Power And Art

Ulysses and Mrs. Dalloway are the main stream-of-consciousness novels written by James Joyce and Virginia Woolf respectively. Because of the remarkable coincidence as to their life spans (both from 1882 to 1941) and the equally notable artistic achievements in stream-of-consciousness novels, critics have paid attention to certain similarities and differences in their works. In this article, the two novels--Ulysses and Mrs. Dalloway are compared and studied systematically, including the similarities in terms of frame, content, technique as well as the differences in terms of opening, theme and language style. Then the causes for the similarities and differences are discussed based on the two masters' historical background, family background, educational background, thoughts, etc. For example, both novels are based on one city, Dublin and London respectively. Both take one day as the time span to reflect the whole life process and universal experience. Both reveal the inner world of the characters by following their wandering in the streets; both create the mental link of two apparently irrelevant persons. As to the theme, both novels reveal the confusion and worry after the First World War with plain plot and subtle description. As to the technique, both employ widely the stream-of-consciousness techniques. Meanwhile, there are equally obvious differences. Firstly, the openings are different. Secondly, Ulysses' theme is mythical while Mrs. Dalloway's theme is lyrical. Thirdly, Joyce adopts different language styles for different types of people in Ulysses while Woolf sticks to the same style throughout the novel. The main emphasis is put on the basic discrepancy in their opposite views. By analyzing a large number of examples from the texts, it's colluded that in Ulysses, Joyce depictsthe modern city------Dublin as a man-powered space in which females are excludedbased on Joyce's male-chauvinism. The city is limitedly gendered feminine, only tobe filled in and thus conquered, to become a space of male power, in the process,women------particularly the three women closest to Stephen and Bloom------areexcluded from active participation in urban life. Dublin is described as a sterile wasteland in dire need of water and fertility (representing women), but later the city is shown as as labyrinth in which sewage and fluidity (also representing women) are avoided. From that, it can be seen that Joyce is preoccupied by male-chauvinism. Although he also realizes the danger of making the city sterile by excluding females (water), he depicts females as destructive force (sewage) that should be avoided, and the fluidity of water also threatens the fixity of the man-powered society. So women are depicted as various passive images. In Joyce's mind, male-chauvinism is predominant in spite of his limited modification resulting from his awareness of the potential danger because of excluding females.In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf depicts Clarissa as an artist who transmutes personal experience and feeling into a public act-party, and Clarissa's actual existence is an unrecognized but fundamental contradiction of male-identified utilitarian ideology. Clarissa subverts man-powered society on many levels. She takes pleasure in physical, sensual existence as it is; she holds parties as her artistic creation so that people can share common experience to fight against their danger of seperation and death and to save herself from virtual death - isolation and from the suppression by the male-powered society; she loves and accepts rather than judges and rules, because the power-centered society has set utilitarian standards for people to pursue success in finance, authority and status, which makes many people feel painful because of their failure in doing so. Woolf s presentation of Clarissa Dalloway is itself subversive on many levels. Clarissa defends herself and creates her own artistic space against the male-ruled society by three means. Firstly, she takes pleasure in physical, sensual existence and moments of being. Seco...