Due by class time on Monday, November 15. (I want to use the responses in class so it's important that you post before class.)
In the comment box below you will post a response (or responses) in which you use close reading to discuss the significance of passages from chapters four and five.
To generate ideas about significance you might think about these questions in relation to the final two chapters:
How does Stephen struggle to figure out who he is in relation to his environment? What are the different aspects of who he is and of his environment that are part of this struggle? Think about family, religion, nationality. How is each significant?
How does the way the story is written -- third person stream of consciousness narration, epiphanies, allusions, images, motifs, style, syntax, diction -- contribute to how the reader experiences and understands Stephen's process of identity formation?
How is the struggle related to becoming an artist, particularly a language artist? How is the struggle? How is the struggle related to the Daedalus-Icarus myth?
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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man online.
Click here to find chapter one with some good notes.
& here you'll find chapter two.
The home page for the enotes version of the book is here. You can use it to click on any of the five chapters or on "Reading Pointers for Sharper Insight" which mentions a lot of the elements -- epiphany, stream of consciousness, Daedalus & Icarus -- that I mentioned last week.
It is inevitable that we (the readers) notice Stephen's development as both an artist and a young man in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Although he maintains the stream of consciousness writing style throughout the book, towards the latter chapters (specifically 4 and 5) Stephen becomes more perceptive and self aware. We can see this change most prominently in Stephen's change as an artist. There are many times in the beginning of the book where Stephen struggles with his attraction to words, he cannot seem to tie together rhythm, sound and meaning. By chapter 5 however he has developed his personal theory of aesthetic. On page 185 he states that “truth is beheld by the intellect which is appeased by the most satisfying relations of the intelligible; beauty is beheld by the imagination which is appeased by the most satisfying relations of the sensible.” Citing Plato, Stephen links together truth and beauty and puts forth the concept that one must understand the imagination and intellect in order to approach beauty. This theory directly ties in with the book as a whole, the stream of consciousness style allows the reader to see that Stephen is slowing understanding the “frame and scope” of his imagination and is therefore on his path to becoming an artist.
ReplyDeleteThe way the book progresses also adds to Stephen's theory. He does not start really creating until after he has developed this aesthetic idea, implying that the creation of the theory itself was his final step in understanding his own intellect. This then leads to the creation process, Stephen bit by bit pieces together the villanelle that we see in full on page 198. We see that Stephen is still fully aware of the rhythm of the words while writing, he is carried along by the sounds of the words and when they are broken so is his creative process.
Rhythm is also important to Joyce because there are many instances in the stream of consciousness where a single word or sound is repeated many times. We have established falling as a main theme, but the word also lends itself to the patterns that Joyce creates. It is not only within the poetry that we notice appealing sounds being repeated, it is also within the narrative itself. Stephen sees himself as working through sound instead of working with it. In his aesthetic theory he also states that “to press out again, from the gross earth or what it brings forth, from sound and shape and color which are the prison gates of our soul, an image of the beauty we have come to understand- that is art” (183). It seems as though Stephen believes that sound, shape and color are blocking our soul from expressing itself freely. Maybe, though, they are not blocking the soul as prison gates would, but instead restricting the forms of expression(very similar to how Stephen also feels repressed by the “nets” of nationalism, religion and language(p.179)) . Forced to channel beauty through sound shape and color represses beauty and that the beauty which we recognize is only (like Plato's theory) a shadow of the ideal.
