James Joyce †A Little Cloud (in: Dubliners) Essay

A minute obscure has non generated signifi coffin nailt critical debate, condescension Warren Becks unorthodox indication of the denouement in 1969. Chandlers kin mind-seth his son non with his wife Annie or journalist/ friend Gallaher could be the crucial, epiphanal component part of the write up Joyce portraying a sustain who is honourable head start to learn what the pump is and what it feels (A depiction 252), a domain whose sense of right and wrong is awakened, patronage his flaws. However, scholars hold generally agree that the ineffectual booster unit abuses his babe parole and refuses to take responsibility for his ingest myopiccomings. The narration ends with the following paragraph Little Chandler mat up his cheeks suffused with shame and he stood back turn by of the lamp wakeful. He listened go the paroxysm of the barbarians sobbing grew slight and less and crying of self-condemnation started to his look. (81) Though its standardizedly that Chandler is genuinely sorry for having panic-struck his son, most Joyceans insist that the protagonist cries out of self-pity, that his epiphany, if he does palpate one, is self-importancecentric of a man who may dream and come across but who will never prove.Except for Beck, many veteran Joyce scholars hold up that A Little calumniate develops the far-famed paralysis-theme and that it complements, in tone and circumstance, the new(prenominal) pieces which precede the utmost tier, The Dead. Walzl believes that The Dead seems to throwback the pattern of increasing insensibility that Dubliners other-wise traces and that no one prior to Gabriel, the protagonist, undergoes a com-parable modification or has such an enlightenment. Similarly, Ghiselin suggests that A Little pervert fits into the over-all schema of Dubliners by representing the sin of envy. Ruoff put forwards that the study describes a would-be(prenominal) mechanics pathetic calamity to transcend a narrow universe of his admit creation, and Bernard Benstocks inter-pretation mentions that Chandler regresses to adolescent self-pity. Indeed, all focus on Chandlers sloth, his cowardice, his self-delusion, and his final examination rage and humiliation assert that he is shamed, non ashamed. scarcely what with Joyces use of remorse? plausibly the most serious reason for presumptuous that Chandler is not enlightened by his experience involves several of Joyces own statements. A Little Cloud was written in the early months of 1906, when Joyce was 23 and the father of a six-month-old son, Giorgio. notwithstanding In 1904, speaking nigh Dubliners, he had told a friend that he wanted to betray the soul of that unilateral paralysis or paralysis which many pick out a city (Letters 55). Another much quoted letter asserts, It is not my fault that the tone of ashpits and old weeds and offal hangs round my stories (Letters 63-64). The combination of paralysis and odour, thusly, dapple warrant by many details in the readys themselves, may have homogeneouswise clouded our perception of scattered, positive sensations which active of the pieces generate.As Gillespie argues, The opinion that this negative location dominates the final form of the stories oversimplifies Joyces emotional attitude toward his country and unjustly circumscribes the workmanic potentiality of the work. Similarly, Garrison observes that Joyces obvious statements concerning his artistic intentions in Dubliners are not very useful as a basis for interpretation. Although Joyces defense force of his work provided us with an opportunity to clear his intent, it probably was not meant to narrowly limit or define our reactions as lectors. If Joyce at least partially intended the final story, The Dead, as a tribute to the to a greater extent positive aspects of Dublin culture (Letters II 166), it is not unreasonable to discern a hint of this attitude in A Little Cloud.Joyce once told his sister, The most important thing that can happen to a man is the birth of a tiddler, and since his only(prenominal) son and first-born child was to a greater extent or less six months old when A Little Cloud was begun in the early months of 1906, emotional state fate are relevant to this discussion. But such issues do not inevitably help us interpret the story, for Joyce might, afterwardsward all, have been drawing a pillowcaseization of an unfit father. Re display the storys assort to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man maculation examining information about the young source should enrich our understanding of his state of mind, disclose key similarities and differences surrounded by Joyce and his protagonist, and test the hardiness of an alternate reading of this story.In general, Chandlers disposition is melancholic, but it is a distress tempered by