Half-formed Visions of McBride and Joyce

The opening chapters of Eimear McBride's "A Girl is a Half-formed Thing" are confusing to say the least. It took me two readings just to figure out the setting for most of it, the main narrator, and basic information such as the structure of the family portrayed. However - like most stream-of-consciousness works - what it lacks in clarity, "Girl" more than offsets by it's raw vibrancy.

When McBride opts for stream-of-consciousness, she decides that the feel of the story, what it has the potential to evoke in the reader, is more important than it's specifics. As such, its hard to give a bulleted list of what happens in the first chapters. There's a family a boy is born. The brother is sick, he's healed, now he's not quite living "but he's just stopped dying". The parents fight, the father leaves. A second child is born, evidently the narrator, even though she's also been first-person narrating everything preceding her birth. The vagueness in these chapters make sense given the narration: that of a narrator going off the secondhand stories of others, and memories from her very first days being mashed together into a blurred half-formed vision of the past. The narrator remembers a stern but loving feminine force, this must be her mother; a kindred spirit, comforting her, and subjected to the same circumstances as her, this must be her brother; the shadow of masculine force, must be the father. Our narrator, however, can't recall the names, their faces, so there's uncertainty on some level, not on any rational level - of course these outline memories and impressions belong to these roles, but there's still some obscurity. So the father becomes the "shape of a man" leaving behind jigsaw-like "empty spaces where fathers should be". Sensations are recalled, but not their causes: "Hand on my head." Whose hand? The vagueness also manifests as an abundance of pronouns: all people lose their names, becoming "he"s and "she"s, all objects lose their definite identities, becoming "it"s and "that"s, instead, direct objects and names seem to be only used in the context of figurative language and indirect allusions, both making it extremely difficult to tell what is being discussed by the narrator. Formal structure breaks down: incomplete sentences, interrupted thoughts, confusing grammar, no punctuation to differentiate between narration, dialogue, and description. All of these combine to make reading "A Girl is a Half-formed Thing" a bit like experiencing sculpture with your hands, blindfolded: it can be frustrating, and you're almost definitely missing some of the finer points, but rewarding nonetheless.

It is clear that McBride - as she has stated it herself - owes a massive intellectual debt to James Joyce. Joyce's classic Irish novel "Ulysses" is often hailed as the most difficult English work to read, primarily because it exhibits many of the same qualities as McBride's "Girl". "Ulysses" has very similar approaches to formal structure as "Girl", namely, ignoring it. Additionally, it has a similar usage of pronouns, to the same confusing effect as in "Girl". The one large difference in obfuscation tactics is in the imagery. Whereas McBride utilizes vague, outlined images, Joyce employs a more free-association approach. By following loose associations between words - be they linguistic (puns, homophones, homonyms, acronyms, Latin translations), religious, historic, or pop-culture in derivation - Joyce follows rapid fire tangents, perpetually circling around the central image or occurrence at hand, seemingly only able to relate to it via these third-party sources.

Both of these styles are very fascinating, however, I'm not quite sure what they are saying about Irish culture. Maybe McBride is suggesting that Irishmen can only see themselves as positioned among these - possibly outgrown, possibly broken from the outset - Irish totemic roles and stereotypes. Maybe Joyce is suggesting a similar thing, but about the more day-to-day grassroots Irish culture.

Irish Escape Artists/Escape Poets

This week's readings show a new side to Irish literature. "Pot of Broth" examined the Irish human condition, "Cathleen Ni Houlihan" called for aspiration towards the Irish legacy, and "Playboy of the Western World" suggested the need for a reimagination of the Irish identity. Yeats' "Stolen Child", "Lake Isle of Innisfree", "Irish Airman Forsees His Death", and Joyce's "Araby", however, all put forward the idea of simply trying to withdraw from the perpetuity of cyclical chaos and conflict which seem to be inherent to Irish nationalism.

James Joyce's "Araby" portrays an Ireland which seems to get in the way of the Irish. A boy trying to get a gift for his love - a pure pursuit - is delayed several times. First, the aunt says "I'm afraid you may have to put aside your bazaar for this night of Our Lord", then the father provides the following reason for delay "The people are in bed and after their first sleep now", and finally, after the boy decides to set out, the father once again tries to delay him by reciting poetry to him. These three delays serve as synecdochies for the classically Irish concerns of religion, family, and national tradition. The Irish Concerns as barriers, along with details such as the "chanting of street-singers, who sang a... ballad about the troubles in our native land", serve to show an Irish people seemingly mismatched to the results of its own Irishness. This results in a frustrated Irish people "burned with anguish and anger."

In "An Irish Airman Forsees His Death" Yeats shows a certain level of apathy towards the Irish condition: "Those that I fight I do not hate Those that I guard I do not love" The poem also features a strong sense of hopelessness "No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before" This sad figure seeks to rise above - literally - the meaningless and depressing reality of Ireland which he sees. He manages to physically rise above, but his ultimate hope for escape is that of death: "I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death." We saw a similar longing for death in "Cathleen", but the death the for which the Airman hopes is markedly different from the one Michael is moving towards. While the rebels in "Cathleen" are fueled by a longing to enter the immortal national tradition by their sacrifice, the Airman is expecting, even counting on, a meaningless death; one which will the Irish myth will forgo, thus effecting a permanent removal from the national Irish narrative.

In "The Stolen Child" Yeats uses another somewhat bizarre and unexpected image to show a longing for escape from the narrative of the bloody Irish epic: the image of a child being kidnapped by faeries. Several times in the poem he repeats the refrain: "Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand." Yeats here makes it clear that he seeks withdrawal from a world "full of troubles". He yearns to answer the magical call to a more care-free life of restful quietness, and jubilant celebration.

