THE PROBLEMS OF MODERN MAN IN THE 20 C. ENGLISH FICTION

CONTENTS

Introduction…………………………2 psl.

1. James Joyce‘s characters in his novel “The Portret of the Man as a Young Artist“…………………………3 psl.

2. The Development of Individual Consciousness…………6 psl.

3. The Heros and Their Conflicts in Conrad‘s Novel “Heart of Darkness“…………………………7 psl.

4. Epiphany in „ The Heart of Darkness“……………..11 psl.

5. Modernist’s Experiments in Heart of Darkness…………..12 psl

Conclusions…………………………14 psl.

References…………………………16 psl.

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INTRODUCTION

“ James Joyce (1882-1941), Irish novelist, noted for his experimental use of language in such works as “Ulysses“ (1922) and “Finneganns Wake“ (1939). Joyce’s technical innovations in the art of the novel include aan extensive use of interior monologue; he used a complex network of symbolic parallels drawn from the mythology, history, and literature, and created a unique language of invented words, puns, and allusions. From the age of six Joyce, was educated by Jesuits at Clongowes Wood College, at Clane, and then at Belvedere College in Dublin (1893-97). In 1898 he entered the University College, Dublin. Joyce’s first publication was an essay on Ibsen’s play “When We Dead Awaken“. It appeared in tthe Fortnightly Review in 1900. At this time he also began writing lyric poems. Joyce published “Dubliners“ in 1914, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man“ in 1916, a play “Exiles“ in 1918. In 1907 Joyce had published aa collection of poems “Chamber Music“. Also he wrote some stories such as „The Sisters“, portraying child‘s confrontation with the illness, “Clay“, “Araby“. “ (1; psl.5).

“Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, in the Ukraine, in a region that had once been a part of Poland but was then under Russian rule. Polish-born English novelist and short-story writer, a dreamer, adventurer, and gentleman. He wrote famous preface to “The Nigger of the Narcissus“ (1897). Among Conrad’s most popular works are “Lord Jim“ (1900) and “Heart of Darkness“ (1902). His first novel, “Almayer‘s Folly“ appeared in 1895. It was followed by “An Outcast of the Islands“ (1896). In “Youth (1902) the title story recorded Conrad’s experiences on the sailing-ship Palestine. “Nostromo“ ((1904) was an imaginative novel which again explored man’s vulnerability and corruptibility.“(3).

The aim of this work is to represent modern man‘s problems in Joyce‘s novel “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man“ and Conrad‘s “Heart of Darkness“.

The goal of my work:

1. To discuss the main haracters and their conflicts of these two novels.

2. To dispute the style of Conrad and Joyse.

3. To reveal modern man.

I developed my and not only my knowledge in appropriate way. I used nnew older literature and the internet. For ease of use, the main material is given in certain chapters and paragraphs. I hope this work will be usefull not only for me, but also to whome, who are interested in XX century English literature.

1. James Joyce‘s Characters in His Novel „A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man“

Stephen Dedalus

He is a boy growing up in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century, as he gradually decides to cast off all his social, familial, and religious constraints to live a life devoted to the art of writing. As a young boy, Stephen’s Catholic faith and Irish nationality heavily influence him. He attends a strict religious boarding school called Clongowes Wood College. At first, Stephen is lonely and homesick at the school, but as time passes he finds his place among the other boys. He enjoys his visits home, even though family tensions run high after the death of the Irish political leader Modeled after Joyce himself, Stephen is a sensitive, thoughtful boy who reappears in Joyce’s later masterpiece, Ulysses. In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, though Stephen’s large family runs into deepening financial difficulties, his parents mmanage to send him to prestigious schools and eventually to a university. As he grows up, Stephen grapples with his nationality, religion, family, and morality, and finally decides to reject all socially imposed bonds and instead live freely as an artist

Stephen undergoes several crucial transformations over the course of the novel. The first, which occurs during his first years as Clongowes, is from a sheltered little boy to a bright student who understands social interactions and can begin to make sense of the world around him. The second, which occurs when Stephen sleeps with the Dublin prostitute, is from innocence to debauchery. The third, which occurs when Stephen hears Father Arnall’s speech on death and hell, is from an unrepentant sinner to a devout Catholic. Finally, Stephen’s greatest transformation is from near fanatical religiousness to a new devotion to art and beauty. This transition takes place in Chapter 4, when he is offered entry to the Jesuit order but refuses it in order to attend university. Stephen’s refusal and his subsequent epiphany on the beach mark his transition from belief in God to belief in aesthetic beauty. This transformation continues through his college years. By the end of his time iin college, Stephen has become a fully formed artist, and his diary entries reflect the independent individual he has become. Brought up in a devout Catholic family, Stephen initially ascribes to an absolute belief in the morals of the church. As a teenager, this belief leads him to two opposite extremes, both of which are harmful. At first, he falls into the extreme of sin, repeatedly sleeping with prostitutes and deliberately turning his back on religion. Though Stephen sins willfully, he is always aware that he acts in violation of the church’s rules. Then, when Father Arnall’s speech prompts him to return to Catholicism, he bounces to the other extreme, becoming a perfect, near fanatical model of religious devotion and obedience. Eventually, however, Stephen realizes that both of these lifestyles—the completely sinful and the completely devout—are extremes that have been false and harmful. He does not want to lead a completely debauched life, but also rejects austere Catholicism because he feels that it does not permit him the full experience of being human. Stephen ultimately reaches a decision to embrace life and celebrate humanity after seeing a young girl wading at a beach. To him, the girl is a symbol

of pure goodness and of life lived to the fullest.

