The Novel, The Myth, and The Scaffolding:

Modern British Literature of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries was characterized by a deliberate break from traditional methods and forms of writing. The novelist or poet desired to share ideas, philosophies, or perspectives in creative, avant-garde ways. The Modernist would experiment with form and expression, hoping to create something truly unique. Ezra Pound expressed this idea in his essay "Make It New." This conscious drive to sluff off the old Victorian conventionalism and the restrictive bonds of piety led to many related and overlapping literary movements. Imagery and symbolism poured from the literary fountains of the Modernist. James Joyce and T.S. E.iot's works are rich with symbolism while depicting every day life to express ideas and views regarding human nature. As contemporaries, there are similarities between their works, however, there are also differences that make their work distinct and set apart from one another.

James Joyce's Ulysses departs drastically from the traditional Victorian novel, and critics of the Nineteenth Century took exception to this work being called a novel. In the November 1923 issue of "The Dial," T.S. Eliot gives his support to Joyce, indicating that this form of literary expression was the future of modern literature, stating that Joyce's technique is

a way of controlling, of ordering, or giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history (483).

Even though the traditional narrative has been erased, a story still exists. Ulysses is an account of one day in the lives of a few individuals living in Dublin. The story, divided into episodes, corresponds to events depicted in Homer's Greek epic, the Odyssey. Eliot confirms this parallel by describing it as

scaffolding erected by the author for the purpose of disposing his realistic tale (480).

The use of mythology to compare and contrast characters was a hallmark of Ulysses. In explaining this method, Eliot states:

Instead of narrative method, we may now use the mythical method. It is, I seriously believe, a step toward making the modern world possible for art.

While advocating for Joyce, Eliot justifies his own use of the mythical method in The Waste Land.

Along with using symbols in their writing, Joyce and Eliot utilize the stream of consciousness technique. This technique evolved from Henri Bergson's work on time and consciousness and the human experience of time. The final chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses provides insight into Molly Bloom's character through the stream-of-consciousness narrative. Joyce and Eliot also share a knack for imagery and may have been influenced by the imagist movement founded by Ezra Pound. World War I spawned the cynical and disillusioned works of the Literary Modernist and the ultimate demise of the Imagist movement. T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land uses imagery to set the scene in Episode II - The Game of Chess. Although this piece explores the darker side of mankind and the aftermath of World War I, we are drenched with rich and beautiful imagery.

Joyce and Eliot utilize iconic female characters from mythology to add dimension to the women portrayed in Ulysses and The Waste Land. In his essay, "The Metaphysical Poets," T.S. Eliot writes:

Our civilization comprehends great variety and complexity, and this variety and complexity, playing upon a refined sensibility, must produce various and complex results. The poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, inorder to force, to dislocate if necessary, language into his meaning.

Eliot's poem The Waste Land is a great example of this idea, where references to mythical and religious symbols represent or express his meaning. If the reader quickly skims through each passage of this epic poem the meaning is lost among the seemingly disjunct and dissonant imagery. The Norton Anthology contributors state that Eliot

sought to make poetry more subtle, more suggestive, and at the same time more precise.

Eliot's usage of mythical and religious symbols supports this methodology. Eliot hinted in his essay ""Ulysses, Order, and Myth" that The Waste Land is a work

in manipulating a continuous parallel between contemporaneity and antiquity.

Episode II, A Game of Chess, is full of incredible imagery painting the opening scene of a beautifully decorated room where a woman of means sits in the glow of candlelight. Eliot compares this woman to Cleopatra while an opposing female figure, Philomel, hangs upon the wall. This dichotomy can be interpreted in many ways and we could guess Eliot's intentions. If we return to the "mythical method" we may accept all possible interpretations. We should consider the possibility that Eliot is providing a broader horizon in which we may see more clearly the whole of life.

This holistic view permits us to simply see the more precise message. As with Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Eliot uses dichotomy in his imagery to represent polar opposites, yet highlighting similarities between the characters and the virtues and failings of human nature. The Queen of Egypt and the Nightingale are both victims of situation and circumstance. Cleopatra is a victim of her station in life. She is the Queen of Egypt, struggling to maintain her rule as the Romans overrun her authority. Cleopatra ultimately makes a fatal mistake; an error in judgment, thus relinquishing her reign of Egypt. The Change of Philomel hanging on the wall of this lavish woman's room references the Greek myth of Philomel who was raped by King Tereus and then changed into a nightingale. This violent act visibly portrayed seems to be in direct opposition to the woman's outward life of privilege. Victimization doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary.

Where Eliot uses historical and mythological characters to be precise in developing the roles women play in The Waste Land we see a different type of comparison in Joyce's Ulysses. The comparison is a little more subtle. Molly Bloom is the contemporary version of Penelope from the Odyssey. Penelope is a patient and faithful wife to Odysseus, while Molly is adulterous in both thought and action. Both Molly and Penelope require tests of their husbands to prove "true." Upon reflection on the day that she accepted Leopold's marriage proposal, Molly decides to give him another chance. If Leopold can prove himself sexually she will not tell him about her affair. Penelope's test of Odysseus isn't far from the marriage bed. Yet, she is protecting her vows to her husband when she asks that their bed be moved to another room. Of course, Odysseus passes the test, upon revealing that the bed cannot be moved because one of the posts is the trunk of a living tree. Joyce uses the virtues of Penelope to develop the character of Molly, whose infidelity is in complete contrast to Penelope. The open and honest relationship between Penelope and Odysseus becomes the template for the secrets and tragedy between Leopold and Molly.

Joyce and Eliot rejected the Nineteenth Century literary models. Fairytales of past centuries have been replaced with modern stories without happy endings and true love. Real life is full of virtues and vices, equally. Happiness and sorrow exist in the same story. The realities of world wars and conflicts become the landscape for the novelist and the poet. What makes the tales from the various centuries endure? They endure because we love the happy endings, for they provide hope. They endure because the raw reality portrayed in modern literature resonates and we feel each pain and recognize each wart and hangnail as the ones we possess. They endure because we love a good story, whether it be completely fantastical or completely real. They endure because they mirror human nature.

References:

Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors. Volume 2. New York: Norton, 2013. Print.

"Review of Ulysses by T.S. Eliot, from the Dial." The British Library. The British Library, 15 Jan. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2018.