Exiles and the Limits of Egoism

Joyce wrote and published Exiles at a pivotal moment in his career, as he finished A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and began work on Ulysses. The play is as easily overlooked for this reason as it is for its apparent homage to Henrik Ibsen, but in Exiles Joyce grapples with one of the fundamental concerns of his career: how does one balance the desire for freedom and self-determination with the demands of living with others? The play highlights the folly of holding too closely to the individualist extremes of this debate through exposing the impossibility of living as egoists like Max Stirner demanded. Exiles’ Richard Rowan learns that one cannot live solely for oneself, and the precise nature of this lesson will have profound implications for the characters of Ulysses.