which the elements correlate to the modified model.
In studying James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man, in which we are aiming at understanding the will to freedom as the dominant motif in the novel and understanding of the whole structure of the novel with its relation to its socio-historical background is expected to give a comprehension and answers to those questions.
Something Behind the life of Irish Catholics Before 1900s…
World vision, which is defined in a simple sentence as the unconscious tendency of thoughts and acts people have in a certain society, is inherent in the life of a society. Every community has it, although the members of the community itself frequently cannot figure out what it is. It is so vague that, as stated previously, it can only be revealed by special persons in the society.
If it is said that one universal characteristic of humanity facts is significance and the tendency of the significance is comparable to world vision, then one way to define a world vision in a certain community will be finding the form of significance in humanity facts resulting from this community. World vision can be inferred from the tendency of the significance of humanity facts in certain society.
For this study, I will firstly try to formulate a hypothesis for an idea that is expected to be found as the world vision of Irish people James Joyce has perceived and applied in his novel; that is, the will to freedom. The society itself is Irish society or, to be more precisely, Catholic Irish people in the end of 19th century.
The world vision of Irish Catholics in the end of 19th century resulted from the long process in the history of the country. The process started in the age when Irish people faced their first pressure, the pressure they get since the coming of English people. The coming of Englishmen (altogether with Scottish people) as an imperialist power of course causes many troubles for the “will-be colonized”. This process went on until the end of the 285 years obsession for land reform.
The first attack to the native Irish was the attack from the Norman Anglo in 1169 when the Norman people that have occupied Wales attacked Wexford and also Waterford. After ruling in this two big cities, they expanded their field until they overwhelmed almost 75% of the island of Ireland. Later, this Norman English who pervaded throughout the island became the race that contributed some significant number to Irish people altogether with the Gaelic people. Since the coming of Norman English, Catholicism became the religion of most Irish people.
In the reign of Henry VIII, England came again to Ireland but this time they made Plantations consisting of Englishmen and also Scottish people with new religions. By this time, King Henry had left the Roman Catholicism and made a new church they later called the Anglican Church. Meanwhile, Scottish people were Presbyterians. Both were Protestants. This Plantation was continued until the reign of Elizabeth I. Unlike the coming of Catholicism brought by Norman English which was welcomed open-heartedly, the coming of Protestant was even welcomed bitterly by Gaelic Irish and Norman Irish, the name given later to the Norman English descendants, because they came with hatred towards the Catholics and the teaching of Catholic doctrines had been planted deep in their heart.
During the 17th century, England sent three Plantations consisting of Protestants to in Ireland which were dominated by Catholics. The first one was right after the end of the Battle of Kinsale, the battle between Normal and Gaelic landlords and English army. With the victory of the Irish army, Norman and Gaelic landlords were ousted from Ireland so that no lord managing the remaining Irish people who were mostly peasants—this is called “Flight of the Earls”. English people, then, felt more freedom and had more power to rule Irish people. Furthermore, England started making Plantation containing Anglicans from England and Presbyterians from Scotland.
The first Plantation, Ulster Plantation, (1609) was the beginning of Irish Catholics’ sufferings. Actually, it was not the first Plantation because in the Elizabethan era there was a Plantation, but it was not done seriously. The only reason that made England do the Plantation was “Flight of the Earls” which also meant the absent of organizing force among Norman and Gaelic-Irish; there was totally no dangerous force among the Norman and Gaelic-Irish. During this first 17th century Plantation, the land ownership of the Catholic Irish decreased from 86% to 59%, meaning almost 30% of the land was confiscated from the Catholic native to transfer to new Protestant (whether Anglican or Presbyterian) landlords from England and Scotland who paid cheaply for the land. The native Catholics began to be relocated to other places without their own land property and started living in abject poverty.
