Switching Voices

As Joyce finishes out the novel, he makes a curious change into a journal format. I think it is a good metaphor for Stephen’s continued search for a personal voice. I think it also shows how words without consciousness can often mean a very different story from similar situations. He is literally speaking in his own voice for the first time, and it shows how different people are perceived by others rather than by themselves. This ending is also interesting because it ties back into the opening of the novel. Mr. Dedalus opens the story as an external voice without a stream of consciousness. As we discussed in class Stephen doesn’t really know what his voice or his path in life should be. At first he is a quote machine, letting past philosophers talk for him, but eventually realizes he must use his own language or else risk not finding himself at all. We really get to see this voice of Stephen’s in his journal entries. He isn’t imitating anyone anymore; he has started making his own decisions, finding his own convictions. It’s an important moment in a young person’s life and we really get a sense that Stephen has become his own person. Of course, Stephen’s own voice may not be the polished, thoughtful prose of Joyce, but that just makes the idea of Stephen’s own voice that much more believable and genuine.

In class we briefly discussed the issue of femininity and the subjugation of women throughout the novel. I don’t know if that was how Joyce himself felt, or if that was a general attitude towards women from his time period, but either way it is not flattering. Still, it was good to see Stephen begin to be a man, so to speak, taking control of a situation and not letting his fear of rejection get in the way of his life. When Stephen mentions meeting Emma on Grafton Street, and actually talking with her, as a person, we can see that he has broken free from the women who have controlled his life to that point, his nagging mother and the prostitutes that have pulled his attention throughout. He starts seeing people for people, not as objects that have to be impressed then collected and counted. He doesn’t need his mother and the rest in order to become the artist that he knows he should be.