Kelly Benson
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As we the readers have seen throughout this book, Stephen has had a struggle with who he is and what he wants his identity to be. He knows that there is something more to life than what his father is, but maybe less than a magistrate. Stephen seems to struggle deeply with his rhythm and placement in his society, and even within the comfort of his own home. We can see this so clearly through his eyes (or the eyes of someone looking through his eyes) and we question ourselves with, where will Stephen end up? What position will he assume in society? What he is doing is taking bits and pieces of his life and trying to make up this perfect “whole”, yet everything he does, doesn’t seem to fit in with his ideas. “Rhythm, said Stephen, is the first formal esthetic relation of part to part in any esthetic whole or of an esthetic whole to its part or parts or of any part to the esthetic whole of which it is to a part.” (pg. 206)
Even though that quote had a lot of repetition of words, it still had a specific rhythm that Joyce was trying to portray. I found that in this quote, Stephen is thinking that in order to get the hang of something or achieve something, you first have to have a rhythm to get in the groove of things. If all the parts of his life have no rhythm when strung together, then it really can’t make up who he is or who he is trying to be. At this point he has finally figured that proving to the other boys that he doesn’t kiss his mother is no big deal at all.
Because Stephen is constantly concerned with impressing or saying the right things to people, he sometimes gets caught up in a tangle of things that are not actually who he really is. I find that this is a usual coming of age story, where someone experiences life on the “bad” side, life on the “good” side, and a little bit of everything in between. Stephen has tried a prostitute, and then tried becoming extremely religious, but the only thing that he could figure for himself, was find the parts that will make up the whole of who he really is. And thus, we have seen him develop into both the and artist and a young man.
Jacklyn L.
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“The snares of the world were its ways of sin. He would fall. He had not yet fallen but he would fall silently, in an instant. Not to fall was too hard, too hard: and he felt the silent lapse of his soul, as it would be at some instant to come, falling, falling, but not yet fallen, still unfallen, but about to fall.” (141 brown book)
This quote shows that Stephen truly knows that he will never be able to maintain a holy lifestyle. The way Stephen is portrayed in this quote allows for the reader to see that Stephen knows that the world works by people performing sins in order to keep many things alive. He also understands that falling from grace all at once would be to easy because one does not feel as much repentance for one sin that caused them to fall than the repentance one would feel from numerous sins that they caused. The idea that staying away from sinning is to hard is also interesting because it was only in the last chapter that he had made up his mind to stay holy in order to attain Heaven and be in the presence of God. Also this quote also relates back to Stephen’s inability to truly relate to his environment. Such as here where he had wanted to be holy and then seemed to take a step back and decide that path was impossible because the world is created by sin. Also the idea starts to be played with that in certain places he is a different character and in other places he is the exact opposite. Such as when he talks about the world being made of sin, such as when he is at school where he first committed his first sin and then how he makes himself out to be a completely religious and dedicated to God person. It seems to be that there are two sides to Stephen. He knows that he has begun to fall by thinking this and understands that it is only a matter of time before he falls out of the graces of God.
“I am not speaking of that, Cranly said in a colder tone. I ask you if you ever felt love towards anyone or anything...I tried to love God, he said at length. It seems now I failed. It is very difficult. I tried to unite my will with the will of God instant by instant. In that I did not always fail.” (214)
This quote reminds me of the beginning of the book when Stephen is writing the letter to his mother and instead of writing loving son he writes affectionate son. This quote seems to pull together the idea that Stephen can never truly love someone or something. Also the fact that instead of mentioning his parents as something he tried to love he mentions God. The fact that he actually had to think if he loved someone is also interesting because it is such a different response than what many people are used to in getting from the main character of the book. The idea also that he had to try instant after instant also shows that he is never able to truly connect to his environment. Then the fact that Cranly said it in a colder manner and not an indifferent manner also adds to the depth of the quote. This is due to the fact that if Stephen cannot love anyone or anything then nothing will love him in return. Stephen seems to take this to heart and that is why it takes him so long to answer because he starts to question if this is what he truly wants in his life. If he wants to be alone and away from everyone? He thinks this because if he cannot to connect to God then why should he connect to anyone else. The fact that he did always fail shows that there is hope that he can still connect with someone in the world so that he can find a connection with and then maybe fall in love with. In the end it is found that he will never truly be able to make a connection because he is too infatuated with the girl from the epiphany.
Tom M.
