A Thousand Dubliners in a Thousand People’s Eyes:
Ellipsis in Dubliners
外國語學院16英語 徐祺葳
「I’m afraid I cannot read James Joyce.」 Another common complaint from the reader, who has been once again intimidated by James Joyce, one of the most prominent figures in the first half of the 20th century, also identified as the 「Writer of the Writers」. Admittedly, sometimes it could be difficult to comprehend and follow his works, particularly those later ones, including A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and the most well-known Ulysses. The word games he perfectly crafted in the two are apt to pose challenges to even the most sophisticated reader. Just as he used to boast himself, the difficulty of his work may truly keep scholars busy for generations.
However, I myself found it rather regrettable to shut out such an outstanding writer for good, who could by no means be left out when it comes to the English literature in the twentieth century. After all, he was Marilyn Monroe’s favorite. I therefore chose to start with his first book – the relatively more accessible Dubliners. This short story collection marks the beginning of his stepping on the way of revolution and innovation as a Modernist in the field of literature. All those 15 short stories, arranged from childhood to death, are set in Dublin, where Joyce himself was born and brought up. However, it is no exercise of nostalgia, but a look back in anger. Now, I, concerned about my understanding being either partial to dissatisfy my readers or plain to sound like a cliché, have decided to continue the revolt themes no longer. The rest would instead focus on those seemingly abrupt endings, which was later discovered to have a close relationship with ellipsis.
There could hardly be one single reader, at least to my knowledge, who is not impressed by those endings. They feel like the story should not end here, or it is unreasonable to do so. Some necessary explanation is missing and the comprehension of the story is blurred. This strong feeling is very likely to torture the readers during a long period after they have put down the book. But the good thing is that, it would inspire readers to ponder deeper on the omitted part, or the reasons behind, and eventually come up with their own unique understanding, with which they are enabled to complete the story by themselves. Now, I would like to present one example for detailed analysis.
Gazing up in the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity, and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.
This is the ending of 「Araby」, greatly favored and frequently quoted by many, including our textbook. However, at the very beginning, readers may find it rather confusing and awkward. The boy in 「Araby」 had a crush on his neighborhood girl, who had long been eager to attend a bazaar named Araby. Then, he decided to go there and buy something nice for her. Unfortunately, when he reached the bazaar, he arrived too late to buy a decent gift, and thus failed to impress the girl he adored. At this turning point, what would happen between our young protagonist and his girl next door must be expected to unfold immediately, whereas the author simply put a period after describing the boy’s reaction, which in fact seemed more like an overreaction, unnatural and inappropriate. A teenager may be displeased by his failure to realize the promise of a little gift, but huge disappointment described as anguish in this triviality does not make much sense. In such context, not only was he painful about the present, but about something else. After all, the journey itself, a rare opportunity to win the girl’s favor as well as to taste the outside world’s fun, is supposed to be exciting. Now we need to search in our minds for our own rosebud hidden in the narration to link all of those and hopefully give birth to our own versions.
It’s noticeable that Joyce only leaves one sixth of the story for the bazaar, and the tone is quite distinctive from the previous narrations. The vendors did not welcome him, and treated him out of a sense of duty; the passengers looked him over as if he were a monster intruding into their world; the place was shabby and dark, unlike what he had imagined. He must have felt that, but he was reluctant to admit that this adventure is no better than home, so none of this had been mentioned. Only when his heart sank into the very bottom of regret and desperation, he was finally impelled to acknowledge it and to doubt whether love is superficial. The ellipsis signifies the hidden process of disillusionment, the fall from a life where one dares to dream, to a reserved and mundane life.
Though I assume that this review should only contain my own thoughts, I arbitrarily think that it won’t hurt to share a shred of others. This version comes from, of course, a reader, a comparatively accomplished reader, and if he turned out to be a scholar who has been studying Joyce for years, I would not be surprised in the slightest. This version is nothing similar to what the majority think, and that’s why I feel so obligated to make it known to more people. He points out that the young protagonist himself is not exactly the one telling the story, though it is indeed written from the first-person perspective. It is instead the grown-up version of the boy who recounts this. He said that a young boy would never have the wisdom or the vocabulary to say 「I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity.」 The man that the boy grew into, however, is capable of recognizing and expressing such a sentiment. In this regard, this ending is a demonstration of Joyce’s ingenious language use and employed by him purposefully as a hint for us readers to wake up from his tricky word games.
There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes. By virtue of ellipsis, I believe that Joyce has successfully invited his readers to interpret freely and led them into the vast ocean of the characters』 minds. Hence 「a thousand Dubliners in a thousand people’s eyes」.
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