CC BY
91
https://doi.org/10.29013/EJLL-19-4-42-46
Vasyliuk Yelyzaveta, Postgraduate student, History of Foreign Literature and Classical Philology Department, School of Philology, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University
E-mail: yel.vasyliuk@gmail.com
DENIAL OF MOTION IN THE THIRD POLICEMAN
BY F. O'BRIEN AS RECONSIDERING OF THE WANDERING MOTIF OF ULYSSES BY J. JOYCE
Abstract. The Ulysses's motif of wandering in The Third Policeman by F. O'Brien becomes a dominant and all-consuming theme. The main character of The Third Policeman wanders in searching for the box with the money and escapes the punishment for the murder of its master. For Noman wandering is an illusion, which is strengthened by his ordeal in the beyond. The image of a bicycle, that in Ulysses symbolize increasing mechanization and moving is inherited and reconsidered: in The Third Policeman people turn into bicycles and vice versa, Noman treats a bicycle like a person.
Keywords: James Joyce, wandering, mother's womb, prosecution, home coming, F. O'Brien, cycling.
Irish writer Flann O'Brien (1911-1966) is considered to be the follower of James Joyce (18821941). However, despite a significant influence of Ulysses (1922) on the formation of his creative method, he sought to overcome this impact. Having adopting J. Joyce's concentration on the consciousness and inner world of the character in Ulysses, F. O'Brien reconsider them and present them in his own way.
A Russian mythologist E. M. Meletinsky believed that "It is the mythological parallels that clarify the close <.. .> scheme of the main plot: leaving home -temptations and trials - return. Bloom returns <.> reconciled, <...> with new trials ahead" [1, 315].
A Russian researcher and translator of Ulysses S. S. Khoruzhy notes that "Interpretation of the mythologema of the Odyssey becomes distinct in Ithaca, where two motifs stand out: Odyssey as a return to a hidden depth, a native bosom, and, imperturbability, indifference that Ulysses-Bloom finds in life's trials. They both <...> express a ten-
dency to internalize Odyssey: the application of the paradigm to "the inner man" and "the wanderings of the soul" [2, 113].
An Irish researcher K. Hopper in Flann O'Brien: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Postmodernist notes that the post-structuralist criticism interprets an image of the bicycle in The Third Policeman: "<...> as a metaphor for atomic physics; as a sub-Joycean, Vi-conian bi-cycle that autocritically declares its own circular design; as an anthropomorphic allegory of dehumanisation" [3, 56-57].
However, despite all of the above, juxtaposition of the travel motif, which is one of the key in the mentioned novels by J. Joyce and F. O'Brien, has not been the subject of a full study by scholars yet.
The relevance of the article is due to the fact that there are no special studies that explored Ulysses motif of travel, which is crucial for revealing the intertext and poetics of the early novels of F. O'Brien.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the specifics of the functioning of the travel motif in Ulysses and The Third Policeman, to establish a way of F. O'Brien's imitating and reinterpreting of Ulysses motif of wandering and coming back.
J. Joyce himself said "I find the subject of Ulysses the most human in world literature. <...> Then the motif of wandering. <...> And the return, how profoundly human!" [4, 416]. E. M. Meletin-sky notes that " <...> mythological reminiscences <...> are given in a parodical 'discrediting' manner <...>. However, the <...> irony here is the price needed to turn to epic and myth. Joyce <...> seeks to create the epic of modern life <...>. Joyce was inclined to emphasize positive features of Bloom, which gives us a reason to see in Bloom not only a parody of Odysseus, but also a 'broke' and at the same time still a kind of Odysseus of the twentieth century" [1, 309]. V. Nabokov, in a lecture on Ulysses, expresses the following opinion, "I must especially warn you against the temptation to see a direct parody of Odysseus in Leopold Bloom's messy wanders and petty adventures on a Dublin summer day, where an advertising agent Bloom plays the role of Odysseus". Apparently, there is a very approximate and general similarity with Homer in the theme of Bloom's wanders. <...> Joyce <...> crossed out the pseudo Homer names of the chapters, seeing what the scientific and pseudosci-entific prigs were aiming at" [5, 370].