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Through the closing chapters of “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, we the readers, though not exactly clearly due to the stream of consciousness literary style, can see the true transformation that has occurred within Stephen. Throughout much of the novel, Stephen has battled with who he is, his identity, based on his family, religion, and nationality. The perspective that others, (namely the representatives of his family, religion, and nationality), hold of him has greatly influenced how he has perceived himself, and up until this point, it has not been a pretty sight. Having ranged from a wild sinner to an image of deep Christian morals, Stephen has truly experienced a range of influences that have the power to shape every element of him. However, throughout all of his experiences, Stephen was always considering what others would think of him in relation to what he was doing, morphing his perception of himself, and thus changing his behavior and attitude.
However, once Stephen finally came out of this mood shifting behavior trance, as seen in Chapter 5, he states, or rather, the narration states, “I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use-silence, exile, and cunning.” (pg. 249) It is here that Stephen finally realizes that it doesn’t matter what others think of him. In the most basic sense, Stephen can do as he pleases and not feel guilty for doing so. He can say what he likes, do what he likes, and not feel as if he is going against everything he stands for. For he feels it is better to stand up for what you truly believe in and how you truly feel, rather than act upon something that you have been told is right, yet you do not truly believe in. Being a devoted Christian myself, I often feel conflicted when I feel a certain different way against normal mainstream Christian beliefs. I used to feel often guilty, ashamed, and not right for doing, thinking, or saying something that my religion told me was “wrong”. Eventually though, I realized that this didn’t really matter. I can still be a devoted Christian all the while having my own set of personal beliefs, and yet still not feel guilty just because I’m not an absolutely perfect image of Catholic piety. While none of my guilt has stemmed from serious wrongdoings or completely opposite views of my religion, it’s the little things that amount to feelings of discontent, just like the ones Stephen was feeling. I’m glad that he realized it does not matter at all what “anyone” else thinks of him when he acts a certain way. All that matters is what he thinks of himself and the honor of his own intentions.
Yes, in the end, Stephen shows a certain understanding of who he is. He’s being true to his own beliefs; not living by anyone’s set standards. He still feels defined by an outside source, but it is that of his passion, his artistic ambitions. Through these ambitions, he is being true to his own beliefs and living as he wishes. And yet still, he is not acting out in any wild manner, nor sticking to a belief that will please those who interpret his actions harshly in a positive way, yet a belief that he does not hold a steady belief in. Stephen has found his true identity through his art and has been transformed into one who can achieve their full potential and their highest goals, and still one who is able to view himself positively, with no regrets.
The way the story is written GREATLY, I repeat GREATLY affects how we as readers see Stephens "identity formation". How? CONFUSION! The reader is oft unsure of how they feel, what they think, or even where they are. This verbal psych-ops of sorts has many weapons (allusions, images, motifs, style, and the ever present third(ish) person narration). None of this is helped by our lack of understanding of the Irish tounges and Irishisms. For those lucky (or unlucky I can't decide) eith the brown books the notes clarify, but are sometimes unnecessary. This all just adds to the confusion.
ReplyDeleteStephen has no clue either. HIs feelings are all over the place, he is not sure of himself, he lacks confidence. He is, well, Stephen. Confusion of self, of view, or role is what the book is all about.
Throughout Stephen’s life he is searching for an identity for himself. Will he be a more mature adult like person or will he be a sinner? Will he be more holy or will he build his own set of rules that he can follow without guilt? It’s a constant battle for Stephen where he continues to try to find the niche that he fits best into. Towards the end of the book we find the quote, “Where was his boyhood now? Where was the soul that had hung back from her destiny, to brood alone upon the shame of her wounds and in her house of squalor and subterfuge to queen it in faded cerements and in wreaths that withered at the touch? Or where was he?
