Human Intuition

The human mind is an obscure, complex object to understand and interpret. The brain itself is fascinating and mysterious, and it holds many valuable features hidden and not realized by the conscious human mind. Many unexplainable phenomena have been associated in life and in literature through the mind's workings. Psychologists develop reasons why people do certain things that they do, but with every human being's perception being so unique and varied, there is still much left to explore of the human mind. Human intuition is one facet of the mind that is very interesting, yet not very understood. The supersensory ideas that human intuition provides are of the soul, world, and God. No matter how grand their suggestiveness, no matter how genuine the evidence, those ideas have no empirical validity, and they belong entirely to the intellectual due to the fact that the understanding cannot "prove" itself existent or not. Human intuition is different between all people due to the fact that each person's mind matures at different levels of spirituality, understanding, and insight. Plus, it's very difficult for people to unravel and decipher the true, deep meaning of events and things in life, when really, the meaning of life isn't known. Yet, the human mind is so powerful that it even reveals things to itself about itself and about life. Be it human intuition or a phenomenon, such an experience is called an epiphany. An epiphany, as a feeling, is a sudden realization or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something (Wikipedia). An epiphany, in other words, is when someone has "found the last piece of the puzzle and now sees the whole picture." An epiphany is accomplished when new information or a new experience, normally insignificant by itself, illuminates a deeper or numinous foundational frame of reference (Wikipedia). Common clichй's, that people use to describe an epiphany, are "Eureka" and "I have found it!" (Wikipedia). These are definitely vague words used to try to describe the epiphanic experience, although it is seemingly a very difficult wonder to describe. Few writers have been able to capture the ability to portray this very thing. William Wordsworth and James Joyce both possessed the ability to express the depth and reality of human intuition. James Joyce also had a modern tendency to structure short stories around epiphanic moments. Wordsworth and Joyce use irony, imagery, and theme for materials to demonstrate the deep connection between words and actual human intuition.

William Wordsworth, not holy did he possess deeply and richly philosophical intellect, he was a master of illustrating human intuition. "All the writer can do is parody the epiphanic effect of a text by exploring the inherent play of linguistic possibilities" (Flajsar). Wordsworth wasn't just a philosopher, he explained things in life through experiences and nature. "Nature, as he knew her in the Lake Country, revealed a vast sublimity that at once terrified and delighted him and a retired silence that soothed his spirit." (JSTOR)

Imagery plays key role to expressing true human intuition in William Wordsworth in literature. He mastered the powerful ability to communicate clearly and visually images and situations vividly and well-described through his clever construction of his poems. In Wordsworth's poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," many critics interpreted the poem "representing a moment in nature of spiritual insight that recurs during a later imaginative recreation" (Brennan). "Continuous as the stars that shine/ And twinkle on the milky way. / They stretch in a never-ending line/ Along the margin of a bay: / Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in a sprightly dance. (Lines 7-12) For one critic Matthew C. Brennan, he views the daffodils as embodying the idea of vastness through a "never-ending line," although these flowers seem simple and ordinary, the vastness of height and depth are more striking and grand than the vastness of extent (141). Another intuitive thought exhibited through imagery is infinity. "The host of flowers appears infinite, hence Wordsworth's impression of their uncountable profusion," clearly states in line 11, "Ten thousand saw I at a glance" (Brennan 141). It takes skills to create what "the eye" cannot "perceive the bounds of" things or when they are continued to any indefinite number"--as with the daffodils--Brennan perceives that "they seem to be infinite, and they produce the same effects as if they were really so" (141).

In his short story "Araby," James Joyce brilliantly illustrates a young boy experiencing an epiphany through imagery, theme, and irony. Being the fact that this story might have resembled the author's own childhood experiences, he is able to portray his disillusionment of the world through a young boy living a practically sheltered life.

Imagery plays key role in unlocking the path of an epiphanic moment for James Joyce in literature. In Joyce's story "Araby," a young boy lives in a square house near the "blind" end of his street. The meaning and significance of the word "blind" is revealed through the boy's character before he has his relevant realization of what is true of his beliefs and views. His skewed perception, which changes throughout the story, is made evidently clear at the very end of the story. The boy idolizes one of his playmates sisters, and develops strong feelings for her. When they are first introduced, it states that the boy and Mangan are standing in the "shadow," while the sister is standing in the light, "her figure defined by light" (238). The boy, which is windowed by the author being a young boy in a town very similar to this, he is able to describe the dullness of the town, "uninhabited house" on the "quiet street" (Page 238). The only excitement that the boy indulges in is that of a crush, which to him is what makes him feel alive. He exclaims when he saw her, "My heart leaped," and all he could think about was "what innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening" (238). At the end of the story, he realizes that he was completely foolish being blinded by this girl.

James Joyce uses theme to help develop the setting for an epiphany to occur. In the short story "Araby," Joyce explores the themes of nationality, religion, and relationships between the sexes to help portray the intuition of a boy that experiences an epiphany. In "Araby," a story of a young boy's disillusionment, Joyce explores questions