Joyce's Exiles: A Problem of Dramatic Stasis

JOYCE'S EXILES: A PROBLEM OF DRAMATIC STASIS IN HIS NOTES TO Exiles, James Joyce assures the reader that his characters are "suffering during the action,"l and most of the play's weary critics seem to know exactly how the Rowans felt. Of the many critical comments on the play, perhaps none is so heartfelt as George Jean Nathan's lament that Exiles has all the "spirit and tempo of a German funeral."2 In attempting to determine whether the play should have been exiled into the furnace along with the author's earlier dramatic effort-modestly entitled "A Brilliant Career" and dedicated to the artist's own soul-this paper will first examine the major types of criticism which have attempted to plumb the thematic content of Joyce's lower depths and will then endeavor to assess the dramatic values of Exiles. Richard EHmann, Ellsworth Mason, and R. M. Adams all provide information concerning the biographical and historical background of the play. Ellmann's biography notes that Exiles was in nearly final form by April, 1915, and that Joyce tried to interest Yeats, William Archer, the American theater manager Cecil Dorrian, and Ezra Pound in producing the play. All found it unsuitable for production , Yeats commenting that the Abbey Theatre couldn't handle Exiles because it was "too far from the folk drama,"3 and Pound declaring that "I don't believe an audience could follow it or take it in, even if some dam'd impracticable manager were to stage it."4 In 1917, John Quinn-a New York lawyer and patron of the arts-sent Joyce money in return for a manuscript copy. The benefactor's cool reception of the MS inspired Joyce to verse: There's a donor of lavish largesse Who once bought a play in MS. He found out what it all meant By the final installment, But poor Scriptor was left in a mess.1S Exiles was finally published in England by "Bloody" Grant Richards on ?vfay 25, 1918. 1 James joyce, Exiles (New York, 1951). p. 114. 2 Marvin Magalaner and R. M. Kain, Joyce: The Man, the Work, the Reputation (New York. 1962), p. 143. 3 Richard EHmann, ed. Letters of James Joyce, 1'01. 2.. (London, 1966). 405. 4 EHmann, Letters, p. 365. 5 Richard EHmann, James Joyce (New York. 1959), p. 429. We see here t~at Joyce had so perfected the villanelle form in Portrait that he felt no trepidation in attempting the limerick. . 399 400 MODERN DRAMA February Ellmann sees many parallels between the lives of Rich~rd Rowan and James Joyce, especially in joyce's frequently tortured relationship with his beloved Nora. Bertha is shocked, as was Nora, when her husband reveals details about his previous sex life.6 "She was not allowed to ignore his crimes; she must absolve them out. of love, out of mercy, out of awareness that his true nature was not in them."7 Richard Rowan also was to wrack his wife's innocence with his guilt. Joyce took pleasure in a prolonged Jesuitical analysis of his wife's fidelity, though he knew her to be above reproach. He. would ruminate upon her loyalty, prove it, then question it once again, in much the same manner that Richard speaks of wounding his soul for Bertha at the end of Exiles. By 1911, Joyce was so secure in Nora's faithfulness that he even took pleasure in other men's attentions to her. One Roberto Prezioso, an intellectual Italian journalist and admirer of joyce's began paying Nora afternoon visits, and in the manner of Robert Hand S0011 asked her to become his lover. EHmann sees Joyce as half responsible for Prezioso's conduct in that Joyce, as Richard after him, took pleasure in the self-laceration and humiliation of wishing to be betrayed. There are other striking biographical parallels to the play's themes of return from exile, friendship, and cuckoldry. Richard Rowan refers to the scandal in Dublin of his bastard child, Archie; Joyce and Nora had had their son in Trieste in 1905. Neither real nor fictional child was baptized: "thanks be to the Lord Jaysus, no gospeller...