ReplyDeleteHe was alone. He was unheeded, happy and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and willful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight and gayclad lightclad figures, of children and girls and voices childish and girlish in the air.” Here we see that Steven has finally, after years of searching, realized his true calling in life. He stares and wonders where his old self has gone and is mesmerized that everything can just be so clear after a lifetime of confusion and self-doubt. There he once was, a young boy blind to his true destiny. That boy was depressed, self-conscious and very much alone. And now as he looked back and saw how far he had come he wondered where exactly he was now that he knew he was an artist of sorts. He knew that he was still alone, but this alone was okay. It wasn’t the type of loneliness one feels when they are at a loss of everything and there seems there is no one they can go to for support, but an a loneliness where one is comfortable and independent, one where one knows they’ll be okay in the end. Because of the confidence that had just miraculously been bestowed upon him he could now do whatever he wanted without worrying about what others thought of him. At that very moment was where Stephen had his epiphany and he knew that all of the soul-searching that he has done in life, despite the toll it put on him, was in the end worth it and that it had built him up to be where he was today.
Poor Steven. I know that he may be optimistic about his future, but it's just wrong. In Steven's eyes, his life, up until he absconds, is full of oppression. His parents, his religion, his family, his country, his schools, the idea of being in an intimate relationship with anyone or anything, love, that's all oppression to him. He tells himself that he desires freedom, but he is destined to solitude. He still has feelings for Emma, there is just no second guessing himself "I liked her and it seems a new feeling to me. Then, in that case, all the rest, all that I thought I thought and all that I felt I felt, all the rest before now, in fact... O, give it up, old chap! Sleep it off!". Like alot of people said earlier, Stephen never felt a complete connection to any aspect of his childhood, he even gets constantly lost in his reveries. He now sees freedom in no longer loving his mother (compare this to his mentality in the first chapter when asked if he ever kissed her) or going as far as to steal.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is important that the subconscious writing style switches to a journal style during the last few pages. This is the transition from interior to exterior, from mental to physical. Steven is the artist. He no longer keeps his thoughts swirling about in his mind, but he heavily endorses them publicly. There are quite a few times where Stephen sounds almost pompous during conversations, positive that what he says is truth, I mean come on, he DEFINES art and beauty; before reading this book, I never thought that that was even possible. As Louisa said, he gains a lot of confidence. At the end of the book, the reader no longer has to magically dive into Stephen's mind to see what he's thinking; he lays everything out for the reader. He is a "dappled seaborne cloud", high above everything, stuck on the very edge of heaven. He is removed from what is below. He is free to voyage "high over Ireland, westward bound.", but like a cloud, he is lost, and will be forever. He has no destination. Just like Daedalus, he will voyage "across the deserts of the sky". My favorite quote in the book is in chapter 4 and it says, "To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life!". This sentence has rhythm. It ends with an exclamation point (excitement) and the idea of starting things all over again, like life is just a chain of cycles, or perhaps a cycle itself. Stephen lives and falls as many different identities of himself. So maybe this will continue beyond the novel. Perhaps Stephen will once again fall and rise. Icarus' story however, tells us that he will eventually not rebound from his fall.
One of Steven's big struggles is the logic of society. He says a few times that animals are perfectly happy in their positions, but humans are sad in their "mental worlds". "We are all animals. I also am an animal...But we are just now in a mental world...The desire and loathing excited by improper esthetic means are really not esthetic emotions not only because kinetic in character but also because they are not more than physical." There's another source of his oppression: society. Our internal, natural feelings are directly connected to our body. The bridge between mind and body is a cornerstone in the novel, discussed in how he thinks/acts, the change in narration, and his attempts to separate his mind from his body growing up.
His last words to Cranly are so sad to me, how he is not afraid to be alone, or to make a lifelong mistake. It's almost as though he does not realize the gravity of these claims. Cranly listens in awe. Maybe this is Stephen's problem. He talks against the natural necessities of humans, possibly because he has worked so hard to oppress his own? To be completely free and independent? Stephen is unaware of what he is truly giving up.