When the Parliaments of England had beaten and beheaded King Charles I in the culmination of dispute between the King and the Parliaments, Cromwell, who had led the Parliaments’ Army against King Charles I, was sent to make another Plantation in Ireland, a Plantation which was later known to be the cruelest Plantation towards Catholics. Actually, the dispute between the monarch and the Parliaments had begun since Charles I—who were not anti-Catholic—proposed a bill named “Graces”, giving many easiness for the Norman-Irish in Ireland, although the bill was later not agreed to by the Parliaments. The dream of Irish Catholics to get welfare was broken up into pieces. The dispute was ended with the incident of two wars between Parliaments’ Army against King’s Army which was won by the Parliaments’ Army led by Oliver Cromwell. King Charles was beheaded in 1649 and Crowell got the opportunity to make a Plantation in Ireland in 1652 as an effort to combat rebellion which had started in Ulster (1641), with the killing of 12,000 Protestant civilians. The era of Cromwellian Plantation (starting in 1652) even became the highest point of Catholics-animus in the history of Ireland. In the first arrival of Cromwell’s army, 3,500 Catholics in Drogheda were killed as a balance revenge for Ulster massacre. Catholics suffered more since then. The ownership of land by Catholics decreased from 59% to 22% with the confiscation of land from, even, Old English who were Catholics. Since then, Catholics became more subordinate and suffered more.
After Charles II died, there were two claimants to the English throne, they were James II, who was Catholic son of King Charles II, and William of Orange, the husband of Mary, the daughter of James I. As Irish people supported James II, the successors of the Monarchs, in James II’s war against William who was in the side of the Parliament, William also tried to quashed Ireland the army of which, led by Sarsfield, helped by Charles II. William quashed Sarsfield’s army and made a treaty consisting of the opportunity for Catholics to do their religious practices and permission for the remaining Sarsfield’s Army to live as a civilian militia. However, the second provision was omitted by Parliaments and, thus, the anti-Catholic animus appeared again, although King William objected it. Sarsfield’s troop was forced to leave Ireland. This was later known as the “Flight of the Wild Geese.” Until Ireland’s independence, the term Wild Geese was given to Irish people living in Europe or other countries in the world for the reason of freedom. James Joyce himself was one of wild geese. It was then followed with the last Plantation in the 17th century: the Williamite Plantation (1693).
The Protestant settlers coming to Ireland during the three Plantations dominated the country in terms of governmental institutions and also treaty. Meanwhile, the Irish people relocated to poor district and transferred into hard labors became poorer all the time and history finally recorded that the Plantation did not make the condition of Irish people better, but even worse. Irish people were divided into two groups:
1. 75% of the populace who were Irish Catholics, whether Norman Irish or Gaelic Irish, were the people of low class;
2. 25% of the populace who were Protestant comers, whether Presbyterian Scottish or Anglican Englishmen, were the rich people.
Catholic Irish, soon after the Williamite Plantation, had only the remaining 14% of the productive land in the island, while, as a matter of fact, they owned 95% of the land before 1603.
This span of 100 years since the end of the Battle of Kinsale and during the Williamite Plantation was a very vital phase in the history of Ireland. The vitality lies on the fact that Catholic Irish people lost around 80% of their land property transferred to English settlers. This is the cause of the emergence of their sufferings and, as well, their obsession for land reforms to get their land back. The strange thing is that Catholics, who in terms of number, contribute 75% to the total of population in Ireland, had only 14% of the productive land of the island, while Protestant settlers, who contribute 25% to the number of population, owned 86% of the productive land.
This triggered more resentment in Irish people towards culminating in some rebellious action such as, the one previously referred, the rebellion in Ulster (1641) led by Sir Phleim O’Neill that caused the death of 12,000 Protestant non-combatant. This massacre even put revenge in Englishmen. When Cromwell and his army came to Ireland in 1652, 3,500 people, including women and children, were killed as a revenge for the 12,000 Protestant massacred in Ulster. Besides 1641 rebellion, there was also another rebellion which was led by Patrick Sarsfield (1690) with the support from Charles II who had been living for some time in French. However, this one also failed for the lack of preparation and weaponry.
