케이트 쇼팽의 「소명과 목소리」와 제임스 조이스의 「참혹한 사건」

Kate Chopin's "A Vocation and a Voice" and James Joyce's "A Painful Case": The Same Voice but Different Ending in Dualistic Conflict

Chopin's "A Vocation and a Voice" parallels in many ways to Joyce's "A Painful Case". Basically, both stories concern the two male protagonists' struggle between the world of spirit and body, or Thanatos and Eros. The unnamed boy, later called Brother Ludovic, must choose between religious vocation and a sensual life with a gypsy woman called Suzima. The unmarried James Duffy is torn between his paralyzed, repressive life and romantic love with Emily Sinico. Chopin and Joyce feature the two contrasting worlds which are spiritual world and primal instinctive world. In both cases, the women characters, Suzima and Sinico seem to represent the realm of intuition and desire for the male protagonists. The pivotal function of voice is driven throughout the two stories to the ending. Both Brother Ludovic and Duffy recognize their women with very auditory sense. At the end, Brother Ludovic follows the beautiful voice of the gypsy woman. Duffy could not feel Sinico near him nor her voice touch his ear. Duffy's way of remembering her depends much on auditory sense. The love relationship with Suzima immediately affects the boy's sense of identity because his discovering sexual nature leads him to the new sense of selfhood. On the other hand, Duffy's self-knowledge makes momentary epiphany, thereby enabling him to ruminate on his former sterile life as an outcast from life's feast.