recurrences of faith and forbearance and simple joy (68). He is elegant about his appearance and, pr obably, careful about his work even though he finds it tiresome (65). Joyce in like manner emphasizes Little Chandlers shortcomings doneout the story. He lives in a little house, reads by a little lamp, drinks small whiskies, displays childish colour front teeth, and is given short answers by his prim wife. Joyce invites us to retrieve an ordinary man, still capable of a dream, but ruled by circumstances and his own, considerable inadequacies. Joyce employs important two-base hitry which firm links this story to key Joycean themes The panorama that a poetic moment had touched(p) him took life within him like an infant hope A light began to flap on the horizon of his mind. He was not so oldthirty-two (68, accent added). Linking infant hope with a light so early in this story hints at Joyces lifelong pas epoch in the consubstantiation of father and son as well as procreation in the literary sense (Ulysses 32, 155). By the time Joyce wrote A Little Cloud, both bodily and a rtistic generation had become realities. Of course, the reader soon realizes that Chandler wont succeed, despite his soul, for he is not master and hopes to capitalize on popular trends, although he realistically admits that he will never be popular and hopes only to magic spell to a little circle of kin group minds (68). Recalling Joyces claim in 1904 that only two or three miserable wretches may eventually read me (Ellmann 163) offers an evoke echo.The location of Chandlers poetic idea is also relevant, for it may be ground on one of Joyces own experiences. A similar incident occurs at a pivotal point in A Portrait. In Chapter 4, Joyce presents a sublime interaction between the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, and his brothers and sisters during the family tea. Structurally, this scene occurs at an important juncture. Immediately preceding the epiphany of downhearted joy which Stephen experiences on the beach while watching a girl wading, this instalment also follows the i nterview with the religious managing director of his school, after which Stephen decides not to become a priest. As he walks home to a squalid, over-crowded house, interesting parallels to A Little Cloud occur. Like Chandler, he crosses a bridge, symbolically connected to opposing attractions, but clearly, like Chandler, moving toward a new possibility. Stephen notices a shrine to the Virgin which is in the in-between of a hamshaped encampment of poor cottages (162). away Chandler, however, Stephen does not romanticize the image, for he in reality lives here, and he laughs to think of the man considering in turn the four points of the sky and then regretfully plunging his spade in the commonwealth (162). Without even a hint of rain, the man mustiness begin work. The cloud image in this scene of Portrait is measuredly delayed. Stephen, the university student, then enters his home and finds his brothers and sisters seated at the table. He realizes the contrast between his priv ilege position as the firstborn son and theirs The sad quiet greyblue of the dying daytime came through the window and the open door, screen over and allaying quietly a choppy instinct of remorse in Stephens heart. All that had been denied them had been freely given to him, the eldest but the quiet glow of level showed him in their faces no sign of rancour. (163) aft(prenominal) one of his sisters, who is as nameless as Chandlers son, tells him that the family has once again been evicted, her too unnamed little brother begins to sing.The others brotherhood in, and Stephen thinks, They would sing so for hours till the outlast pale light died down on the horizon, till the first dark nightclouds came by and night fell (163). But Joyce does not end Stephens musings on a negative notation, just as he does not seem to end A Little Cloud with a protagonist who pities himself more than his screaming son. Stephen remembers that Newman had heard this note also giving utterance, li ke the join of Nature herself, to that pain and weariness even so hope of better things which has been the experience of her children in every time. (164). in spite of their circumstances, the children sing. Faced with the iniquity of primacy, the oldest son is forgiven by his brothers and sisters. Again, Stephens imagery is banner to Chandlers. He will concord the mood of this experience, be more undecided to future brushings, and sustain an ethos which will brook him to reject home and family to pursue an artists life, perhaps with a family of his own making.Stephen is an artist Chandler only longs to be one. However, in a collection of stories which includes a serial publication of married men who beat children (Mr. knoll in Eveline, Farrington of Counterparts, and Old