Lin 59
Chapter Three
Operatic Fashion: Do the Prince and the Princess Live Happily Ever After?
When she came to the age of marriage she was sent out to many houses where her playing and ivory manners were much admired. She sat amid the chilly circle of her accomplishments, waiting for some suitors to brave it and offer her a brilliant life. But the young men whom she met were ordinary and she gave them no encouragement, trying to console her romantic desires by eating a great deal of Turkish Delight in secret. —“A Mother”(D 136)
Would he never get a home of his own? ... He might yet able to settle down in some snug corner and live happily if he could only come across some good simple-minded girl with a little of the ready. —“Two Gallants”(D 58)
In “A Mother,”Mrs. Kearney recalled her maiden expectation to have “some suitors to brave it”(D 136; my emphasis). The pronoun “it”in her romantic desires certainly referred to a marriage proposal. In “Two Gallants,”Lenehar wished to settle down and he meant a happy marriage. First, it was the marriage that these two female and male characters desired. Then, after the unions, they wished that the spouse could offer them “a brilliant”and “a little of ready”life.
Over and over again, Joyce depicts the phenomenon that men and women have certain romantic expectations toward marriage and the good lives guaranteed by marriage in Dubliners. However, do the romantic expectations truly promise better living standards and wealth after marriage? The answer was actually “no.”Therefore, if Dubliners have expectations, theirs are certainly false ones rather than great ones. In the second chapter, I assume that the upper-middle-class Doyle family adopts many upper-class fashions, especially the fashion of the car race, for the purpose of aspiring to the top class in the Irish society. In this chapter, therefore, I will continue with the Lin 60 topic of fashion with regard to class aspiring. This time I want to assume that the lower classes are infected with an operatic fashion and because of this operatic fashion, they believe that marriage after courtship would lead them to the higher and better class in the society. I want to reason out that Joyce seemed to satirize Dubliners’ romantic illusions about the relation between marriage and class aspiring and he presented this issue through the contemporary operatic fashion. In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, opera became one of the most popular forms of musical entertainment. Dublin was then under the influence of this operatic fashion as well. The greatest influence that this operatic fashion brought to people was their attitude toward love and marriage. The operatic fashion made people want to believe that romance was a wonderful thing. However, after men and women were installed with this fashionable idea, they found out that it resulted in disillusions. After wedding, they had to yield themselves to the reality of lives—more family members meant more living expenses. If men and women adopted the operatic fashion and used marital contracts as ways to rid of poverty and aspire to another better class, they would found it impossible at last. The impossibility hence projected upon Dubliners’ disappointment and fury about their lives.
As an exceptional tenor and a great writer, Joyce undoubtedly incorporates all the melodies and lyrics he has known into his works in complex ways and Dubliners is no exception. Interestingly enough, I find Michael W. Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl and Glacome Puccini’s La Bohème, which bear the same word “Bohemian” in their titles contributing some romantic ideas for Dubliners. By these two works, I want to indicate that men and women who want to use marriage contracts to achieve class aspiring are greatly influenced by the romantic ideas that the operatic fashion brings.
Then, I will figure out that operatic fashion is simply a disillusion. The myth of
“the prince and the princess live happily ever after”only exists in operas but not in the Lin 61 real world. In the course of courtship, men manage not to get married because they want personal freedom and because they are not economically stable to get married and support their families. Therefore, the trend of celibacy and the fashion of prostitution provide outlets for their romantic feelings and sexual impulse. As for women, even if they want to get married, the chances are rare. The lack of economic opportunity results in late marriages because men cannot even find stable jobs. Then, they choose to delay marriages or even not to marry in this hard time. As a result,
Ireland’smarriage rate at that time was the lowest among all the civilized countries.
Many women become celibate and try hard to make livings by themselves. Some other women, however, still choose to hunt and trap men for marriage contracts to secure their economic lives. The element of love is thus less important and the marriage without love therefore bring discontent and unhappiness.
I. Operatic Fashion: Dubliners in Romantic Love
In music history, the time between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century was generally called the Romanticism (1850-1920). The Romantic era was a period of great change and emancipation. While the Classical era had strict laws of balance and restraint, the Romantic era moved away from that by allowing artistic freedom, experimentation, and creativity. The music of this period was very expressive, free, emotional and passionate. In the early twentieth century when the
World War I broke out, composers even used these expressive means to display nationalism. This became a driving force in the late Romantic period, as composers used elements of folk music to express their cultural identity. On the other hand, operas became increasingly popular, as they continued to tell stories and to express the issues of the day through music. Noticeably, the reason for the increasing popularity had a historical background. During the early ninetieth century, the “Grand
Opera”and “Opera Comique”started to target the less “cultured”classes. The Lin 62 subjects of the operas were less serious but more comic so as to attract more and more people to go to the opera houses and the songs from the operas were quickly spread and sung among people at the same time. On top of the “less cultured”class, the rise of the powerful middle class also contributed to its popularity. To cater to people’s increasing needs for operatic entertainment, composers became very prolific and many classic operas appeared in the opera history.
Since Joyce was born in this period, it is essential for him to be acquainted with many operas. His mother was a pianist and his father was a tenor. He became a gifted tenor himself. Gifted as he was, he composed his knowledge and passion of music into Chamber Music, Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and
Finnegans Wake. Hence, the study of Joycean music has never been rare. Many scholars have devoted themselves to the studies of musical allusions among those works. Scholars such as Zack Bowen, an internationally recognized scholar and author, had published Musical Allusions in the Works of James Joyce in 1974 and
Bloom's Old Sweet Song: a Collection of Essays on Joyce and Music in 1995.
As I have mentioned above, it is interesting to figure that the word “Bohemian” in Dubliners is taken from two different operas—The Bohemian Girl and La Bohème.
These two operas are both famous love stories and I believe that they have elements that we can tie them together with “Eveline,”“After the Race,”“Clay,”“A Little
Cloud,”and “The Boarding House”in terms of a operatic fashion resulting in romantic illusions in Dubliners’courtships and tragic disillusions in Dubliners' marriages.
