James Joyce

A Miniature PortraitA Miniature Portrait

Early YearsEarly Years

James Joyce born on February 2, 1882, in James Joyce born on February 2, 1882, in Rathgar, a fairly prosperous southern suburb Rathgar, a fairly prosperous southern suburb of Dublin. of Dublin.

Father, John Stanislaus Joyce, was from Cork, Father, John Stanislaus Joyce, was from Cork, where the Joyce  family had been merchants where the Joyce  family had been merchants for some generations.for some generations.

They had married into the O'Connell family, They had married into the O'Connell family, who claimed a connection with the famous who claimed a connection with the famous Daniel O'Connell, "the Liberator.”Daniel O'Connell, "the Liberator.”

John Joyce insisted that the family was of John Joyce insisted that the family was of noble descentnoble descent

Background of RepressionBackground of Repression

Irish Catholic tradition of legal and cultural Irish Catholic tradition of legal and cultural repressionrepression

Invasions by Vikings, Normans, BritishInvasions by Vikings, Normans, British ““Anglo-Irish” aristocracy controlled landAnglo-Irish” aristocracy controlled land Penal laws kept Catholics from social Penal laws kept Catholics from social

advancement and educationadvancement and education Irish language was bannedIrish language was banned Emancipation Act of 1829 allowed the growth of a Emancipation Act of 1829 allowed the growth of a

Catholic middle classCatholic middle class Catholic peasantry and many middle class Catholic peasantry and many middle class

dreamed of an independent Irelanddreamed of an independent Ireland

The Influence of PoliticsThe Influence of Politics• Political discussions were frequent in the Joyce home.

•The famous “Christmas Dinner” scene in Portrait focuses on the fate of Charles Stewart Parnell.

•Parnell’s goal was to achieve home rule for Ireland.

•His downfall was a divorce scandal in which he was named by the aggrieved husband as having had an adulterous affair with Kitty O’Shea.

•Public pressure pushed him out of politics. He died broken and without having completed his work.

• John Joyce moved from Cork to Dublin in his mid-twenties

•He was a man of some means, including property in Cork

• By forty he had lost his final job as tax collector and was never again regularly employed

• A man of considerable charm, a fine tenor and storyteller, an improvident spendthrift and drinker

• A friend described him as "a man of unparalleled vituperative power, a virtuoso in speech with unique control of the vernacular."

Joyce’s Father

• The strain of a pregnancy virtually every year following her marriage was hard on May Joyce, who died at forty-four

•James Joyce was the eldest surviving child; two of his siblings died of typhoid, a disease encouraged by the family's poverty

• Twelve children, of whom eight survived to adulthood

School DaysSchool Days1888 James Joyce was sent to board and study at Clongowes Wood College before most of this pain and embarrassment Run by the influential Jesuit order The best preparatory school in Ireland (sons of the wealthier Anglo-Irish families were often sent to still better schools in England) Joyce spoke warmly of his experience there; unlike Stephen, whom we only see unjustly punished, Joyce received punishment that he admitted he deserved on several occasions, including once for bad language. Joyce was a good student at Clongowes despite his youth, and in some ways never abandoned the habits of thought with which the Jesuits inculcated him. But public events in Ireland were equally important to him, at least as they reached him through the talk of his parents and their friends.