The wandering motif plays a plot-forming function in Ulysses, Bloom wanders like Odysseus, and Stephen travels the way Telemachus does. Besides, the wandering motif is realized in the very image of Bloom, "Ahasuerus <...> outlaw" [5, 369], whose destiny is to travel forever, as well as Stephen, who, like Bloom, is a stranger everywhere. Bloom's misgivings end up with his return to Ithaca, and Stephen continues his journey.
The wandering nature of Bloom is also in his physicality (his position as a wandering son of a wandering people, sleepwalking, a floating kidney),
interest in the phenomenon of wandering and returning, reflections on the needle path in the human body, etc. Bloom's desire to travel is driven by a desire to flee the house from betraying his wife and a subconscious willingness to find a 'son', someone for that role.
Bloom's coming back home is connected with an internal conflict. Despite the deliberate return home, he is convinced did "<...> the coming back was the worst thing you ever did<...>» [6, 568]. He dreams about travelling to East countries, probably to "the Promised Land", «Somewhere in the east: early morning: set off at dawn. Travel round in front of the sun, steal a day's march on him. Keep it up for ever never grow a day older technically» [6, 45]. A very significant fact is that Bloom's father, Rudolf Virag, left Hungary once, so travelling is hereditary for Bloom. He also dreams of slight fatigue after an exhausting journey, «Nice kind of evening feeling. No more wandering about. Just loll there: quiet dusk: let everything rip. Forget. Tell about places you have been, strange customs» [6, 63], dreams about a voyage, "<...> nevertheless it reminded him in a way of a longcherished plan he meant to one day realise some Wednesday or Saturday of travelling to London via long sea not to say that he had ever travelled extensively to any great extent but he was at heart a born adventurer though by a trick of fate he had consistently remained a landlubber <...>" [6: 547]. Bloom dreams about him leaving abroad in case he is suddenly broke, "Would the departed never nowhere nohow reapper? Ever he would wander, selfcompelled, <...> and after incalculable eons of peregrination return an estranged avenger, <...>", [6: 634]. Blooms' wanders end up with his coming back home. "<...> the childman weary, the man-child in the womb. Womb? Weary? He rests. He has trevelled" [6: 642].
The Ulysses's scene in the pub in "Sirens" episode, where Bloom stays at the same time while Molly betrays him, is a kind of boundary for him, a moment when he reconciles with his destiny.
The image of a tram as a symbol of mechanization, the transformation of a person into a soulless object, a cog, part of a large crowd-mechanism, is shown in Ulysses in the scene of Paddy Dignam's funeral, when Bloom comes up with the idea of new ways of using the tram, "I can't make out why the corporation doesn't run a tramline from the parkgate to the quays, Mr Bloom said. All those animals could be taken in trucks down to the boats. <...> and another thing I often thought is to have municipal funeral trams like they have in Milan, you know. Run the line out to the cemetery gates and have special trams, hearse and carriage and all", [6, 79-80]. The image of a tram tracks also appears in "Circe" episode: "<...> entrance of nighttown, before which stretches an uncobbled tramsiding set with skeleton tracks, <...>" [6, 357]. This reflects the transformation of the city of that time: riders are replaced by cyclists, and horses by trams. The image of the tram also indicates a person as an object of movement, not the subject, the certainty of the route, that is, life, a person as a part of the crowd in the tram, the 'municipality' of the tram, which cannot belong to the passenger.
Stephen Dedalus' wanders are represented in the plot less than Bloom's. Young Stephen's wanderings are driven by his search for himself. He abandons the faith in which he was brought up, does not pray for a dying mother, leaves home and rents the Martello Tower. He meditates and ultimately denies traditional scholarly views on W. Shakespeare's Hamlet. His friend Mulligan calls him "Wandering Aengus <...>" [6, 207] ("Aengus traveler with birds - that's how Gogarty called Joyce. <...> Both Joyce and Gogarty knew Yeats poem "The Song ofWandering Aengus" well" (1899) [7, 817]).
