The Other Woman： A Feminist Study of Dubliners by James Joyce

Zhao Na

【Abstract】This thesis， following Simone de Beauvoirs conception of “the other”， holds that the womans subjectivity can be constructed because womans subordinate post is the result of the male-dominated culture rather than of the biological difference.These Other manners are namely Evelines fluid mode of thinking， Mrs.Mooneys soliloquy， she represents her fluid thinking that exhibits the female true existence.

【Key words】the Other fluid； mode of thinking； discourse right

Author： Zhao Na is a lecturer at the School of Foreign Languages， Kunming University（Kunming 650000， China）.Her main research orientations are poetry studies in English literature and American literature.

Dubliners， a collection of 15 short stories， is the first product of Joyces lifetime preoccupation with Dublin life.The first three stories proceed roughly through childhood and adolescence in a kind of autobiography； and the last four deal with the public life.Each story presents， in a sense， an aspect of ‘dear dirty Dublin， and different aspects of the citys paralysis—moral， political， or spiritual.And the whole sequence represents the whole course of moral deterioration， ending in the death of the soul.

This paper aims to explore the feminist implications represented in the four female characters chosen from Dubliners.These four female characters are Eveline in Eveline， Mrs.Mooney in the Boarding House.Apparently these two females position and their Other behaviors provide much food for feminist studies.This paper holds that this binary of men and women indeed exists in the world according to Simone de Beauviors notion of the Other（Fulbook： 253）.Men cannot neglect the existence of the other sex to build up a unitary world where only the masculinity can be acknowledged.Simone de Beauvoir proposes that man defines man as the Self while woman as the Other.In other words， with the potential transcendence of the Other， man and woman have their respective individuality at their different positions.As a result， it is possible for women not to mimic male ways but to keep theirs that they are meant to be a disruptive force to the solipsism（290）.For the egalitarian feminism clings to the faith that the existence of woman as the Other itself provides possibility to form the reciprocal relations between man and woman.By examining carefully these two female characters in Dubliners， their respectively different unique feminine manners that are their struggle for establishing their subjectivity are revealed in the story-telling.These Other manners are namely Evelines fluid mode of thinking and Mrs.Mooneys discourse right.

In the overall structure of Dubliners， Eveline is the first story of the sequence devoted to adolescence.It mainly describes the heroine—Evelines inner world， presenting her conflicting thoughts about whether she will escape with Frank， his boyfriend， to start her new life abroad.Eveline， the eldest child of a large family， and a shop assistant， must look after her father and the two younger children， and now and then fall into the victim of her fathers drunkenness and brutality.After she has met Frank， a sailor， and has fallen in love with him， her father learns their affair and demands her not to meet him again.Later Frank asks her to leave with him for Buenos Airs， presumably as his wife.Eveline， however， hesitates to escape， partially out of sense of duty， partially out of fear of an adventurous future， her present life being difficult but not ‘wholly undesirable.The sound of a street organ reminds her of her promise to her mother ‘to keep the house together as long as she could.On the other hand it kindles her revolt against ‘that life of commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness.Her decision is taken： she will be saved and live on.She is ready to elope with Frank.Once at the station， however， she feels completely paralysed and cannot follow him.In the world that male dominates—the phallocentric system， with a history of thousands of years， man undoubtedly thinks highly of the logical and distinct mode of thinking that belongs to man， which is the standard thinking mode and imperceptibly influences womens conception.In this case， man controls womans thought by making woman accept this mode as the only standard that the society would acknowledge.With this so-called standard， man only foregrounds his unitary authority.Women always stand on the wrong side， so is their thinking mode.Mans manner takes more influential post and should adopted by women if they wish to achieve social acknowledgement.In mans eyes， womans mode of thinking is alienated from the masculine ideology that produces the stereotype of strong men and feeble women and then it is thought as the Other mode to the mans logical thinking.The core of Simon de Beauviors notion of Other， however， is the transcendence of the Other， which can surpass the manner that regulates the phallocentric system to construct females subjectivity.

The story “Eveline” shows a definite shifting of the point of view.The third person is used and two voices at least can be heard： the narrators and Evelines， whose inner monologue， are given.From the whole story， soliloquy holds the major content， which can fully show her Other manner—her distinctive female way of thinking， namely uncertainty with the influence of her sensitivity about the background sounds and her emotional double-minded thought.Evenlines uncertainty here means “Female is ‘fluid， and fluidity is ‘unstable.What she emits is flowing which disrupt the tyranny of unitary meaning and logocentric discourse.”（Attridge： 165） with her sensitivity， uncertainty is embodied in two respects： uncertainty of time and of theme.