William, who was actually not anti-Catholic, could not make the condition of Catholics better as well and even was defeated by the regulation made by Parliament for the Irishmen called the series of Penal Laws. Penal Laws contained points that regulated some things that mostly profited Anglicans. In this series of laws, Anglican controlled the population in which, as stated in the Treaty of Limerick (1691), “(1) Catholics (75% of the population) would be totally excluded from property and power, and (2) Presbyterians (15% of the population) would remain subordinate to Anglicans”. This is the years when the Catholics got most pressure, except compared to Cromwellian era. A Catholic could not even educate their children although they themselves had been the subjected to the regulation that they could not have land property. Catholics were the victim of the “injustice legal laws” so that they even lost their respect to law generally. This anti Catholic animus reached its peak in 1730s when King William reminded the parliament that it was against the Treaty of Limerick (1691). The suppression loosened gradually since then, but in 1760s, what appeared was a simmering tension between the peasants and the landlords, or Catholics versus Anglicans versus Presbyterians. Some societies were established, such as the group of Catholics congregated under the name “Whiteboys” and “Defenders”. On the other hand, Protestant people also made societies such as “Steelboys”, Peep o’Day Boys” and “Hearts of Oak”.
In 1760s, an Anglican named Henry Gratton proposed to the King that Ireland have an autonomy, while at the same time it professed loyalty to the Crown. With this proposal, he also offered a plan of concession for the Catholics so that there would be a certain part in the parliament for the Catholics’ representatives which also meant the repealing of some points in the Penal Laws. The Crown formalized the regulation. However, this autonomy did so little important for the Catholics and Presbyterians that their abhorrence did not stop all at once. Ireland was then a “Protestant Nation”. Therefore, the seeds of uprising were still apparent.
The eruption of French Revolution (1789-1799) and American Revolution (1775-1783) triggered the culmination of Irish People’s desire to fight against the Ascendancy—the name given to Anglican in power of the country—although it did not really create an uprising. At any time the trigger was pulled, an uprising would surely break. Meanwhile, in 1791the first anti-discrimination movement for the first time appeared with the leadership of Wolf Tone, an Anglican who was inspirited by the French Revolution and regarded it as “the morning star of liberty in Ireland”. It was the first sign of the intellectuals’ consciousness of equality as suggested by the French Revolution. The movement Tone’s proposed had not influenced much so that there was still religious sentiment among the three sides. A clash between the “Peep o’Day” and “Defenders” occurred and caused the death of 20 men. As a consequence, Catholics were ousted from Ulster afterwards.
Tone, now with a violent tactic invited France to attack Ireland as one way to fight England which was considered not democratic in treating Ireland and, therefore, against the spirit of Equality, Liberty and Fraternity. Tone managed to get support from French and French right afterwards sailed to Ireland, but the ships were forced by the bad weather to move back to France.
To prevent uprisings General Gerard Lake made a campaign to disarm the population but it even caused another war between Catholics and Protestants. One among Protestant volunteers disarming Wexford people burnt a barn and made a Catholic so angry that he was brave enough to kill him. It unfortunately triggered a bigger disaster: the Protestant volunteers even burnt 160 other houses. Tone’s dream for religious peace was shattered. Wolf Tone came home from his exile, and ambassadorial campaigns, in America and France altogether with a group of French soldiers in 1798. Unfortunately, this attack was forced to surrender by British Army and Wolf Tone was captured and sent to prison where he later found dead, probably for committing suicide.
Finally, in 1799 England’s Prime Minister, William Pitt, proposed a new system for Ireland, that is the “Act of Union”, a union of Irish and England into one government with the consequence that Irish Catholics got the opportunity to sit in the English Parliament. This proposal was offered to the Irish Parliament. However, as Irish Parliament was a non-representative representative and Presbyterians from Ulster and Anglican businessmen felt that they would get less profit from it, this proposal was rejected in the first offering. A year later, in 1800, after bribing some members of the Irish Parliament and offering the lifetime seats in the House of Lords, this proposal was agreed on to be conducted for Ireland. Ireland, since then on, became a part of England after some efforts to get autonomy. Now, freedom became a dream for Catholics, Presbyterians as well as Anglicans.