I will start with The Bohemian Girl. There is a short summary of what the opera is all about from Gifford’s note:
A light opera (1843), libretto by Alfred Bunn (1796-1860), music by
Michael William Balfe (1808-1870). Balfe was a Dublin musician, who Lin 63
conducted, sang, composed opera, and played a virtuoso violin. The opera,
in three acts, is set in the romantic vicinity of Presburg in the eighteenth
century. The Bohemian Girl, Arline, born to be the nobility, is kidnapped
by gypsies in the course of act I. In act II, twelve years later, Arline has
matured into a beautiful woman in the midst of pastoral gypsy simplicity,
and only vague dream of the “marble halls”of her former existence
remains to haunt her. She is betrothed by the queen of the gypsies and
coincidentally recognized by the Count, her long lost father. Back in the
luxury of her father’s in act III, she longs for the freedom of the gypsy life
and for her betrothed (Thaddeus). All is resolved so that Arline is to live
happily ever after with the best of both worlds. (50; my emphasis)
From this opera, I want to bring up an assumption that Arline is the perfect lady for many Dublin women of all ages to admire. She was born noble and was loved both by her beloved Thaddeus and the long-lost royal father at the end. In addition, the courtship between Arline and Thaddeus was so romantic a union that every tender heart yearned for one. Hence, what this operatic fashion brought to Dublin women was a romantic illusion—love and courtship were essential and important. Above all, love and courtship were wonderful. After them, a happy marriage would come along, all the evils were gone and “the prince and the princess would live happily ever after.”
The Bohemian Girl has exerted great influences on “Eveline”and “Clay.”It first does induce a romantic resonance about love affair toward Eveline. In “Eveline,”the nineteen-year-old and yet unmarried girl felt powerless and unsatisfied with her life.
She had an unhappy job in the Stores for she was edged out by other girls: “Miss
Gavan would be glad. She had always had an edge on her, especially whenever there were people listening”(D 37). Her father threatened her all the time: “Even now she was over nineteen, she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father’s violence. She Lin 64 knew it was that that had given her the palpitation…And now she had no one to protect her”(D 37-38). Moreover, she gave all the money she earned to the father to support the family and to raise up her two younger brothers. Nevertheless, her father was never kinder to her because she was a girl. Eveline’s father said: “What he would do to her only for her dead mother’s sake”(D 38). In all miserable circumstances, she luckily met her hero: but now “[s]he was about to explore another life with Frank.
Frank was very kind, manly and open-hearted. She was to go away with him by the night-boat to be his wife and to live with him in Buenos Aryes where he had a home waiting for her”(D 38). It was like that finally Eveline had found someone to “protect her”—from her “single”and miserable life. Frank had been courting her “a few weeks ago”and brought her a “pleasant confusion”:1
Frank does, after all have the distinct advantage of being alive. His
potential marriage contract offers romance and hope, a chance for
life—and it affords Eveline an opportunity to obtain the “respect”2 for
which she has longed, the kind that her mother never enjoyed. (Paige 338)
To please her, he took her to see The Bohemian Girl. As mentioned before, Dubliners were under the operatic fashion, and Joyce seemed to especially introduce
“Bohemian”spirit as a “theme song of love”to play again and again while we read the stories. Of course, he had composed several other operas like Martha by Fredrich von Flotow and Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart into works like Ulysses but he particularly put emphasis on “Bohemian”operas in Dubliners. Therefore, in
Frank’s case, Joyce selected The Bohemian Girl as their operatic fashion. The opera hence brings romantic resonance in Eveline’s case. It is a musical comedy and it
1 See Dubliners. “He took her to see The Bohemian Girl and she felt elated as she sat in an unaccustomed part of the theatre with him. He was awfully fond of music and sang a little. People knew that they were courting, and, when he sang about the lass that loves a sailor, she always felt pleasantly confused”(D 38; my emphasis). 2 See Dubliners. “Then she would be married—she, Eveline. People would treat her with respect then. She would not be treated as her mother had been”(D 37). Lin 65 conveys the idea—“the prince and the princess live happily ever after”to Eveline.
According to Bowen,
[s]tructurally, musical comedy usually occurs in two acts. At the end of the
first, the lovers traditionally part, having experienced some seemingly
insurmountable difficulty or mistake or parental or societal intransigence
that seems, for all intents and purposed, to doom their love. The second act
brings about reconciliation. (126)
Although The Bohemian Girl has three acts, it can still be read as two parts on the ground of the love plot between Arline and Thaddeus—they love but are separated and get together at the end. Therefore, Eveline and Arline correspond to the end of the first act of the convention of the musical comedy, where they have encountered difficulties and mistakes. Similarly, both ends contain a heroine ready to run away with the hero. We can make an analogy between the two girls when we start to read the first part. Since Frank took Eveline to see The Bohemian Girl, Eveline could not help transforming herself into the embodiment of Arline. Cheng asserted that “[just as the young male narrators had found a key to…otherness (as a medium of liberation) through words, books and language, Eveline’s fantasies centered symbolically around music as the text of otherness”(102). “Fantasies”Chen meant here perhaps could be interpreted as “the operatic fashion”I propose for my research because the operatic fashion provides Eveline with a romantic place to build her dream on. As for the most famous song in this opera— “I dream That I Dwelt in Marble Hall,”3 it drew a most romantic dream for Eveline:
I dreamt that suitors sought my hand;
That knights upon bended knee,
3 It is sung by the character of Arline in the opera. It is the Gipsy girl’s dream. Lin 66
And with vows no maiden heart could withstand,
They pledg’d their faith to me;
And I dreamt that one of that noble host
Came forth my hand to claim.
But I also dreamt, which charmed me most,
That you lov’d me still the same...