In the story， with her own feminine sensitivity， Evelines thinking is free from the limitation from the time.It shuttles back and forth among the past， the present and the future freely.Her thoughts can easily go among the past， the present and the future.In other words， her thinking breaks through the bounds of time.In this way， her thinking represents unstable， discursive and flowing freely.Another aspect of uncertainty is about the theme， in which her thinking is frequently distracted from the topic by some thriving things.Uncertainty mainly refers to her orientation of distraction.In description about Eveline， her sensitivity to the sounds from the background plays a significant role in presenting her Other mode of thinking—the uncertainty of time and theme—her peculiar femininity.Her attention is usually diverted ad then her thought flows into some ‘trivial things that appear in her mind accidentally and then naturally her thinking is flowing and following what she hears.Evelines chain of thoughts is continuously woven in the conception of the past， the present and the future.Sitting at the window， Eveline is caught in meditation.She hears “few people passed...his footsteps clacking along the concrete pavement...”.（Booker： 208 ） At then， her thinking is drawn from the previous experience to the reality.She thinks that “she and her brothers and sisters were all grown up； her mother was dead.Tizzie Dunn was dead too， and the Waters had gone back to England， Everything changes.”（31） Until that moment， her thinking just comes back to the point--her decision to leave： “Now she was going to go away like the others， to leave her home.” The music during her hesitation reminds her of the similar moment her mother is dying.As she thinks back the “pitiful vision of her mothers life”， she trembles “as she heard again her mothers voice saying constantly with foolish insistence.” under the influence of the background sounds， her thinking is flowing freely in her own dimension， so Evenlines uncertainty of time and theme represents fully her Other manner--the fluid mode of thinking.In Evelines thinking， there is no boundary about the different conceptions of time and thereby her mind could be shuttled back and forth between the past， the present and the future.Moreover， her thinking is unstable.In the process of consideration， a casual sound or a glimpse can make Eveline divert her attention from the theme of consideration and unconsciously draws back to her memories.

On the other hand， in the male-dominated world， woman has become mans object，m which is meant to be at the subordinate post.In this type of phallocentered culture， man is of transcendence while woman is of immanence.Woman is given instructions on how to please man for living but not to struggle for freedom， especially for her subjectivity.According to Simone de Beauvoirs conception of the other， however， woman can make use of her otherness so as to make it as her own advantage of achieving her subjectivity.（Fulbook： 143） As the owner of the boarding house， Mrs.Mooney is indeed a sagacious and efficient woman.She never abuses her discourse right as the owner of the house.She is not the “traditional woman” defined by man.She knows how to make full use of her feminine cautiousness to deal with things.At the family， as a mother， she has held the superior position so that her discourse has the influential force.How Mrs.Mooney deals with Pollys affair with Mr.Doran occupies the main part of the story.Mrs.Mooneys feminine cautiousness has thoroughly manifested.To some extent， this story is a process of establishing subjectivity with her own intelligence and her keen observation.As an Other woman， Mrs.Mooney becomes the woman who holds discourse right from an oppressed one.She has realized she has the capability to be an independent woman who can obtain her own discourse right.Besides this realization， at the same time， she has noticed blind struggle would spoil her awareness.So she has considered every aspect of the thing and her each step of actions is well planned.The establishment of her discourse right， this other conduct makes her construct her freedom and subjectivity.

It is thus concluded that the four female characters in Dubliners by James Joyce have constructed their subjectivity in their Other feminine manners that challenge the male-dominated system， which is in line with Simone de Beauvoirs conception of the Other that defines itself and has its subjectivity.

References：

[1]Attridge，Derek ed.The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce，Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，2000.

[2]Beja，Morris，ed.‘Dubliners and ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man： A case book.London： Macmillan，1973.

[3]Booker，M.Keith.A Practical Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism.New York： Longman，1996.

[4]Fuger，Wilhelm，ed.Concordance to James Joyces ‘Dubliners.Hildesheim and New York： Georg Olms，1980.

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[6]Gilbert，Sandra M，and Susan Gubar.‘Sexual lingustics： gender，language，sexuality.New Literary History，1985.