James Joyce Passage Explication

Pop Politics

In James Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” Joyce concludes that it is important to care about the how the government is run. Joyce displays that the people of nineteenth century Ireland were heavily concerned with well being of their country and the way it was run. The government maintained Ireland and that is what the people worried about most, the politics. Joyce gives us insight into this idea by providing dialogue, and allusion. The subject is discussed casually and also debated upon in the text.

Dedalus is the young protagonist in the story and he grows up in nineteenth century Ireland. During his childhood, he bumps into many important subjects dealing with religion, corruption, and politics. His world around him is run by the Catholic Church but his father and his father’s friends hate that fact and seem to always debate over it and tell stories about it. Mr. Dedalus and his friends think that Ireland should be run by a government not too closely linked to the church since the church had ruined Charles Stewart Parnell ‘s life when he was leading the Parliament.

Politics was on the minds of everyone at this period in time and even openly discussed at the dinner table. “We go to the house of God, Mr. Casey said, in all humility to pray to our maker and not to hear election addresses.” (39) Dante sparks an argument between Simon, Mr. Casey, and herself about the church and government. Mr. Dedalus and Mr. Casey are on the same side and agree that the church had contributed to the death of Parnell who was doing so well in the Irish National Party and seemed a promising leader that would attain independence from England. Yet Dante defends her thought that “The bishops and priests of Ireland have spoken… and must be obeyed” (40) no matter what the subject. The people’s refusal “have no political discussion of all days in this year” (40) how hot the subject of politics really is. James Joyce places this dialogue in this part of the book to show how important of a subject politics is. The setting at this moment in the story is Christmas dinner where it should be a happy and calm time. He places this heated argument in this setting to show that politics were that important that people would not “let the matter drop” (40) and even ruin a Christmas dinner debating about it. Joyce creates a serious tone in this passage also to stress the importance of the matter. The three people go offensively about their dispute.

All the people around Stephen have something to say about the political workings of Ireland. Joyce creates this reminder of politics to show how the importance and influence politics had on the people. Later in the story when Stephen is in college, he spends his summers in Blackrock with his father and his uncle. One day Mr. Dedalus and Stephen go out where they chat but soon his father starts to die internally which is when Stephen tries to draw old vivid memories yet all Stephen can remember “only names: Dante, Parnell, Clane, Clongowes.“ (89) Joyce embeds Parnell in Stephen’s memory to convey the fact that politics were important. Parnell is an allusion Parnell manipulates referring to the Irish National Party which was the government of Ireland. People usually only remember key parts or important events in their lives. In this case Stephen’s “memory of his childhood suddenly grew dim,” (89) so the memories that did stick would show that it was more significant. Then small pieces start to come back to Stephen and he realizes “Parnell had died. There had been no mass for the dead in the chapel and no procession.” (89) Joyce uses this allusion referring back to how Parnell had died. Parnell passed away after condemnation from the church. When he died there was no real funeral for him nor procession for him because of his sin.

Joyce conveys the idea that people should be active in their countries politics. It is how a country is run and that the citizens of a country should take part and care about their country’s politics because it can affect lives. The people of Ireland take up a strong knowledge in politics because it changed what could have been. If Parnell was not condemned by the church for his affair, Ireland at that point in time could have been independent from England. Joyce portrays scenes of politics as a part of daily lives of the Irish citizens to show how important it was to them.