Well, A Portrait's Symbols Vs. Irish Catholics' World Vision in a Tiny NutshellTo sum up....James Joyce owes much to his autobiography in composing his first novel entitled A Portrait, but pays an immense attention to scrupulous details so that, as also found in his other works, they do not only stand for their own regards, but also stand as symbols giving hints to refer to many events or objects in the history of Ireland.
The social structure has a certain influence on great humanity facts—meaning works created by special individuals having the sensitivity to feel the world vision, tendencies to take significant actions, of the community—produced in the site, whether it be temporal or spatial one, as stated by Lucien Goldmann. Goldmann founds a method to study the world vision as it is expressed in a literary work by examining the structure of a literary work to understand its reciprocal correlation to the social structure which is represented by the world vision.
Events in the history of Ireland mostly influenced by British colonialism were the main elements in the shaping of Irish Catholics’ world vision in the end of 19th century which appeared in many literary works, including James Joyce’s A Portrait.
To Conclude...The dominant motif of symbolism in James Joyce’s novel A Portrait is Irish Catholics’ world vision in the end of 19th century: the will to freedom. This world vision was the result of a long process in the history of Irish Catholics in which they faced so many repressions and attempting so many acts of rebellion which were mostly unsuccessful.
The motif of symbolism in this novel is mainly influenced by events in the history of Ireland which are mostly those happening in the end of 19th century. Parnell altogether with his movements and his fall from the political stage have a certain influence of James Joyce’s production of symbolism
To Suggest....After undergoing this study and get the results, I really hope that this small things can contribute to those interested in studying James Joyce.
- Since symbolism is a main literary device in James Joyce’s works, I do hope that the result of this study will be able to be applied in James Joyce’s next work, Ulysses.
- Since Ireland creates many men of letters, it is expected that this world vision can be used as hypothesis in studies on other great men of letters born in Ireland such as William Butler Yeats, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett etc.
