SOURCE: MacNicholas, John. “Joyce's Exiles: The Argument for Doubt.” James Joyce Quarterly 11, no. 1 (fall 1973): 33–40.

In the following essay, MacNicholas examines Exiles on its merits as a play, rather than in relation to Joyce's other works.

James Joyce wrote two prose plays: the first he dedicated to his own soul and then destroyed; the second receives attention perhaps only because of its association with its more magnificent siblings. Even though many people have recognized its brilliance, few have conceded that Exiles is a good play.¹ Much of the criticism betrays the fact that it has been read primarily as a commentary upon Joyce's fiction—which is certainly a legitimate critical approach but does a disservice to Exiles unless the play is also evaluated on its own terms. The widely held assumption that Exiles is the aberration of a novelist, not the work of a playwright, is unlikely to yield...