That you lov’d me, you lov’d me still the same,
That you lov’d me, you lov’d me still the same.(Gifford 93)
Eveline’s maiden heart certainly could not withstand Frank’s flirtations. Under her miserable circumstances, she would be charmed by his love, faith and another life for
“a distant unknown country”(D 37). Up to this part, the operatic fashion perhaps conveyed the idea of the class aspiring to Eveline. Arline was kidnapped by a gang of
Gypsies but at last ascended to the royal family after her reconciliation with the royal prince. Operatic fashion in terms of the relationship with class aspiring infused a new hope for unmarried low-class women. If they were offered marriage proposals from some high-class gentlemen, their lives would change and became better. Again, the idea of “the prince and the princess live happily ever after”came into their minds.
In the third act of The Bohemian Girl, Thaddeus asked Arline to flee with him.
As Eveline saw this most touching scene, “[s]he had consented to go away, to leave her home”(D 37). The following is the scene when Thaddeus asks Arline to flee with him. The scene is especially important for my discussion because Arline has to abandon what she has, including her father, to have a new life and her situation is similar to Eveline’s. Therefore, I quote the entire scene.
(Here Thaddeus appears at the window, enter the room, and Arline, unable
to restrain her feelings, rushes into his arms) Lin 67
ARLINE. Whatever may be our future lot, nothing should persuade you
that I can never cease to think of, ever cease to love you.
THADDEUS. (overjoyed) my heart is overpowered with happiness. Yet,
alas! ‘tis but of short duration, for I must leave you now forever.
ARLINE. Oh, no, no! say not so! I cannot live without you.
THADDEUS. And will you then forsake your home, your kindred, all!
And follow me?
THADDEUS. (to Arline)
Through the world wilt thou fly, love,
From the world with me?
Wilt thou Fortune’s frowns defy, love,
As I will for thee?
ARLINE. (to Thaddeus)
Through the world I would fly, love,
From the world with thee,
Could I hush a father’ssigh, love,
That would heave for me;
[. . .]
Through the world I would fly,
From the world with thee,
Ah yes, for thee;
[. . .]
that would heave, that would heave, that would heave for me
ah, yes, that would heave, my love, for me! (my emphasis)4
4 The Bohemian Girl. By Balfe, Michael W. Libretto by Alfred Bunn. Transcribed by Lew Mark D. 23 Aug. 2001. 19 Dec. 2005.
This very scene was exactly the circumstance that Eveline was experiencing.
Burdened with the fetters of an unhappy family life and an aging but brutal father,
Eveline dared not to let go of her responsibilities. After she saw the opera, she was heartened. It seemed to Eveline that Frank was the hope and the love. She was not only about to change to a new life but was about to ascend to a higher level where she could lead a better life in spite that she had to “[f]orsake your home, your kindred, all!”Just as Arline had to leave her father for her lover’s sake, Eveline had to abandon her father as well. Up to this moment, she was moved by the opera and the sensational feelings that Frank had brought to her. She was about to elope with Frank in spite of any obstacles on the way.
On the other hand, the romantic resonance that the operatic fashion arouses not only works in Eveline’s heart,but also works in Maria’s heart in “Clay.” Tindall explains that “[as] for Balfe’s [The] Bohemian Girl, this Irish opera seems there, as in
‘Clay’to suggest a dream of riches and marble halls, all that is opposite to brown, dusty Dublin”(22-23). Indeed, Maria was all by herself in this brown and dusty city:
“Often [Joe] had wanted her to go and live with them; but she would have felt herself in the way (thought Joe’s wife was ever so nice with her) and she had became accustomed to the life of the laundry”(D 100). However satisfying the life seemed to her, there was something missing. Year after year, she took part in Joe’s family gathering on Hallow Eve but it was never one of her own family gathering in her life.
From a modern point of view, “[t]hough advanced in years, she value[d] her independence. By modern feminist standards, the self-reliance of this elderly spinster is commendable; but within the literary context of the story, the very quality of her singleness renders her incomplete and empty.”5 Before Maria left for Joe’splace,
5 “I dream That I Dwelt in Marble Hall.”James Joyce Music Home Page. 10 Dec, 2005. NY: Sunphone Records, 2003.
Lizzie Fleming said Maria was sure to get the ring and, though Fleming
had said that for many Hallow Eves, Maria had to laugh and say she didn’t
want any ring or man either; and when she laughed her grey-green eyes
sparkled with disappointed shyness and the tip of her nose nearly met the
tip of her chin. (D101)
With her eyes sparkled with disappointed shyness, we sense that deep in her heart, she was like Eveline, though much older, yearning for a romance and furthermore, a marriage. A marriage in the Irish society at that time was more than an illusion that the operatic fashion brought about. It was more a convention or a fact in the Irish society and was presented by the operatic fashion by Joyce. Nonetheless, it was sad that Maria was unmarried and childless.
It was perhaps because of her appearance (the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin) that prevented her from the contact of men. She recalled
as she stood before the mirror, she thought of how she used to dress for
mass on Sunday morning when she was a young girl; and she looked with
quaint affection at the diminutive body which she had so often adorned. In
spite of its years she found it a nice tidy little body. (D 101)
Sadly, the truth was that, from the point of view of the others, her appearance was not very “presentable.”Although Maria found herself a nice tidy little lady, the narrator described that “Maria was a very, very small person indeed but she had a very long nose and a very long chin”(D 99) and that “Maria laughed again till the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin and till her minute body nearly shook itself asunder…”(D 101). Maria’s unfortunate physiognomy was mentioned three times in the story and was clearly depicted like a Halloween witch. However, she could not help fantasizing a romantic encounter. Lin 70
On the way to Joe’s place, “[s]he thought she would have to stand in the
Drumcondra tram because none of young men seemed to notice her,”but she encountered with the polite, ‘colonel-looking’ gentleman who made room for her. He was more polite because other young men “simply stared straight before them.”To
Maria’s surprise and happiness, the gentleman began to chat with her. To Maria, it was a miniature, temporary but joyful courtship and she was grateful:
He was very nice with her and, when she was getting out at the Canal
Bridge she thanked him and bowed, and he bowed to her and raised his hat
and smiled agreeably; and while she was going up along the terrace, being
her tiny head under the rain, she thought how easy it was to know a
gentleman. (D 103)
But it was a courtship that came to nothing. Worst of all, she lost her plumcake on the tram. She later recalled “how confused the gentleman with the greyish moustache had made her, coloured with shame and vexation and disappointment”(D 103-104).
