“Where?”: The Misleading and Deceptive Narrators in James Joyce’s “Eveline” and “Ithaca”

초록

This paper deals with how the misleading narrator toys with the reader and prevents the reader’s attempt from finding the missing pieces in James Joyce’s “Eveline” of Dubliners and the “Ithaca” episode of Ulysses. While many critics concerning “Eveline” argue that the reader in this story becomes paralyzed by the uncertainty that the story has, this paper argues that the reader becomes trapped by the misleading and deceptive reader, not just by the uncertainty. Likewise, the seemingly pedantic narrator in “Ithaca” misleads the reader on purpose and suddenly leaves Bloom’s mind and, as a result, leaves the reader in darkness. The reader cannot read Bloom’s mind; the reader does not know where she is, where she is supposed to go, and where she is in the text. Without any clue, the reader becomes paralyzed in between the question “where?” (U 17.2331) and the incomprehensible dot “.” (U 17.2332) behind the mocking narrator. Thus, the readers in “Eveline” and “Ithaca” do not simply become trapped by the uncertainty; rather, they becomes paralyzed by the deceptive and misleading narrators.

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