MB UNIUD

Comparison between the stream of consciousness and the interior monologue.

The texts I am going to use to make the comparison are:

• 1. The last part of episode number 18 from the Ulysses by Joyce (for the stream of consciousness)
• 2. The Dead, by Joyce (for the monologue)

Stream of consciousness

• a) Significance is conveyed by the semantic choice of  words. As a matter of fact, the same words or the same sounds create unity in the text, as this is the only way the reader is able to understand what the character's stream of consciousness is about. We find, for example, the word YES, in all the extract.
• b) Although in the stream of consciousness there is no syntax the reader is able to follow the discourse. The connections in the extract are made by images, sounds and so on, so there is no need to use syntatic linkers. The only problem is that if you lose the point of what you are reading you have to start again from the beginning.
• c) Elements that unify and give sense to the speech: the word yes, Penelope's feelings, the semantic field of the sun of something that burns (the sun, fire...), and nature.
• d) The stream of consciousness is a narrative technique that records the multifaceted  thoughts and feelings of a character without regard to logical argument or narrative sequence: at first the reader is confusedbut a deeper analysis  of the text (like semantic fields) will make it clearer. He has to make conjectures.
• e) When the reader is in front of a stream of consciousness he is in the character's mind with no writer's filter.

Interior monologue

• a) In the monologue significance is conveyed by the presence of sequences that give unity to the text. The Dead is made up of sequences: when Gabriel and his wife arrive at the party, the ball, dinner...
• b) The interior monologue is the representation of a character's thoughts. His thoughts are filtered by the writer, who adds connectors. Differently from the stream of consciousness, if you lose the point of what you were reading you needn't start reading  the text from the beginning again.
• c) The elements that unify and give sense to the speech are the connectors used.
• d) Reading an interior monologue you needn't  make conjectures because everything is written. There is an omniscient narrator that writes many details in order to create realism. For example at the end of the novel, what Gabriel sees is described in very minute details.
• e) With the interior monologue we have the shift of the point of view. The reader reads the character's thoughts with the interference of the writer that makes the reading of someone's thoughts easier than in the stream of consciousness.