No matter how impossible it was to have a romance in Maria’s situation, we know that she more than once dreamed of a romantic courtship. Her romantic wish corresponded to Eveline’s and they both wanted to believe that “the prince and the princess live happily ever after.”If not, Maria would not feel embarrassed when she was asked whether it was “wedding cake” she wantedat the shop. If she had married now, she would not have to live alone in the Dublin by Lamplight. The place implied her low position in the society as well because it was a charitable institution, with a
Church of Ireland chaplain. In fact, the institution’s object was to rescue and reform of all the outcast women of society and the outcast women actually meant prostitutes
(Gilfford 89). Having lived with “outcast women,”she sometimes felt superior and a wish to escape from the low circle to the high circle was a possible consideration.
However, she was too old and too unattractive to have any suitor. Lin 71
Once again, The Bohemian Girl created the operatic fashion and romance for
Maria, too. Apparently, the popularity of operas was a sober truth at that time. It was perhaps one of the fashionable entertainments for people. As a laundry woman, Maria knew The Bohemian Girl well and was aware of the love theme in the story. Through
Maria, we learn that this opera was so famous and influential among Dublin women.
She chose to sing “I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls”before she left for home.
However, she was perhaps too forgetful or too embarrassed to sing stanza two but repeated stanza one twice. Stanza two, which I have quoted earlier, was like a love soliloquy that seemed to be inappropriate and ironic to her celibate situation. Below is stanza one that shows one’s desire for fame and wealth:
I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls
With vassals and serfs at my side
And of all who assembled within those walls
That I was the hope and the pride.
I had riches too great to count, could boast
Of a high ancestral name,
But I also dreamt, which pleased me most,
That you loved me still the same. (D 106)
Instead of fame and wealth, what pleased Maria most here was definitely love.
Whether the omission of stanza two was intentional or not, “no one tried to show her mistake”(D 106) to save her from embarrassment.We can only speculate that year after year she would be participating in the traditional game of saucers, but not once could she ever “get the ring” relating to marriage. Tindall indicates that
we have been prepared for Maria’s song from The Bohemian Girl
by a reference of “Eveline.”Maria’s conscious or unconscious omission Lin 72
of the second stanza, which concerns love and suitors, suits one who,
lacking love and avoiding fertility, has chosen prayer and death.
Joe detects the meaning of her omission. “Very much, moved”by
it, he calls for the missing corkscrew (one of many lost or misplaced
things in this story) and presumably for another bottle in which to drown
his understanding. The epiphany, not Maria’s but Joe’s, is one of
barrenness, lovelessness, disorder, and loss. Not even Balfe, thoughts of
“long ago,”or drink itself can hide the bitterness. (30-31)
To Maria, what she could expect in her following days were only celibacy
(prayer-book) and death (clay).
To conclude, from Eveline and Maria, we learn that The Bohemian Girl indeed had certain influence upon women’s idea about love and romance. The idea was that it conveyed to women the important value of loving and being loved. Most important of all, after courtship, marriage was still conventional in a society. In addition, marriages improve living conditions and perhaps women may be as lucky as like Arline, who is able to aspire to another higher class. To the Irish women, staying celibate was often considered unfortunate and miserable.
However, the function of The Bohemian Girl was perhaps more than a romantic motif. If Joyce intentionally wanted to use The Bohemian Girl as a kind of encouragement to rush Eveline to run away and rush Maria to do something to make her life better, both of them definitely rejected the good will. If Joyce did not use the opera as an encouragement, once again he used “the scrupulous meanness”to “betray the soul of that [spiritual] paralysis.” He sarcastically criticized that Dublin women were so innocent as to believe in the operatic fashion—to love, to marry and to live a good life. Then The Bohemian Girl fashion to Joyce was a misleading fashion and he used this romantic musical comedy to criticize a contemporary fashion. Lin 73
The truth was that the operatic fashion only existed in fiction not reality. If “the prince and the prince live happily ever after”did happen, the happy ending should always belong to the high class but not to the low-class “Jack and Jill.”Then we see from Eveline and Maria, two women who once had the illusions but ended in disillusions. After Eveline saw the opera, she should have dared to run away to fulfill her dream and to accomplish the hopeful and romantic ideas that the opera fashion had conveyed to her. She should have believed that in spite of many obstacles, for example, Frank might abandon her or according to Jackson and McGinley, Frank might be a pimp6, the prince and the princess would live happily after. Nonetheless,
Eveline was not brave enough. Even though Frank offered her a marriage and a flight across the sea as a new life, she pondered: “Was that wise?”(D 37) and “perhaps love, too”(D 40). Therefore, Cheng judges that
Eveline first succumbs to a revisionist nostalgia (“Her father was
becoming old lately…he would miss her. Sometimes he could be very
nice”; D 39) and then to the memory of the promise she made her mother
“to keep the home together as long as she could”(D 40). … [T]he dead,
the past, and history inevitably refuse to stay dead—and continue to be
“nets”of entrapment one must try to fly by. (103)
On the other hand, as we read to the end of the story, we seem to sense that Frank was not very sincere or Eveline was only the “perhaps love”and she was not as inevitable as he thought:
—Eveline! Eveline! —
He rushed beyond the barrier and called to her to follow. He was shouted
as to go but he still called to her. (D 41)
6 Many scholars doubted Frank’s personality and background—“To go to Buenos [Ayres was] used to be mean to become a prostitute, particularly a pimp”(Jackson 31). In Eveline’scase, Frank may be the pimp himself. Lin 74
Why did he rush beyond the barrier and leave Eveline behind? Why did he just call her name instead of staying with her and waiting for the next ship? Perhaps it was until then that Eveline realized that the romantic operatic fashion was not hers. What we can expect from Eveline, as she was growing older, is that she would be another
Maria. As for Maria, her paralysis to her miserable celibacy was even clearer for she not only made a caricature of Virgin Mary7 but also embarrassed everyone else in the gathering.