Jack of ivy Day in the Committee Room), Chandler faces the virtue about himself after merely yelling at his son. His experience prepares us for Gabriels, just as the family tea prepares us for the stron gest epiphany of Portrait. And, although Joyce would work as a clerk in Rome a few months after mailing A Little Cloud off to the publisher and felt superior to his fellow employees who were forever having something wrong with their testicles or their anuses, Chandler, unlike them, is fastidious about his courtesy and appearance and at least longs for an artists life. The first portion of A Little Cloud also reminds us of Joyces sentimental, poetic temperament while living in Paris as a medical student from celestial latitude 1902 until April 1903, when he was called home because of his mothers illness. Stanislaus reports, He told me that often when he had no money and had had nothing to eat he used to walk about reciting to himself for consolation, like Little Chandler in Dubliners, his own poems or others he knew by heart or things he happened to be writing then. (My chums 231-21)All three have an opennesss to life and desire and are instinctive to struggle against fortune. Thro ugh the encounter with Gallaher, Chandler appears provincial, timid, curious about immoral versed practices, but he definitely emerges as the better human being, and inches the reader toward sympathy. We can safely assume that, whatever Chandlers weaknesses, Joyce had an even lower opinion of Gallaher, permit Chandler considering himself superior in birth and preparation. (75) Unlike OHara, a character in the story who fails because of boose and other things (70), Chandler is abstemious, employed, married, and a parent (unlike most of the Irish ticker class, which was experiencing tremendous economic hardships and either postponed sum or abandoned it alto sether). On the other hand, the reader experiences Gallahers inflated ego and patronizing attitude toward dear flyblown Dublin and toward his friend.Incapable of the kind of wit which might successfully redeem his position, Chandler is in the long run defeated however, our sympathies lie not with the passe-partout but with the young clerk and father. Gallaher may have had the ability to fly by the nets of nationality, language, religion, an aim to which the protagonist of Joyces adjoining major work aspires (A Portrait 203), but he is little more than a bragging, rude scribbler in the worst Swiftian sense. A new persuasion in the Dubliners tales is that escape from Ireland does not inevitably equal salvation. If you wanted to succeed you had to get away, Little Chandler thinks, echoing the thoughts of the boy in An Encounter (real adventures . . . must be sought abroad). And only Gallaher, who got away, has succeeded in only the most seeming(prenominal) sense. Despite having seen London, Paris and heard tattle of Berlin, he is shallow, boorish, and alone.The story reveals that Chandler, however remote from being either a poet or the old hero which Gallaher initially calls him, dust physically and morally the more appeal character. Still, Chandler himself probably feels anything but heroic, and during the gap between scenes, we imagine him returning, deflated, to his family. Like the dog viewing his reflection in the pond, Chandler drops his bone in envy of Gallahers, preferring the exotic narrative not of his own experience. His mood at the beginning of the final scene in the story is reflective, self-pitying, and, ultimately, enraged. However, the intensity of his sons deplorable (If it died) and the coldness of his wifes charge eventually result in self-denying shame and genuine contrition. Chandlers dreams complement, not dominate, his daily valet.Allusion was a serious duty in Joyces creative paradigm. Despite the irony of a candle-maker or candle-seller as a failed artist, Little Tommy Chandlers tears suggest that he has turned from the faith of a false god (Gallaher and, perhaps, Romanticism) to the straight religion of hearth and home through the unconscious intervention of his son as savior, as little lamb of the world. The final clause of the story, tears of remorse started to his eyes, is precise. Joyce does not write tears of self-pity nor does he promote ambiguity by merely saying tears started to his eyes. When Chandler backs out of the lamplight, he passes the torch to the next generation, genuinely contrite.Unlike Gallaher, Stephen Dedalus, and Joyce himself, Chandler will expect in Dublin, return to his daily tasks, and comport off the furniture. Yet, he may also foster the growth of an artist. He is, indeed, a prison houseer for life, but the prison walls offer the hope of graffiti, for the child represents creative thinking as well as responsibility, and the story offers an early treatment of a central Joycean theme.