McGuirk, Carol

In the "Scylla and Charybdis" chapter of Ulysses, the novel appears to make a problem out of its autobiographical suppositions. Stephen Dedalus argues that the works of Shakespeare have a biographical basis, and previously in Ulysses Stephen has imagined himself as a Shakespearean character. Stephen is also the protagonist of Joyce's earlier work, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In the "Scylla and Charybdis" episode, the association between Joyce and Stephen seems confirmed when the narrator's voice, sometimes conflated with Stephen's, reports thoughts particularly appropriate for James Joyce. This chapter, however, lures one into an autobiographical reading of Stephen that does not remain tenable throughout the novel. Apparent autobiography in Ulysses becomes a problem (rather than an easy option for interpretation) when one finds autobiographical references significantly changed in the "Circe" chapter--changed so that the essential ambiguity of Joyce's autobiographical references becomes clear.

Although Edith Wharton once said she considered herself a writer of novels of manners, she exhibits naturalist tendencies in her writing. She shows the potential of both heredity and environment to ensnare and suppress the individual in his or her quest for self-determination. In The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, Wharton reflects upon the changes that caused society to enforce its rules all the more strongly in an attempt to maintain its stability. In Ethan Frome she develops one of the generally accepted themes of naturalism: the waste of human potential because of the forces of society. In these novels Wharton moves beyond the usual realism found in much of her fiction and places her characters in naturalist roles.

Two British women writers, Mary Shelley and Muriel Spark, express a curiously similar vision in their novels, creating characters whose solipsistic view of the world finally makes them monsters. Solipsism is the assertion that the self is the only reality that can be known and verified; a doppelganger is a mirror-self or double of the protagonist. The narrative structure and viewpoints in both Frankenstein and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie rely on these two concepts. Victor Frankenstein journeys through solipsism by first creating his monster from necrotic material--dead "selves." Jean Brodie's solipsistic response to her world is to re-"create" and manipulate her student Sandy Stranger as an extension of herself. Both Frankenstein and Jean Brodie experience a paradox of identity, forming but then conflicting with other characters who become their doppelgangers. In both novels, doppelgangers become "harbingers of death" rather than instruments of insight. Both Shelley and Spark demonstrate that a self-centered perspective leads to destructive isolation and alienation from others.

The war novels and propaganda of World War I infused Americans with a consciousness of trench warfare through images of degradation, discontinuity, and the irrelevance of human effort. Three modernist novels, The Day of the Locust (1933) by Nathanael West, As I Lay Dying (1930) by William Faulkner, and God's Little Acre (1934) by Erskine Caldwell, are infused with this same imagery. Though neither West, Faulkner, nor Caldwell participated in the war, their works symbolically echo the images of trench warfare, a development uniquely central to World War I. Although these novels do not mention war, the world of "The Great War" is their world. There has been much written on the symbolism in these three novels. No critic, however, associates the symbols with trench warfare. This thesis therefore relies on the historical and psychological research of World War I, which is then applied to the works of West, Faulkner, and Caldwell.

Samuel Beckett's plays reverberate with a recurring memory motif. Recollections offer hope, rejuvenation, or in some cases simply the strength to carry on through what Beckett calls the "mess of life." The memories of Beckett's characters help them to transcend or to at least deal with the past. Close study of the plays points out this glimmer of hope in reminiscent memories, sensory memories, and creative memories. Even the bleakest recollections offer the possibility of future memories. In the ten plays examined, the use of memory varies. An exploration of the plays in terms of Proustian memory, autobiographical documentation, and psychological research offers insight into the often hopeful memories of Beckett's characters.

Although Jonathan Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels in 1726, Swift's outrage at personal, social, economic, and political slavery can still be felt today, and his work continues to be significant. Criticizing institutions and human nature's tendency to trust those who wield political authority, Swift condemns our reluctance to safeguard our freedom. Swift exposes submissiveness and its consequence: a loss of liberty. Whether Swift uses allusions to Irish history, direct personal statement, or Gulliver as persona to reveal the self-destructive consequences of passivity, he "deliberately taunts those who might be so wise and yet remain so stupid" (Bloom 34).

Jane Austen's Mansfield Park and Anthony Trollope's The Warden and Barchester Towers all follow the experiences of a timid heroine or hero. The setting and the dramatic irony of each novel play important roles in the characterization of these gentle "heroes." Elements of irony and of setting thus are inseparable from the portraits of both Austen's Fanny Price and Trollope's Mr. Harding. An exploration of each element--of the timid hero, of the element of place, and of dramatic irony--proves that the three elements are equally important in determining the novels' distinctive portraitures.

Beyond the Victorian and Southern myths of women existed other levels of female autonomy and strength. In the stories of Kate Chopin, women characters perform social roles as wives, mothers, and hostesses; in addition, they live out other layers of existence in which they have greater control and freedom. Some, like Edna Pontellier in The Awakening, find an "inward life which questions." Others, like the protagonists of "The Kiss," "The Respectable Woman," "Lady of Bayou St. John," "At the 'Cadian Ball," "The Storm," and "Athenaise," find an outer life characterized by intrigue and manipulation. Chopin's women characters enact a stratified female consciousness that begins with manipulation and ends with a failed attempt at independent survival.

Toni Morrison suggests that there is "an enormous difference in the writing of black and white women." Despite her blanket assertion, however, Morrison's second novel Sula (1973) employs structures, themes, characters, and plot developments similar to George Eliot's in The Mill on the Floss (1860). Though significant differences mark the societies and cultures from which Eliot and Morrison write, numerous similarities between Maggie Tulliver and Sula Peace suggest that the "differences" between black and white female writers do not preclude some shared and corresponding traits.