A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners - James Joyce [221]
Dubliners
1. (p. 245) the poetry of Thomas Moore or the works of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Lytton: The reference is to three popular writers of the Romantic period. London-based Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852) wrote the popular Irish Melodies. Novelist Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) was the author of many popular romances. Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was a poet and a prolific novelist.
2. (p. 314) The next-door girls put some saucers on the table and then led the children up to the table, blindfold: In the game being played, a blindfolded girl is led to three saucers, and her hand descends upon one of them. In the original version of the game, the saucers contained water (meaning a journey by sea), a ring (marriage within the year), or soil—“clay” (death). In the polite version of the game, a prayer book was substituted for the soil, representing entrance into a convent.
3. (p. 332) hillsiders and fenians: The reference is to the Fenian Brotherhood, founded in 1858 by James Stephens; a revolutionary group dedicated to winning Irish independence, it was the forerunner of the contemporary Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.). Because of their guerrilla tactics, the fenians were sometimes called “hillside men.”
4. (p. 357) pale: Here the word means “dominion” or “jurisdiction.” Historically, the Pale was the area around Dublin that the English held securely against the “wild Irish.” Metaphorically, to be “within the pale” is to be within safe limits; to be “beyond the pale” is to be outside the bounds of polite or civil society.
5. (p. 366) His motto ... as Pope ... to show the difference between their two pontificates: Popes do not have a motto. This is a hodgepodge of information, misinformation, and bastardized Latin.
6. (p. 375) Adam and Eve’s: This is the Dubliner’s name for the Church of the Immaculate Conception, a Franciscan church on the Liffey in the city center. During the suppression of the Catholic Church, the Franciscans served the people, in secret, from the Adam and Eve Tavern, located nearby.
7. (p. 405) O‘Connell Bridge: This primary north-south bridge over the River Liffey leads into Sackville (now O’Connell) Street. At the south end of O‘Connell Street stands a large statue in honor of “Dan”—Daniel O’Connell—primary architect of Irish Catholic emancipation in the nineteenth century.
INSPIRED BY A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN AND DUBLINERS
Film
Joseph Strick, known for his 1967 film adaptation of Joyce’s Ulysses, adapted A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man for the screen in 1977. Strick emphasized the autobiographical nature of the novel, virtually creating a film about Joyce himself. Bosco Hogan, wearing Joycean wire-framed glasses, plays the role of Stephen Dedalus as he struggles to define himself. An authentically Irish film, Portrait brings to life the Catholicism and traditional education of Joyce’s country, along with the author’s richly colloquial language.
In 1987 legendary filmmaker John Huston released his final film, an adaptation of Joyce’s elegiac story “The Dead.” Mirroring the story, Huston devotes much of the film to Aunt Julia and Aunt Kate’s party, then delves into the spiritual upset of Gretta Conroy and the epiphany of her husband, Gabriel. Eerie throughout, the film was shot by Huston as if he had prescient knowledge of his own impending death. With an Academy Award-nominated screenplay adaptation by son Tony Huston and with daughter Anjelica Huston playing the part of Gretta Conroy, “The Dead” serves as a triumphant coda to Huston’s illustrious career.
Theater
Fitting for a story imbued with music, “The Dead” opened on Broad-way in January 2000 as the musical play James Joyce’s “The Dead.” Winning a Tony Award for the book by Richard Nelson, it featured music by Shaun Davey, with whom Nelson wrote the lyrics. The two received a Tony nomination for their original score, which they derived from nineteenth-century Irish parlor music, ballads, and poetry. The cast featured Christopher