On the other hand, the operatic fashion is not only applied to women. The
“Bohemian”element that decides Dublin men’s attitude toward love and romance is also traceable to such stories as “After the Race,”“A Little Cloud”and “The Boarding
House.”The word “Bohemian”appears in “After the Race”— “They drank, however, it was Bohemian”(D 47) and in “A Little Cloud”—“I’ve been to the Moulin Rouge,
Ignatius Gallaher continued when the barman had removed their glasses, and I’ve been to all the Bohemian Cafes”(D 76). In addition, I find two scenes of “love and kiss”of La Bohème appearing in “The Boarding House”in a similar way. However, this time, the operatic fashion that prevailed among Dubline men was completely different from that among Dublin women. The operatic fashion conveyed to men was only restricted to the courses of love and romances. As for marriage, it was the last thing in their young lives. Furthermore, in terms of the operatic works, The Bohemian
Girl is a romantic comedy but La Bohème is a romantic tragedy.
To begin with, I will explain the meaning of “Bohemian”and introduce famous writers relating to the topic of “Bohemian.”According to Encyclopedia Americana, the word
7 “Her name…is suggestive too. The reader cannot help but associate Maria with…the Virgin Mary, who is at once sacred—and untouchable. But the womb of that Mother was at least fruitful; Maria’s is as barren as her life.” “I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Hall.”James Joyce Music Home Page. 19 Dec. 2005. NY: Sunphone Records, 2003.
Bohemianism [is] given to the type of life attributed to followers of
the arts: free, careless of material gain, and with no thought of tomorrow.
In France, as early the 15th century, the term was used
interchangeably with vagabond or gypsy, owing to the belief that the
Romany Gypsy tribe originated in Bohemia (later, part of the Czech
Republic). Calling artists bohemians gained currency in 19th century
France, particularly after the Revolution of 1830, when the artists and
writers of Paris, most of whom were extremely impoverished, found an
outlet for their frustrations in romanticizing “bohemian”life.
One of the first writers to popularize the romance of bohemianism
was Henri Murger, who…made his success …with a series of sketches,
Scènes de la vie de Bohème (1847-1849), which gave a prettified and
sentimentalized account of life among Parisian artists. [He] collaborated
with Thèodore Barrière on a highly successful dramatic version of these
fairy stories, La vie de Bohème (1849), which was later adapted for the
libretto of Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème (1896). (Hahn)
Since “being Bohemian”refers to be free, careless of material gain, and with no thought of tomorrow, I find Dublin men possessed the above Bohemian qualities when they were in love. First of all, they were interested in women and enjoyed courtship. They imagined that they were courteous Romeos or heroic cavaliers who expected romantic encounters and overcame any difficulty in their journey of love. In addition, their loved ones would surrender themselves to their masculine charms.
Rodolfo in La Bohème justly provides Dublin men with an ideal image of what is like to be bohemian. In the opera, Rodolfo deemed himself a great poet who sought freedom in his poetic inspiration. He was free, careless and earned nothing to make both ends meet. He fooled around with his friends and did not think of what tomorrow Lin 76 would become. Even if his friend shared some money with him, they together ate and drank it away. When it came to love, he was most enthusiastic and passionate.
However, when it came to a promise of a lifetime, he withdrew and broke up with
Mimì.
To begin with, Joyce himself was a proponent of a bohemian life. With regard to his relationship with Nora, Richard Brown indicated that
[for] Joyce, brought up a Catholic at the end of the nineteenth century in
Ireland, the issue was very much a live one made the clearest declarations
of personal and artistic self-definition, allied himself to the contemporary
rational rejections of marriages. The most obvious gesture was his
departure from Ireland with Nora on 8 October 1904 to live together in a
free-love-style unmarried union for the next 27 years. (13)
Perhaps it is because of his rejections to Church morality and to conventional marriage that he chooses to take Nora as his companion instead of his wife. Although their relationship is as consistent as any other marriage, his commitment to the principles of their unmarried union remains constant for many years. However,
“[w]hen their elopement plan is accomplished he continues to justify Stanislaus to his
‘attempt to live a more civilized life than my contemporaries and his ‘intention of living in conformity with my moral nature’”(Brown 14). Joyce’s so-called “civilized life”and “my moral nature”are typically Bohemian spirits and these attitudes toward courtship and marriage are clearly reflected in La Bohème fashion. In this regard,
Joyce applauds La Bohème and satirizes The Bohemian Girl. The former operatic fashion frees the Irishmen from marriage contracts and the latter operatic fashion ties them to marriage bonds. To men, a promise of a marriage and a family is absolutely a tragedy. In the end of La Bohème, Rodolfo even sacrifices Mimí’s life for his personal freedom. The following is the analysis of La Bohème fashion. Lin 77
“Che Gelida Manina”(This Little Hand Is Frozen), a song which becomes one of the most famous scenes in the opera, introduces Rodolfo’s first encounter with Mimì.
Interestingly enough, we can find this scene mirrors the same encounter Bob Doran and Polly have in “The Boarding House.”Following are two scenes from the two stories:
La Bohème: Rodolfo and Mimí’s encounter.
(A timid knock at the door is heard)
RODOLFO: Who is there?
(Mimì’s voice—from outside)
MIMÍ: Excuse me please.
(Rodolfo—raising himself)
RODOLFO: A woman!
MIMÍ: Please, my candle has extinguished.
(Rodolfo—He runs to open the door)
RODOLFO: Here!
(Mimì—On the doorstep, with an extinguished candle in one hand and a
key in the other)
MIMÍ: Would you?