Political life in Ireland was calm since the union but there was still abhorrence in lower class Catholics. It was later seen with the appearance of Daniel O’Connell, a Catholic Irish intellectual, to organize Irish Catholics to struggle for their rights in an organization called the Catholic Association (1823). O’Connell saw the large number of Irish Catholics as a potential for a soft revolution since they had had the right to vote since 1973. Abhorrence towards Protestants made lower class Catholics welcomed it and many of them joined it. This was the first organization consisting of lower class Catholics because of the low fee they had to pay to join the organization. However, this low fee even gave them responsibility to be loyal to the organization. O’Connell ably planted his ideal of Catholic emancipation and it enabled him to organize the people until they became a large “machine” that could influence the national policy.
Daniel O’Connell can be said as the only prominent person in Irish History during the first half of 19th century for his governance of Catholic Association. The power of the large number of members was firstly seen to be potential for a great change when, in 1823, O’Connell with the help from priests, who were very influential, managed persuading the people to oppose candidates who were anti-emancipation and managed to force four parliamentary members to leave their seats because of considered anti-emancipation. Moreover, in 1828 the Association showed its power when there was a special election for the appointing of Vesey Fitzgerald, a candidate who was actually pro-emancipation but worked for the anti emancipation government. In the special election, to fill the loophole O’Connell offered himself to be a candidate—although the Anglican law did not allow a Catholic to be sworn as a member of parliament—without any intension to be the member of parliament, just because Catholics did not want this man from the anti emancipation government to fill the position. Shockingly, the Catholics won two to one. With the inauguration of O’Connell as a member of parliament, emancipation was successful and even the remaining points in the penal laws were repealed. O’Connell’s membership made an influential change in the track of Irish parliament although it could not do much in the English House of Commons. However, the voice of Irish Catholics was proven to be influential then.
O’Connell’s second maneuver was his campaign to repeal the Act of Union of 1800. His campaign was held with organizing a large number of people, mostly more than 100,000 people, for peaceful demonstrations intended to attract the world’s attention on the fact that there was bribing in Irish Parliament that made the members of the parliament agreed to the proposal to formalize the Act of Union in 1800. His planned-to-be-final demonstration in Clontarf in 1843was unfortunately banned by the government only few hours before it was held. His insistence not to do nothing for it because of the rule he had made for his organization stating that the only way to reach its goal was through legal ways made him face the angry young members of the organization. His tactic of walking only in lawful track for the organization has inspired some other great leaders in the world history such as Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.
In1845, a real disaster starting hitting the poor Catholics all over Ireland with some great impacts still felt until today. The virus of potato blight which was firstly found in America and England reached Ireland in that year in spite of the weather which was perfect for planting potatoes. The poor people depended mainly on the potatoes they planted in a small area in a corner of every farmland they worked on for a landlord. Thus, once potato all over Ireland was attacked by the virus, what occurred then was a “Great Famine”. Ironically, as a matter of fact, there were still many other kinds of food in Ireland—it was even said that Ireland still exported vegetables and crops in a great number—, yet poor people could not afford them. It can be said, then, that the Great Famine was also caused, although indirectly, by the Protestants. Lack of food for a large number of people causing a great hunger could not be separated from epidemic which was, shockingly, so severe that after four years it was found that around 1 million Catholics died. The number of the death Catholics was almost the same as the number of them who migrated to other countries in the world where they could live easier, mostly in America.
The death of around 1 million Catholics was only one among some vital impacts of the famine. The poor Catholics who lived in some area were the ones still speaking Gaelic language as their first language, so when many of those people died the Gaelic language was on the verge of its use. The number of Gaelic speaking people decreased so intensely that few were still speaking the language after the great famine until now. There are only 20% of the total populace today still speaking Gaelic language.