When being asked by Bloom why Stephen left his father's home, he sarcastically replies, "To seek misfortune <...>" [6, 541]. The denial of outdated values, outlook, and faith encourage Stephen to seek a new spiritual and value orientation and patron. Bloom and Stephen's journey and their return
are united with a home key, Bloom leaves his key at home, and Mulligan fishes out a tower key out of Stephen "<...> if Bloom has Boylan, Stephen has Mulligan" [5, 444]. Nobody takes Bloom's key away, he forgets it himself, however in a sense, his home keys and a status of a home host is taken by Boylan. For some time, Bloom's journey to find a 'son' and Stephen's journey to find a 'father' are intertwined, but they are not combined. Stephen's wanders, unlike Bloom's ones, do not end with a return, and after his visit to Bloom, he keeps on moving on. Bloom returns home to Molly.
Thus, the motif of wandering in Ulysses corresponds to Odysseus's journey and ends with Bloom's coming back home. The travelling motif is manifested in the image of Leopold Bloom and Stephen as rogue, in Bloom's physicality, in his fantasies about wanders, in his interest in the phenomenon of travelling. Bloom's travels are cyclical, but his attitude to return is ambivalent and complicated.
In The Third Policeman by F. O'Brien (1940), the motif of wandering is presented through the lens of J. Dunne's theory of serialism, which had a significant influence on the writer's development. The serial universe by J. Dunne is a system of mirrors that are reflected in one another. The universe is a hierarchy, where each level is a text for the higher level and reality for the lower one.
A novel's protagonist Noman, who loses his left leg while travelling, lives on his farm with his friend John Divney and dreams of bringing out his comments about the works of the scientist de Selby, whom he admires. Together with Divney, he kills his old neighbour Mathers and steals his box, where they think he hid money. Divney hides the box for three years and makes Noman wait for the mourning over the old man's death to cease. With the intention of getting rid of his partner, Divney sends him to Mathers's house, where he laid a mine behind the box, Noman dies and finds himself on the other side. Thus, the motif of wandering is combined with the thanatological.
The novel quotes de Selby, a pseudo scientist whom admires Noman and is about to bring out a comment on his work, "Roads he regards as the most ancient of human monuments <...> a good road will have character and a certain air of destiny, an indefinable intimation that it is going somewhere, be it east or west, and not coming back from there" [8, 251-252]. Noman remembers the writer's theory regarding wandering, "<...> a j ourney is an hallucination <...>. Human existence <...> a succession of static experiences each infinitely brief <.> he discounts the reality or truth of any progression <...> in life <...> attributes to hallucinations the commonly experienced sensation of progression as, for instance, in journeying from one place to another or even 'living' " [8, 263]. Noman's wanders are motivated by his search for the box, so he answers questions of his alter-ego, Martin Finnucane, 'What desideratum?' 'To find what I am looking for" [8, 261]. According to him, the box contains money for which he wants to make his comments on the works of the scientist de Selby. Subsequently, he tries to escape from the police. The centerpiece of Noman's foreign trip is the police station, where he soon arrives to declare the disappearance of the box, and where he is charged with murder and sentenced to death. It is important that Martin Finnucane, his alter-ego, a robber and a killer with a wooden leg whom he meets on the road, tells him the direction to look for the police station. Noman's wooden leg can be a parallel between him and Stephen with ash stick. Martin Finnucane directs Noman to the police station which is located "<...> on this same road" [8, 261], which may indicate that a meeting with the police department, trial for a crime appointed for Noman is inevitable.
The cyclicity of the journey is manifested in the walk of Noman with the police around the police station in anticipation of his execution. He was warned that within the county a police officer named Fox, the third policeman, was on duty, and there was no point in escaping.