RODOLFO: Do come in for a moment.
MIMÍ: It is not necessary.
(Rodolfo insisting)
RODOLFO: I beg you…come in.8
After he lighted up the candle and found the lost key for Mimì, he couldn’t help falling in love with her at the first sight with great passion and Mimì responded with
8 The English scripts of La Bohème are translated by AGS. La Bohème. By Giacome Puccini. La Bohème English Libretto translated by AGS (Kim), 2000.
MIMÍ: Ah! Love, only you alone guide us!
RODOLFO: Such sweet love invades my soul.
I feel such joy, and love so tender.
Our kisses tremble with love.
MIMÍ: Ah! Love, only you along guide us!
His gentle sweet love words delight me,
as they flatter my heart.
Love, only you along guide us!
(Rodolfo kisses Mimì)9
The similar actions—“relight the candle”and “end it in kisses”appeared in “The
Boarding House.”
He remembered well, with the curious patient memory of the celibate,
the first casual caresses her dress, her breath, her fingers had given him.
Then late one night as he was undressing for bed she had tapped at his
door, timidly. She wanted to relight her candle at his, for hers had been
blown out by a gust. It was her bath night. She wore a loose open
combing-jacket of printed flannel. Her white instep shone in the opening
of her furry slippers and the blood glowed warmly behind her perfumed
skin. From her hands and wrists too as she lit and steadied her candle a
faint perfume arose.
……
They used to go upstairs together on tiptoe, each with a candle, and
on the third landing exchange reluctant good nights. They used to kiss. (D
67)
9 See note 8. Lin 79
According to the above two scenes, we can suspect that although Joyce did not directly adopt La Bohème in Dubliners, we somehow find the traces of the opera’s influence. Although men courted women with heated passion, their bohemian spirit did not match their promises. Love and romance seemed to only add some spice to life. What men really wanted to possess was a personal freedom, rather than a mutual constraint. If men could not find a balance between money and love, they chose to abandon the latter. Therefore, Rodolfo forshook and accused Mimí: “Mimí is a minx, she flirts with everyone. A top of a young Viscount has only to take my eyes at her, and she provocatively lifts her skirts and shows off her ankle in a most promising way”(La Bohème). However, the fact was that Mimí was so sick and she did not want to make Roldofo’s life more miserable. Rodolfo was too poor to afford the medical bill. His friend, Marcello, thus attacked his unforgivable excuse and saids: “Do I have to say it? I don’tthink you are sincere”(La Bohème). It was not until then that
Rodolfo confessed: “A terrible cough shakes her chest and weal frame and yet her pinched cheeked are flushed…My room is a squalid hideout. The fire is always burnt out. The north wind of Tramontata creeps in and whistles around the room. Mimí is a flower and poverty destroys the flower. To save her life, love is not enough”(La
Bohème). The similar thought was reflected on Bob as well. He was confused about his love toward Polly and he wondered if he was trapped by Polly. However, this time was not because Bob was poor but because he was richer than Polly. He did not want to suffer a loss of his single life and money. He thought “What reparation would he make”(D 64)?
Love and romance were spices of life. What men really wanted was being bohemian. That was probably the reason why Joyce repeated the word in the stories.
Other than Bob in “The Boarding Hosue,”Jimmy Doyle, a dandy fooling around with his European friends, also had the same quality. He thought of today but not of Lin 80 tomorrow. The narrator commented: “They drank, however, it was Bohemian”(D 47).
In La Bohème, there was also a famous Momus café where the main bohemian characters could pass their time. Coincidentally, in “A Little Cloud,”Ignatius Gallaher bragged: “I’ve been to all the Bohemian Cafés”(D 76). Obviously, the operatic fashion of the bohemian spirit was indeed traceable. Then Dublin men’s romantic and yet irresponsible manners toward life, love, romance and marriage were understandable. Consequently, with women indulging in romances and men refusing responsibilities, it is predictable that Dubliners’courtship and marriage are by no means peaceful.
II. So the Music Stops: A Rest for Operatic Fashion
The operatic fashion brings “Bohemian”trend in Dublin society. However, it causes completely different effects on men and women. Women have their own wishful thinking: they romanticize courtships and marriages. On the contrary, men enjoy love affairs but do not want to shoulder marital responsibilities. In such a contradictory situation, there is a gap between men and women in their cognition of courtship and marriage. Therefore, the question should be asked again—“Do the prince and the princess live happily ever after?”Florence L. Walzl perhaps offered the answer:
Dubliners throughout reflects these adverse conditions in the few
marriages depicted and in the number of unmarried characters. For
example, in the four stories devoted to youth, only one has marriage as its
outcome and that one involves coercion.10 Of the four tales of “maturity,”
two depict the lives of lonely celibates. (34)
Moreover, miserable and tragic marital and familial lives happen. Walzl asserts that
“[c]hildren are stunted in their development, youths are frustrated socially and
10 The story is “The Boarding House.” Lin 81 economically, and adults are trapped in sterile and unproductive lives”(32). At last, the romantic operatic fashion becomes a joke because those wedded husbands and wives could hardly find mutual love among them.
Actually, the disillusion of the operatic fashion has its reasons. The first is lack of economic opportunity. It was a hard time to the nation and its people. In fact, it was the reason that motivated Joyce to leave Ireland with Nora in 1904. The poor economy of the nation worsened every aspect of life, including marriage opportunities.
Walzl indicates:
In Dubliners, Joyce neither glosses over nor sentimentalizes situations.
That his picture of the middle-class Irish family is generally accurate can
be supported by sociological studies and statistics. Some of the social
conditions that produced the harshness of Irish family life at this period are
too well known to need documentation; however, several need comment in
terms of their importance to Dubliners. The first is lack of economic
opportunity. For a full century after 1845, the year of the [G]reat Famine,
economic deprivation drove millions abroad. For those who remained,
poverty was widespread, jobs few and precarious, salaries meager, and
opportunities for advancement rare. It normally took a young man fifteen
to twenty years to achieve a modicum of security. (33)
Then insecure economy brings about difficulties in terms of courtship and marriage.
