SOURCE: Dombrowski, Theo Q., and Lester B. Pearson “Joyce's Exiles: The Problem of Love.” James Joyce Quarterly 15, no. 2 (winter 1978): 118–27.

In the following essay, Dombrowski and Pearson examine the problematic characters in Exiles.

Long considered an inferior work of largely curiosity value, Exiles has increasingly been recognized as a significant, if problematic, part of Joyce's works. Indeed, as some have begun to realize, part of the play's very significance depends upon the problems it raises and fails to solve. John MacNicholas, for one, has effectively argued that the uncertainty surrounding Bertha's relationship with Robert Hand is not to be seen as a weakness of the play: it is, rather, to be seen as the result of Joyce's deliberate attempt “to create in the audience the same basis of doubt which Richard himself perceives.”¹ The problems of the play can be seen to be further significant in terms of the...