During the Great Famine the political movement was shifted from abstract topics, such as emancipation and the repeal of Act of Union, to concrete topics, such as agrarian reform and other topics dealing directly with the welfare of Catholics. One of the efforts, which were mostly violent ones, was the rebellion of the Young Ireland, led by James Stephens, during the Great Famine (precisely, 1848). It marked once again the reappearance of violent movement. Sadly, the rebellion failed and James Stephens managed to leave the country. Later, in 1858 James Stephens came back to Ireland after staying in France and changing the Young Ireland into Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and had a branch in the United States named “Fenian Brotherhood” and attempted some failed rebellions. However, their uprising triggered the repeal of Anglican Church as the official church of Ireland.
One of IRB’s leader was Michael Davitt, a young man who had just come home from studying in England. Activities in IRB made Michael Davitt live behind the bars for seven years. After being freed Michael Davitt focused his attention mainly on land reforms, the welfare of peasants, in his newly founded National Land League. In doing his efforts, he uses violence, intimidation and societal ostracism. The struggle for more welfare of the lower class peasants who were Catholics was then once again is gained through violence.
Meanwhile, there were still persons working in soft “constitutional” path for Ireland and emancipation for Catholics under the banner of home rule movement which was firstly led by Isaac Butt. Among them was one supporter of home rule movement named Charles Steward Parnell, a pro-Catholic Protestant from a family of non-British supporter. In 1875 he was elected to sit in the British Parliament, but he still worked hard to fight against any policy that could cause the suffering of Irish people, especially the low class people.
When in 1878 occurred another food shortage similar, but less severe, with the Great Famine, Charles Steward Parnell and Michael Davitt were inspired to make an alliance because support from the large number grassroots and political capability would be a good compound to reach welfare and full independence for Ireland. As one proof of the power this alliance possessed, the three demands of Irish peasants were finally granted by the Prime Minister Gladstone in the regulation named the “three Fs”, consisting of (1) fair rent, (2) fixity of tenure, and (3) freedom of sale.
As great successes in land reform had been achieved, Parnell brought Land League to a bigger duty, that is struggling for the Home Rule, a dream that once was conceived by O’Connell and the Young Ireland. Parnell provoked his supporter to give their voices in order that Gladstone, the pro Home Rule British Prime Minister, could get his position for the third time. This effort was successful. For this, Gladstone announced his support for the Home Rule and even proposed the Home Rule Bill soon after. Unfortunately, the bill did not win the voice in the House of Commons so that Irish people should wait once again. Yet, Irish people considered this as a postponed dream because they still had a figure of a great leader they could depend on, a leader whose position was invincible.
It was a shock for Irish people that in 1890, a trial was held on a divorce case in which Parnell was involved as someone who had caused the divorce of Mr. and Mrs. O’Shea. Instead of rejecting the prosecution, Charles even married the woman. This domestic case had a notorious impact on the national life of Ireland, especially the Catholics. Due to the case, Catholic bishops considered him to be amoral. Since Irish people at that time always complied to what their priests announced, Parnell then lost a great deal of supports from his people. Some people were still loyal to the leader and they even called Parnell “the King” or, after his death, “the Dead King”. Afterwards, strangely, Parnell insisted that he should go on with his struggle for Ireland in another party than the one he used to fight with. His effort to unite the nationalists was in vain. His health worsened by day and he died in 1891. The fall and moreover the death of Parnell “was one of the factors that delayed Irish home rule until after World War I” (Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004). This time, it was even the Catholic bishops who contributed much in the failure of the struggle for independence. James Joyce even, in his novel entitled Ulysses, calls Ireland as the servant of Rome, that is the servant of Catholicism besides the servant of an English master.
That was the long history of Ireland that, in my opinion, helped form the world vision of Irish Catholics since the Plantation, which started British colonialism on Ireland, until the time of the writing of A Portrait. The first most influential incident was the coming of Ulster Plantation which caused the first suffering of Irish Catholics in the 17th century in the form of confiscation and concentration of Irish Catholics in a certain place and the most influential last incident was the fall of Charles Steward Parnell which delayed Irish independence from England once again. The history of Ireland consists of colonialism which was, as a consequence, followed with efforts to free from the suppressing condition and frequently ended with failure.
