There is no doubt that Joyce bestows us with his historical memories of British imperialism in Ireland. He unearths the concept of Irish identity which has been transfigured by imperialistic conquest. However, he cunningly does not fault solely the British Empire for the degradation of Ireland but illustrates that the Irish people themselves are no less responsible. Irish nationalism does not stand alone as mere politics, we must take it as a personal identification with one’s own nation and the support of its interests. To Joyce, this is as much a cultural matter as it is political.
In Telemachus, the concept of national identity is personified through Stephen Dedalus who reveals himself as a symbol of servitude. This quality will follow him throughout the novel. As he ponders bringing the shaving bowl downstairs for Buck he stops and remembers his time as an altar boy. “So I carried the boat of incense at Clongowes. I am another now and yet the same. A servant too. A server of a servant” (11). Servitude is still something he is tangled in. Before that, Stephen points to Buck Mulligans mirror and says, “It is a symbol of Irish art. The cracked looking glass of a servant” (7). This perspective of art can be applied to the novel as a whole, as the novel focuses on the common folk, the servants of Ireland. This fracturing view of society expresses the existence of multiple competing viewpoints and subsequently a lack of cohesion of social vision. He is saying that the Irish people, during this strange flux of British colonialism, do not know who they are or what they believe. This can be observed in Buck who, unlike Stephen, is associated with consumption. He represents the recycling and marketing of art, not the creation of it. He cockily spits out the bits and pieces he knows about literature, Greek history and old poetry. This regurgitation is juxtaposed by Stephens on the spot illumination of Irish art. “Ah, Dedalus, the Greeks. I must teach you. You must read them in the original. Thallata! Thallata!” This is one of the first Homeric references of the book. The Greeks would shout Thallata when they came upon the black sea after a failed march against the Persian empire in 401bc. The recollection of this feat may also refer to the men’s inner anxiety upon looking over Dublin Bay whereby the British would begin their occupation from their journey across the sea. Buck, impressed by Stephens philosophical musing on the people of Ireland tells him to touch Haines for a guinea, who is interested in writing a collection of Stephens sayings. Stephen cleverly asks whether he would make any money, as it appears to him the only thing a British person in Ireland is interested in doing. The presence of Haines, a “ponderous Saxon” who came from Oxford evokes an uneasiness in Stephen. “Martello, you call it?”, unaware of the painful significance the tower represents between English and Irish relations and when he looks at it only conjures up thoughts of the greatest English poet, William Shakespeare. This signifies his detached interest in Irish literature and moreover the morbid significance of the tower. Additionally, Haines father “made his tin by selling jalap to Zulus or some bloody swindle or other” which highlights the profits he reaped from British imperialism by peddling a purgative drug to the South Africans people. Soon after, Stephen speaks alone with Haines who pulls out a smooth silver cigarette case, in which was a green emerald stone. This is a subtle reference to British imperialism of which cigarettes were a prized product. The green emerald may symbolize an Ireland which may never escape the clutches of imperialism. Amidst their conversation, Stephen says he is “the servant of two masters…an English and an Italian” (20). Haines ignores the English part because he knows it to be true and chalks it down to “It seems history is to blame”, which means the Englishman holds the past as something separate and outside themselves while Stephen remembers it for the nightmare that it was. Joyce considers Haines form of thinking dangerous and he wants readers to pay attention to how we may unknowingly take after our ancestors in many aspects, especially political as the violence which his imperialistic father may have experienced in Africa is invoked in Haines dream where he is “shooting a black panther” (61). Clearly, Joyce is critiquing the euphemistic British perspective of Ireland but at the same time Stephens resentment does not appear to be more fruitful than Haines unconsciousness, and as he smokes the Saxons cigarette he reflects “that the cold gaze which had measured him was not all unkind.” I think Joyce is trying to alleviate the common Irish resentment of the English while also reminding us of what happened. Perhaps he is emphasizing the futility of such bitterness and how politics, life and people are changing. He does this by aligning Stephen with the Liberal politicians of Britain who worked to redress past injustices. Apart from the tryptic of the three men’s thoughts on politics and Irish Nationalism, there is a fourth character and she acts as the female personification of Ireland itself. “A wandering crone, lowly form of an immortal serving her conqueror and her gay betrayer, their common cuckquean, a messenger from the secret morning” (14). Joyce’s description of the old milk woman is so over the top it becomes ironic. She is subjugated by both by the imperialistic English and the wealthy classes of her native land. His phrase, the “Poor old woman” (14) recalls the Shan Van Vocht of Irish mythology. Irish literary revivalists would idealize such a symbol for Ireland, but not Stephen who “Scorned to beg her favor” (14). This expresses the lowly position that Irish culture occupies in the mind of Stephen. The woman also represents Irelands backwards traditions and is likely the reason for Stephens disdain. She is ignorant of her own culture, she does not even recognize when the boys are speaking in Irish until Irelands personified conqueror Haines instructs her. This is incredibly ironic as the figure for Irish identity is being told to learn her native tongue from the British usurper, the side who abolished and banned it in the first place. Thus, there appears to be no metaphorical release from Irelands servitude as she “bows her head to a voice that speaks to her loudly, her bonesetter, her medicine man: me she slights”. Stephen, the artist who feels Ireland has lost its creative vigor is snubbed by the old woman who curtsies in subordination to Buck and Haines. This ties in with his statement on the cracked looking glass: that Ireland (personified in the old woman) bows to the English invader and the hopeless Irishman while slighting the artist. That Irelands servitude has distorted its own culture. Stephen recognizes this in both himself and in his country. He longs for an Ireland that is culturally, if not politically separate from England. Thus, the loss of “Irishness” associated with the colonialization of Ireland cannot be attributed to the English alone. Joyce playfully recognizes the responsibility that Irish people themselves play in the rebuilding of the Irish identity and culture.