Although a marriage after a courtship was definitely the best outcome of unmarried women, for example, Mrs. Kearney once waited for some suitors to brave it and Mrs.
Mooney aggressively made her daughter betrothed, the reality was that men did not get married until their late thirties: “I’m afraid, man, she’d get in the family way”(D Lin 82
51).11
Another major social condition that affected men and women was that Ireland had the lowest marriage and birth rates in the civilized world. This problem was mainly a consequence of lack of economic opportunity. According to Gifford’s survey, women did not have many job opportunities. “Apart from marriage or a convent, there were precious few careers open to [women], and some of those such as clerking in a shop or going into service implied a loss of social status”(12). Eveline and Maria were the representatives of this type. Since they were not married, they had to support themselves all their lives. In Eveline’s case, it might be a mistake for refusing Frank’s proposal because it was a golden and rare chance that Maria had never had from any man. It was quite possible that when Eveline turned down Frank’s offer, she had turned toward a celibate future that Maria had to accept.
Men who possess the idea of bohemianism certainly have romantic feelings in the course of courtship. However, the operatic fashion seems to automatically stop when they face marriages. Again, it is because of the unstable economy that forces them to reject women to become their wives. The first way to reject marriages is to delay marriages. According to Walzl, “[f]or most men, marriage was delayed until the period between thirty-five and forty-five years, when a man was established in a secure position or had inherited family land, money or a business. Men tended to marry women ten years or more younger than themselves”(34). On the other hand,
Dublin men, as represented by Joyce, were also obsessed with the idea of marrying rich women to promote themselves to a higher and richer class. This point is especially obvious while we read the stories. We have found out that many male characters like Lenehan, who wanted to marry some girl with “a little of the ready”to
11 In “Two Gallants,”Corley picked up a servant girl but was meant to deceive her for some money. He was afraid that the girl thought that he was “a bit of class”and wanted to marry him”(D 51). Lin 83 improve his low-class life. Besides Lenehar, we see Farrington in “Counterparts” secretly criticized Mr. Alleyne for his relationship with Miss Delacour, who was “a middle-aged woman of Jewish appearance. Mr. Alleyne was said to be sweet on her or on her money”(D 90). In spite of his jealousy or disdain, his observation was a proof of men’s attitude toward wealth that women could bring to them.
The second way to stop the operatic fashion and reject marriages is to remain celibate. In the story of “A Painful Case,”James Duffy “had neither companions nor friends, church nor creed. He lived his spiritual life without any communion with others.”“His liking for Mozart’s music brought him sometimes to an opera or a concert: these were the only dissipations of his life”(D 109). In his case, his upper-middle-class life was quite well off but he rejected the marriage after a courtship. He had a secret and scandalous courtship with Mrs. Sinico and he enjoyed it. However, he at last coldly forsook Mrs. Sinico and shed no tears for her death. Two months after his last interview with Mrs. Sinico, he wrote: “Love between man and man is impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse and friendship between man and woman is impossible because there must be sexual intercourse”(D
112). Although Joyce did not imply that Mr. Duffy had a sexual intercourse with Mrs.
Sinico, we still sense that Mr. Duffy was very affectionate while he was with Mrs.
Sinico. Mr. Duffy recollected
[h]er companionship was like a warm soil about an exotic. Many times she
allowed the dark to fall upon them, refraining from lighting the lamp. The
dark discreet room, their isolation, the music that still vibrated in their ears
united them. This union exalted him, wore away the rough edges of his
character, emotionalized his mental life. (D 111)
If Mrs. Sinico had not been married, he probably would have sex with her already.
While he sensed that Mrs. Sinico seemed to be too much in love with him—“one Lin 84 night…she had shown every sign of unusual excitement, Mrs. Sinico caught up his hand passionately and pressed it to her cheek”(D 111), he decided to withdraw and never thought of rescuing her out of her miserable life. In a sense, he simply used her for temporary satisfaction. If he did have a sexual intercourse with her, he would have been like involving prostitution.
Hence, prostitution possibly becomes another new fashion to replace Dublin men’s operatic fashion. It is like a kind of sexual politics to free men from having intercourse legally with their wives. They are then able to make girlfriends at ease.
Brown indicated that Joyce, as an outsider out of the circle of ideal marriages, “rather than enter a socially competitive marriage market, he frequented Dublin prostitutes.
The deromanticized, unmistakably sexual nature of such encounters apparently answered more closely his youthful sexual desires and his growing understanding of sex”(14). Brown also stated that as Nora eloped with Joyce, Joyce had been “anxious to present himself to her as an opponent of Church and family, and [would] not indulge in the conventionalism of calling his feelings toward her love”(14).12 In
Dubliners, we also see many possibilities of prostitution. Earlier in chapter two, I have assumed that in the story of “After the Race,”prostitution became a fashion among dandies. It was even clearer in “Two Gallants”where Corley “cruelly exploits the affections of his servant-girl friend”(Brown 31). He bragged his relationship with the girl to Lenehan:
—And where did you pick her up, Corley?
…
—One night, man, he said, I was going along Dame Street and I spotted a
fine tart… I put my arm around her and squeezed her a bit that night. …
12 Richard Brown made the comment according to some letters Joyce wrote to Nora when he proposed the plan of elopement to Nora in the autumn of 1904. Lin 85
(D 50-51; my emphasis)
His behavior was irresponsible and exploitative. He went further: “Cigarettes every night she’d bring me and paying the tram out and back. And one night she bought me two bloody fine cigars”(D 51). At the end of the story, we even learn that the main objective of Corley’s evening was “[a] small gold coin shone in the palm”
(D 60) from the girl.