In his reflections on wandering, Noman mentions de Selby's theory of the shape of the Earth, according to which the directions that can be moved on a spherical Earth are wrong. After all, the axis north-south is one direction, following which one can reach any point on this axis. The same goes for the east-west direction. Accordingly, ifyou go in any direction, you can return to where you left off. De Selby denies the sphericity of the Earth, and argues "<...> that 'the earth is a sausage <...>" [8, 304]. De Selby's position is similar to that of a rope walker who is forced to go, otherwise he will fall, "Movements in this restricted orbit results in the permanent hallucination known conventionally as 'life' " [8, 304].
The other side where Noman found himself is absurd and illogical. In a place that is impossible to escape, everything is focused on moving, bicycles. But a bicycle is not just a symbol of mechanization, the displacement of human nature. In a province where humans are in harmony with nature, the bicycle even absorbs man. The policemen tell Noman about converting bikers to bikes as a percentage "people <.> get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them <...> half people and half bicycles" [8, 296]. It is worth noting that with the bicycle pump John Divney killed old Mathers, so the bicycle also symbolizes the victory over human nature, compassion. And even the road turns a long-walking person into a road, "When a man dies they say he returns to clay but too much walking fills you up with clay far sooner <...> and brings your death half-way to meet you" [8, 300]. Noticeably, Noman does not ride his bicycle, although it is noted that his wooden leg causes walking discomfort. But though it "<...> has no life in it at all" [9, 260], it makes something out of Noman, "I thought that it was, so to speak, spreading - that its woodenness was slowly extending throughout my whole body, a dry timber poison killing me inch by inch" [8, 324].
Eventually, Noman escapes from the police station on the day of his execution on a bicycle, which rides itself into the corridor to get Noman's attention. This bike seems beautiful to Noman, he feels tender. A bicycle saddle reminds him of a human face "<...> not by any simple resemblance of shape or feature but by some association of textures <...>" [8, 378].
Noman is detained by a police officer named Fox for not turning on his bicycle flashlight and questioned by him at the police office, located in old Mathers's home. Therefore, Noman's final destination is his victim's home. Noman claimed that he had escaped the execution and the police officer asks, "Are you sure?" [8, 389]. The image of the pub, as the place where the protagonist takes his fortune, is also featured in The Third Policeman. Noman inherits his father's pub, after coming back from studying and travelling, the first thing he sees at home - the pub and John Divney, his friend and murderer, Noman takes his father's place in pub, working on comments of de Selby's works.
Thus, in The Third Policeman, the motif of wandering is presented through the lens of J. Dunne's theory of serialism. The purpose of Noman's search is a magic box of omnium, that is, you can make whatever you want with it. Noman dreams of publishing his comments on de Selby's works. The movement and wanders themselves, according to de Selby's theory Noman relies on, are illusory. This is intensified with the illusory, absurdity of Noman's
being on the other side. For Noman, movement is also associated with the loss of humanity through a wooden leg. The image of a bicycle that Noman begins to treat as a human is also a symbol of murder, which may be parallel to the scene in the fifteenth episode of Ulysses, where Mananaun, the god of the sea crashes a crab, which is a symbol of Stephen's mother's cancer disease, with a bicycle pump.
Thus, in Ulysses the motif of travelling, on the basis ofwhich the adventures of Homer's Odysseus, the plot matrix of Ulysses, is the compositional concept of the novel. In F. O'Brien's The Third Policeman it is also the compositional guideline of the novel, and in addition, the play of Odyssey's wandering through the prism Cain's punishment in the form of eternal wanderings in F. O'Brien's novel.
In The Third Policeman the motif of wandering is inherited and presented through the lens of J. Dunne's theory of serialism. Bloom's beliefs are caused by the escape from Molly's betrayal, Stephen's ones - from an outdated outlook, faith, family, Noman's - from punishment for murder. However, if for J. Joyce the finale of wanderings is exile, for F. O'Brien the journey is an illusion, they have no ending, endless wanderings.
The tendency to describe a person as an inanimate thing, part of the mechanism, presented in Ulysses by Bloom's reflections on trams, developed in The Third Policeman, where people turn into bicycles.
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