SOURCE: Harmon, Maurice. “Richard Rowan, His Own Scapegoat.” James Joyce Quarterly 3, no. 1 (fall 1965): 34-40.

In the following essay, Harmon examines the main character in Exiles.

In James Joyce's Exiles it is easy to see Richard Rowan as a dominating figure. In scene after scene his probing, inquisatorial mind exposes the other characters in a merciless manner. And it is true that in the process he shows superior courage and integrity. But a highminded, dominating Richard, similar to the Stephen Dedalus of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, is only part of the full characterization. Exiles does more than unmask Richard's associates and has another purpose besides that of showing the rebel-artist transcending orthodoxies and conventions in the name of art. Richard, too, is unmasked. The play moves steadily towards the climax in Act II in which he admits to ignoble motives behind his determination to...