In "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" Yeats suggests a way to escape the tumultuous Irish society. The poem outlines the adoption of a Thoreauvian life of voluntary isolation and self sufficiency. Yeats is most likely not genuinely suggesting that all Irishmen take on hermitage, however, he is saying something about the relation between Irish society, and the peace of the Ireland. In the poem, Yeats suggests that when the elements of tempestuous Irish society are removed, then Ireland will begin to afford her serenity and beauty to the Irish people. Which, is perhaps the desire at the core of all Irishmen: "I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it deep in the heart's core."

National Heroism in The Western World

W.B. Yeats' "Cathleen Ni Houlihan" is very clearly a nationalistic play: it explores the possibility of the ordinary man rising to immortality via the national myth by sacrificing himself for Ireland. The play exhorts its viewers to shed their trivial, mundane lives in service of Ireland's national pride.

Such evident didactic nationalism is absent from J.M. Synge's "The Playboy of the Western World". While "Cathleen" asks the Irish to shift their focus from the unimportant everyday concerns to large national values, "Playboy" seems to mock not only common concerns, but the larger Irish values as well. Throughout much of the play Christy Mahon is held in view as a hero by the other characters for what should be a detestable act - patricide. When it turns out that he had failed to kill his father - failed twice by the end of the play - he falls from favor of the other characters. This of course mocks the Irish longing for heroes, which we've noted in both "Cathleen" and "Pot of Broth", by showing one such small-town "hero" as a cowardly and thoroughly false man.

Synge also mocks the value placed by the Irish on the family. This is accomplished by having the characters in the play - all supposed to be everyday Irishmen - honor Christy for patricide: "There's great temptation in a man did slay his da," Patricide: an act which the viewers - actual everyday Irishmen - would vehemently condemn. The "Irish family" ideal is further mocked when A) Pegeen decides to leave her betrothed for the wandering murderer, and B) when we discover that Widow Quin not only killed her own husband, but that most everyone seems to know and not care much.

Further more, Synge mocks the strong national faith of Irish Catholicism. While the Irish did historically have a love/hate, devotion/defiance relationship with the Catholic church, lines such as "'A daring fellow is the jewel of the world, and a man did split his father's middle with a single clout, should have the bravery of ten, so may God and Mary and St. Patrick bless you, and increase you from this mortal day.' 'Amen, O Lord'" would surely have not sat well with Irish audiences.

It is possible Synge simply "went too far" in his humor, but I find it more likely that he knew exactly the kind of outrage that "The Playboy of the Western World" would garner. Thus, the play could be in fact very nationalist: a sort of reverse psychology to push the Irish people to anger and thus realization of just how important their national identity was to them by mocking that very same conception of Ireland.

The Plays of WB Yeats: A Search for an Irish Identity

One of the foremost issues in Yeats and Lady Gregory's plays "Cathleen Ni Houlihan" and "The Pot of Broth" is that of an Irish identity. What does it mean to be Irish? How important is one's Irish-ness?

In "Cathleen Ni Houlihan" Ireland, the location, is given an actual physical identity that walks around, talks, and acts: the old wandering woman Cathleen Ni Houlihan. Throughout the play the old woman is constantly seen as a stranger whom noone recognizes. She is portrayed as being a widow with a deeply troubled past, and downtrodden. These characteristics seem to refer to Ireland's sordid and long history of constant invasion and oppression. She is, however, at the same time shown to be resolute despite being downtrodden, bold despite past troubles, and having throngs of loyal men despite being a widow. The seemingly inherent contradictions of the character traits of Cathleen Ni Houlihan are compounded by the final lines of the play, in which her physical appearance is revealed as a double as well: "Did you see an old woman going down the road? I did not, but I saw a young girl, and she had the walk of a queen." So, apparently Cathleen Ni Houlihan - and Ireland as well - is apparently both courted by many, and a widow; resolute and downtrodden; both old and young; homeless and a queen.

"Cathleen Ni Houlihan" didactically makes unambiguous commentary on contradiction in Irish society by making it abundantly clear that Cathleen Ni Houlihan is the personification of Ireland, and lends the play a serious tone by setting it on the eve of a doomed rebellion. "The Pot of Broth" ,however, relates the nature of duality in Irish legacy and identity through a more subtle approach of a fable-like comedy.

In "The Pot of Broth" there are many converse pairs sprinkled in the plot. On one side there is a very real belief in fairies and magic, but at the same time, strong Catholic faith. You have men that can turn themselves into hares and enchant stones, as well as priests that loom large in the community. Clever tricksters, and the earnestly convicted. Despite all of the contradictions "The Pot of Broth" remains a unified consistent story, and one that in some way rings true as purely Irish. Perhaps the play's Irish-ness in because of - rather than in spite of - these contradictions. Just as the Catholic celtic cross is as identifiably Irish as the pagan Tree of Life symbol, so are the priest and the fairy, cleverness and honesty, Catholicism and Pagan occultism.

In all this, what I think Yeats and Lady Gregory are saying about Irish identity, is that its messy, can't be clean-cut or told what to be. Catholic missionaries come in and try to convert Ireland to Catholicism, and are met with mixed results: the Irish people hold on to their pantheistic heritage. England tries to force the Anglican church into Ireland, and are met with resistance, Irish society can't simply be told what to be, how to define itself, at the direction of invaders and tyrants. "Cathleen Ni Houlihan" and "The Pot of Broth" reflect this sentiment by highlighting the contradictions and unlikely combinations that make up the character and culture of Ireland.