Classes, Arts and Oppression: The Confined Legitimacy of Female Characters in “The Dead”
“Literature was above politics” (188), Gabriel Conroy says to himself after he is questioned by Miss Ivors about the indication of his writing for a Conservative paper in James Joyce’s “The Dead.” The Misses Morkan’s family feast is brimmed with music, literature and paintings. However, the arts which constitute the civilized bourgeois life are not as innocent as Gabriel states, especially when they are concerned with the women characters in the story. In fact, the arts are deeply intertwined with sexual politics. On the other hand, the aesthetic life does not stand alone but has its own social origin, and for some female characters like Lilly and Gretta …show more content…
The oppression on the female in the arts field worsens the condition. Julia Morkan, the soprano used to sing in Adam and Eve’s, performs the song that arouses “the excitement of swift and secure flight” in the party (193). Nevertheless, at the beginning of the story, she is depicted as a woman “who did not know where she was or where she was going” (179). The artistic appeal Aunt Julia possesses is contrasted with the perplexity she often shows, and to some extent, music animates her even when facing the threats of aging and death. The fact that she is thrown away in the choir because of her gender becomes unbearable, as Aunt Kate protests, “I think it’s not at all honourable for the pope to turn out the women out of the choirs that have slaved there all their lives and put little shipper-snappers of boy over their heads” (194). The gender bias in the church choir is parallel with the racial bias against the black tenor, as Margot Norris argues that Aunt Julia “is not considered eligible to be a great artist any more than a black singer” (“All Women” 200). Norris notices the same alienation of Aunt Julia and the black singer from the arts because of certain institutional prejudice. Nevertheless, she does not mention that another similarity between the two discriminated artists is the parallel illegitimacy of any challenge on the oppression. It is astonishing that Mary Jane puts an end to the challenge on the oppression in both cases. She stops Aunt Kate’s complaint against the Pope by reminding her that “we really are all hungry and when we are hungry we are all very quarrelsome” (195). It is also Mary Jane who leads the table back to “the legitimate opera” when Freddy Marlin dispute with Mr. Bartell D’ Arcy on “why couldn’t he (the black singer) have a voice too” (198, 199). The female
“Literature was above politics” (188), Gabriel Conroy says to himself after he is questioned by Miss Ivors about the indication of his writing for a Conservative paper in James Joyce’s “The Dead.” The Misses Morkan’s family feast is brimmed with music, literature and paintings. However, the arts which constitute the civilized bourgeois life are not as innocent as Gabriel states, especially when they are concerned with the women characters in the story. In fact, the arts are deeply intertwined with sexual politics. On the other hand, the aesthetic life does not stand alone but has its own social origin, and for some female characters like Lilly and Gretta …show more content…
The oppression on the female in the arts field worsens the condition. Julia Morkan, the soprano used to sing in Adam and Eve’s, performs the song that arouses “the excitement of swift and secure flight” in the party (193). Nevertheless, at the beginning of the story, she is depicted as a woman “who did not know where she was or where she was going” (179). The artistic appeal Aunt Julia possesses is contrasted with the perplexity she often shows, and to some extent, music animates her even when facing the threats of aging and death. The fact that she is thrown away in the choir because of her gender becomes unbearable, as Aunt Kate protests, “I think it’s not at all honourable for the pope to turn out the women out of the choirs that have slaved there all their lives and put little shipper-snappers of boy over their heads” (194). The gender bias in the church choir is parallel with the racial bias against the black tenor, as Margot Norris argues that Aunt Julia “is not considered eligible to be a great artist any more than a black singer” (“All Women” 200). Norris notices the same alienation of Aunt Julia and the black singer from the arts because of certain institutional prejudice. Nevertheless, she does not mention that another similarity between the two discriminated artists is the parallel illegitimacy of any challenge on the oppression. It is astonishing that Mary Jane puts an end to the challenge on the oppression in both cases. She stops Aunt Kate’s complaint against the Pope by reminding her that “we really are all hungry and when we are hungry we are all very quarrelsome” (195). It is also Mary Jane who leads the table back to “the legitimate opera” when Freddy Marlin dispute with Mr. Bartell D’ Arcy on “why couldn’t he (the black singer) have a voice too” (198, 199). The female