Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Ordinary in the Extraordinary

After reading this story, I could very easily discuss many examples of the "ordinariness" that resounds throughout the entire thing. There is the ordinariness that comes from the argument that Gabriel has with Miss Ivors (after all, who doesn't have arguments with friends?), the ordinariness of Gabriel's feelings for his wife as they return to their hotel, and the ordinariness of having a previous love that we learn about Gretta. However, instead of any of these moments, I am going to discuss the dinner that these people partook in.

"There was a great deal of confusion and laughter and noise, the noise of orders and counter-orders, of knives and forks, or corks and glass-stoppers. Gabriel began to carve second helpings as soon as he had finished the first round without serving himself. Everyone protested loudly so that he compromised by taking a long draught of stout for he had found the carving hot work. Mary Jane settled down quietly to her supper but Aunt Kate and Aunt Julia were still toddling round the table, walking on each other's heels, getting in each other's way of them to sit down and eat their suppers and so did Gabriel but they said there was time enough so that, at last, Freddy Malins stood up and, capturing Aunt Kate, plumped her down on her chair amid general laughter" (pg. 198).

This particular paragraph was probably the most ordinary part of the story to me, because all I could think about as I read it was my own family during the holidays, and it is very much described here: all of my family sitting around one long table, delicious foods spread out before us, everyone trying not to drool as Grandpa cuts up the ham or turkey. As we eat, the general noise in the room increases every now and then as everyone partakes in various discussions, and Grandma runs around making sure that everyone has everything they could possibly need, while we are all telling her to sit down and eat too. To me, this is ordinary, even if it only happens under extraordinary circumstances.

2 comments:

  1. Cassidy, I thought a lot about this scene, too -- all the care put into the preparation and serving of food. But I find Joyce's tone here (and throughout the party) to reflect a disconcerting blend of affection and disdain. I get the sense here, and in the responses to Gabriel's speech, that Joyce is partly pointing to the falseness and conventionality of these gatherings, the way people behave according to scripts (I see that particularly here: "Gabriel began to carve second helpings as soon as he had finished the first round without serving himself. Everyone protested loudly so that he compromised by taking a long draught of stout for he had found the carving hot work.") But it is a very subtle irony, not unmixed with tenderness. I don't quite know what to make of it, or of the tone throughout.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I thought this would be an aspect of the story that might resonate against the course themes, Cassidy, so I am glad you pointed it out. Joyce takes so much care throughout Dubliners to render the mundane details--food in particular. But he also, as Kristen suggests, has an element of Flaubertian disdain for what he describes. He is doing a certain sort of Irish scene--getting it exactly right--in what you would have to call loving detail--and ironizing it. I think of the goodbyes at the end as the same sort of thing.

    ReplyDelete