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Throughout the remainder of Joyce's university years, he continued to take issue with popular artistic tastes. Undaunted by the attacks on his aesthetic opinions, Joyce further asserted himself by revising his presentation into an essay entitled 'Ibsen's New Drama,' which appeared in the Fortnightly Review in 1900. In fact, Joyce received considerable criticism for an essay which he delivered before the college's Literary and Historical Society, denouncing Greek and Shakespearean drama in favor of the works of more modern playwrights, such as Ibsen. This latter interest was not shared by the conservative members of the faculty. He was also fascinated by the dramas of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. This emphasis on humanistic studies, coupled with Joyce's mature changes in temperament, enabled him to depart from religious study almost entirely he preferred to pursue a growing interest in the myths which Wagner used for his operas. (Joyce's attempts to reconcile the trinity of women, sex, and creativity are woven throughout his works.) Two years later, Joyce entered University College in Dublin.Īlthough University College was known as a Jesuit institution, the emphasis on religious instruction had recently been deemphasized in order to please the emerging taste for the classics. First, Joyce was admitted to, and later became the prefect of, the school's Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary and second, he had his first sexual experience - with a Dublin prostitute this paradoxical turn of events occurred within just a few weeks of each other. Joyce attended school there until he was sixteen, distinguishing himself as a school leader, thespian, and award-winning essayist, whose poems and essays were published in the school magazine.įor the most part, Joyce's school years seem idyllic, but two significant events occurred when he was fourteen which helped shape the boy's spiritual and creative future. Nonetheless, in 1893, through his father's contacts, Joyce was able to enroll in an equally prestigious day school, Belvedere College.

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The fall of Parnell seemed to herald yet another decline in the Joyce family fortune, and it was not long until financial reversals and a series of domestic moves made it impossible for Joyce to return to Clongowes Wood. The effect of this revelation on nine-year-old Joyce is clearly evident in 'Et Tu, Healy,' a poem he wrote and distributed to friends, denouncing the man who was partly responsible for Parnell's undoing.

Parnell's downfall and his subsequent death were important in Joyce's life not only because they made him aware of the disparity between Church and State in Ireland, but also because they created within the mind of a boy who had admired Parnell's heroism a fear that Ireland would always destroy its own prophets. Parnell, formerly an indomitable and respected politician, had recently suffered the decline of his career as a result of his romantic involvement with a married woman, Kitty O'Shea this highly publicized, scandalous affair resulted in his political downfall, and a year later, fervently attempting to build up a new independent party, he died of exhaustion. Joyce returned home for his first Christmas vacation from Clongowes and found his family in turmoil because of the death of Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Irish Nationalist Party. After a period of adjustment, both his health and his attitude improved, and soon, in spite of an occasional need of discipline by his Jesuit teachers, Joyce began to impress the Clongowes faculty with his keen memory, musical talent, and athletic ability. At first, he suffered from vague maladies he felt tormented and isolated from the other boys. In September of 1888, Joyce began his studies at a Jesuit boarding school for boys, Clongowes Wood College. Despite the family's continuous financial instability, however, Joyce's father was aware of his son's exceptional talents, and he arranged for Joyce to attend two of Ireland's most prestigious educational institutions, thereby providing his son with a solid, impressive education. One critic has remarked, in jest, that the large number of children in the Joyce household was surpassed only by the enormous number of debts which Joyce's father incurred.

Son of a dutiful mother and a charming but improvident father, Joyce was the oldest of ten surviving children five others died in infancy. James Augustine (incorrectly registered as 'Augusta') Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar, Ireland.

Jame joyce biography