Corley’s “[a] small gold coin shone in the palm”and Lenehan’s “some good simple-minded girl with a little of money”indeed revealed the hard fact that it was not mutual love but mutual benefit that built the foundation of marriages in Dublin society at that time. Both of them wanted to marry some rich girls to improve their lives and to make them rid of lower-class circles. Sadly, women had the same attitude toward their lives and marriages. Like men, women wanted to make use of marriages to exchange for more secure and more stable economic lives. Hence we have some
“darkly colored portraits of ‘mother’in Dubliners.”13 We see some mothers who were like women running brothels making their daughters prostitute. In “The
Boarding House,”Mrs. Mooney’s boarding house was more like a brothel where she was going to sell her daughter for a marriage contract. Joyce previously presented Mrs.
Mooney’s unsatisfactory manners toward her husband:
He drank, plundered the till, ran headlong into debt. It was no use
making him take the pledge: he was sure to break out again a few days
after. By fighting his wife in the presence of customers and by buying
meat he ruined his businesses. One night he went for his wife with the
cleaver and she had to sleep in a neighbor’s house.
After that they lived apart. (D 61)
13 This phrase is modeled upon Paige’s title: “James Joyce’s Darkly Colored Portraits of ‘Mother’in Dubliners.”Studies in Short Fiction. 32.3(1995): 329-340. Lin 86
Since she knew how unfortunate a life a terrible husband could bring to a wife, she had to pick up a husband who was of good social and economic background for her daughter: “She knew [Mr. Doran] had a good screw of one thing and she suspected he had a bit of stuff put by”14 (D 65). All the resident young men called her The Madam, a substitutive name for a woman running a brothel, and that seemed to forecast the transaction between her and Bob Doran. Mr. Doran was her target and he was trapped.
Therefore, Mr. Doran had to make reparation in this disadvantageous situation since the social opinion was on the mother’s side. From Polly’s case, ut was clear that it was one of the ways to aspire to another higher class through marriage contract for women.
As for Mr. Doran, he was aware that “[as] a young man he had sown his wild oats, of course; he had boasted of his free-thinking and denied the existence of God to his companions in public-housed. But that was all passed and done with…nearly”(D 66).
Worst of all, he was afraid that Polly’s lower-class background and her mother’s disreputable boarding house would drag him downward to the lower level: “She was a little vulgar; sometimes she said I seen and If I had’ve known”(D 66). From his worry, we know that he was not so willing to marry her: “His instinct urged him to remain free, not to marry”(D 66). Pathetically, “[he] could not make up his mind whether to like her or despise her”(D 66).
Paige makes a conclusion for Mr. Doran: “[i]ironically, [he], in this case, represents the symbolic ‘meat’under Mrs. Mooney’s ‘cleaver,’soon to be hacked to death and ‘served up’on Polly’s marriage plate”(335). “Tragedy”then was the situation that his marriage would be like and “tragedy”was going to be the ending of all marital lives in Dubliners as that in La Bohème.
14 According to Jackson and McGinley’s annotation, a good screw mainly means “Bob Doran’s adequate income”and a bit of stuff put by means “Mrs. Mooney’s typically grasping idiom for Doran’s savings”(55). It is very obvious here that Mrs. Mooney cares much about money and the money which will probably guarantee her daughter’s future happiness and stability. Lin 87
III. Marriage: The Graveyard of Love
To reassert, the influences of operatic fashion on “before”and “after”a marriage were different. It is because of bohemian romance that makes women love and marry, but it is because of bohemian freedom that drives men away from promises and bonds.
The result is that marriage becomes the graveyard of love since men and women do not marry for mutual love but for mutual benefit that the marriage contracts may provide.
In “A Little Cloud,”Joyce offers a vivid comparison between unmarried
Gallaher and married Chandler in terms of their achievements and social positions.
Obviously, Gallaher’s anticipation offers no hope in amending Chandler’s dilemma.
Gallaher is a successful and proud journalist who patronizes his timid friend by bragging his financial achievements and his immoral prostitution. Gallaher certainly is another representative of a bohemian. Having thought of being a poet and having being an admirer of Byron, Chandler regrets to have become a scrivener in “his tiresome writing”(D 71). He works in the King’s Inn and has got a position only a little better than Farrington in “Counterparts.”Undoubtedly, he envies what his friend has achieved in London, a glamorous and fashionable city that he ever dreamed of.
Unlike many male bohemian characters that I have mentioned before, Chandler is a more traditional and romantic kind with regard to his relationship with Annie.
Joyce perhaps uses this character to make a contrast for what it is like to follow the social conventions. To Joyce and to readers, Chandler is absolutely miserable in his marriage. Gallaher satirically provides his opinions toward love and marriage:
—If ever it occurs, you may bet your bottom dollar there’ll be no mooning
and spooning about it. I mean to marry money. She’ll have a good fat
account at the bank or she won’t do for me—
… Lin 88
—But I’m in no hurry. They can wait. I don’t fancy tying myself up to one
woman, you know— (D 81-82)
Therefore, Chandler is teased by having “tasted the joy of connubial bliss”two years ago and having a little boy already. What is worse, a marriage contract does not lead him and his wife to a better position in the society. The condition becomes only worse.
Taglieri’s analysis concludes his marriage and life:
[Chandler] grows even more frustrated with his life, since he recognizes
that he has trapped himself with his “pretty”wife and furniture—neither of
which continue to satisfy. When he considers escaping to London, he
immediately becomes bogged down by obligations and worries about bill
payments for the furniture, demonstrating his inability to imagine himself
in a more fulfilling life. As he attempts unsuccessfully to read and calm the
child simultaneously, [his] thought sum up his futility: “He couldn’t read.
He couldn’t do anything…He was a prisoner for life”(62).
As for his wife, Annie, who has quieted the boy with her suffocating love, becomes angry, aggressive and brutal as many other mothers do in Dubliners when she grows tired of their poor and regretful marriage. If their youngster are not a son but a daughter, she will surely pick up a rich husband for her afterwards. Consequently, history repeats itself; low-class Dublin men and women can hardly escape from misery.