Major conflict – Stephen struggles to decide whether he should be loyal to his family, his church, his nation, or his vocation as an artist.

Simon Dedalus

He spends a great deal of his time reliving past experiences, lost in his own sentimental nostalgia. Joyce often uses Simon to symbolize the bonds and burdens that Stephen’s family and nationality place upon him as he grows up. Simon is a nostalgic, tragic figure: hhe has a deep pride in tradition, but he is unable to keep his own affairs in order. To Stephen, his father Simon represents the parts of family, nation, and tradition that hold him back, and against which he feels he must rebel. The closest look we get at Simon is on the visit to Cork with Stephen, during which Simon gets drunk and sentimentalizes about his past. Joyce paints a picture of a man who has ruined himself and, iinstead of facing his problems, drowns them in alcohol and nostalgia.

Emma Clery

She is Stephen’s „beloved,“ the young girl to whom he is intensely attracted over the course of many years. She appears only in glimpses throughout most of Stephen’s yyoung life, and he never gets to know her as a person. Instead, she becomes a symbol of pure love, untainted by sexuality or reality. Stephen worships Emma as the ideal of feminine purity. When he goes through his devoutly religious phase, he imagines his reward for his piety as a union with Emma in heaven. It is only later, when he is at the university, that we finally see a real conversation between Stephen and Emma. Stephen’s diary entry regarding this conversation portrays her as a real, friendly, and somewhat ordinary girl, but certainly not the goddess Stephen earlier makes her out to be. This more balanced view of Emma mirrors Stephen’s abandonment of the extremes of complete sin aand complete devotion in favor of a middle path, the devotion to the appreciation of beauty. Stephen does not know Emma particularly well, and is generally too embarrassed or afraid to talk to her, but feels a powerful response stirring within him whenever he sees her. Stephen’s first poem, „To E— C—,“ is written to Emma. She is a shadowy figure throughout the novel, and we know almost nothing about her even at the novel’s end. For Stephen, Emma symbolizes oone end of a spectrum of femininity. Stephen seems able to perceive only the extremes of this spectrum: for him, women are either pure, distant, and unapproachable, like Emma, or impure, sexual, and common, like the prostitutes he visits during his time at Belvedere.

Charles Stewart Parnell

Parnell is not fictional, and does not actually appear as a character in the novel. However, as an Irish political leader, he is a polarizing figure whose death influences many characters in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. During the late nineteenth century, Parnell had been the powerful leader of the Irish National Party, and his influence seemed to promise Irish independence from England. When Parnell’s affair with a married woman was exposed, however, he was condemned by the Catholic Church and fell from grace. His fevered attempts to regain his former position of influence contributed to his death from exhaustion. Many people in Ireland, such as the character of John Casey in Joyce’s novel, considered Parnell a hero and blamed the church for his death. Many others, such as the character Dante, thought the church had done the right thing to condemn Parnell. These disputes over Parnell’s character are aat the root of the bitter and abusive argument that erupts during the Dedalus family’s Christmas dinner when Stephen is still a young boy. In this sense, Parnell represents the burden of Irish nationality that Stephen comes to believe is preventing him from realizing himself as an artist. This sensitive subject becomes the topic of a furious, politically charged argument over the family’s Christmas dinner.

Cranly

Stephen’s best friend at the university, Cranly also acts as a kind of nonreligious confessor for Stephen. In long, late-night talks, Stephen tells Cranly everything, just as he used to tell the priests everything during his days of religious fervor. While Cranly is a good friend to Stephen, he does not understand Stephen’s need for absolute freedom. Indeed, to Cranly, leaving behind all the trappings of society would be terribly lonely. It is this difference that separates the true artist, Stephen, from the artist’s friend, Cranly. In that sense, Cranly represents the nongenius, a young man who is not called to greatness as Stephen is, and who therefore does not have to make the same sacrifices.

2. The Development of Individual Consciousness

Perhaps the most famous aspect of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young MMan is Joyce’s innovative use of stream of consciousness, a style in which the author directly transcribes the thoughts and sensations that go through a character’s mind, rather than simply describing those sensations from the external standpoint of an observer. Joyce’s use of stream of consciousness makes A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man a story of the development of Stephen’s mind. In the first chapter, the very young Stephen is only capable of describing his world in simple words and phrases. The sensations that he experiences are all jumbled together with a child’s lack of attention to cause and effect. Later, when Stephen is a teenager obsessed with religion, he is able to think in a clearer, more adult manner. Paragraphs are more logically ordered than in the opening sections of the novel, and thoughts progress logically. Stephen’s mind is more mature and he is now more coherently aware of his surroundings. Nonetheless, he still trusts blindly in the church, and his passionate emotions of guilt and religious ecstasy are so strong that they get in the way of rational thought. It is only in the final chapter, when Stephen is in the university, that he seems

truly rational. By the end of the novel, Joyce renders a portrait of a mind that has achieved emotional, intellectual, and artistic adulthood. The development of Stephen’s consciousness in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is particularly interesting because, insofar as Stephen is a portrait of Joyce himself, Stephen’s development gives us insight into the development of a literary genius. Stephen’s experiences hint at the influences that transformed Joyce himself into the great writer he is considered ttoday: Stephen’s obsession with language; his strained relations with religion, family, and culture; and his dedication to forging an aesthetic of his own mirror the ways in which Joyce related to the various tensions in his life during his formative years. In the last chapter of the novel, we also learn that genius, though in many ways a calling, also requires great work and considerable sacrifice. Watching Stephen’s daily struggle to puzzle out his aesthetic philosophy, we get a sense oof the great task that awaits him.