To be honest, as a reader I was disappointed by the last Chapter. Up until that point Stephen was a believable character that one could empathize with. He was a person, an adolescent boy struggling to find himself in the world and establish himself as an artist. By chapter five though, he seemed less of an independent character, and more of a medium for Joyce to show off his writing skills. In the last section of the chapter it switches to a journal-style narrative directly from Stephen’s perspective. I see more of Stephen’s true character in this section, that I feel was lacking in the rest of the chapter. In these few pages you see him questioning himself and the people around him, and you can imagine a real person writing these things. Through most of chapter five, Joyce was the speaker and the point of view, not Stephen. He went off on long philosophical rants on the definitions of art and beauty and rhythm. Some of it was beautifully written and thought-provoking, but it got to a point when it seemed more like an essay, which Joyce was using to flaunt his ability to use language and rhythm. Stephen’s character, though always disconnected from the rest of the world, seemed to lack any sort of caring for anything around him. He simply dismissed conflict and rationalized away all of his internal struggles. He lost his faith completely and took no interest in his studies. All of the conflicts of his past that he had fought with earlier in life became inconsequential. He lost that spark that made him a character, and became an empty window for Joyce to speak through. Instead of Stephen Dedalus, the blossoming artist and struggling middle class Irish boy, he was James Joyce under the pretense of a fictional character, seeking to show off his skills. That, to me, was disappointing. In itself, it was certainly not badly written, it just didn’t stay true to the rest of the book and Stephen’s character.
ReplyDeleteJames Joyce established himself as a writer who does not waste words, and in chapter four of Portait, he sums up Stephen’s character and development in less than five pages. Starting on page 137 (in the brown book), Stephen begins one such situation in which he calls himself “Reverend Stephen Dedalus, S.J.” Immediately, his artistic side takes over. “His name in that new life leaped into characters before his eyes and to it there followed a mental sensation of an undefined face or colour of a face” (140). Here Stephen begins his creation of the scene, defining the “undefined face” by a “reddish glow” that he had seen in the faces of priests in his school and parish (140). He makes himself a member of society, a person of power, someone people would want him to be (on page 137, the priest tells Stephen that “perhaps you are the boy in this college whom God designs to call to Himself.”). Within this power, Stephen envisions knowledge. This knowledge though, is something Stephen desires out of selfish interest. Maybe selfish isn’t a fair term to use. He says that as a priest that he “would know the sins, the sinful longings and sinful thoughts and sinful acts, of others.” This stems from Stephens longing to feel similarity between him and another person. He had deep, dark, secrets that he spilled to the priest during confession, and he wished to hear a confession from somebody other than himself. This is his main interest. Through reflection, Stephen concludes that the priesthood, or “vocation” as the priest calls it, is not for him. Instead, he believes that “he was destined to learn his own wisdom apart from others or to learn the wisdom of others himself wandering the snares of the world” (141). This is prototypical Stephen, as he once again consciously separates himself from society, saying that “his destiny was to be elusive of social or religious orders” (141). It is in these words that Stephen reveals who he really is. Almost like a self-absorbed movie director, he casts himself as the main character in his own film, dreaming up how life would be if he were another person. Stephen will always be an artist, ever-destined to be alone, ruled by the environment that surrounds him, the “snares of the world” as he calls them. It is a truly sad existence, and it makes me think reflect on how we as people often over analyze our lives. At least I feel like I do. Portrait in general is very relatable to me, because I find myself pondering my surroundings and observing them quite often, rather than simply living in them. Joyce chooses to explore this area of human nature throughout the book, and he is smart to do so. Through Stephen, he provokes a part of us that will never die out, and it is what makes the book successful and ultimately real, in a sense, to whomever reads it. The human mind never ceases to wonder.
ReplyDeleteArica Aiello
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"The snares of the world were its ways of sin. He would fall. He had not yet fallen but he would fall silently, in an instant." chapter 4, page 162
This quote in chapter 4 stood out a lot to me because of Stephen’s constant struggle with his religious views. He is torn between believing and being dedicated to assure his resonance in heaven, but he knows that the person he is can never be held to such laws and molded to these views. Stephen’s thoughts are much more complex than those of his peers and he realizes that. His final decision is to “not serve” which is the worst possible sin to commit but Stephen feels it is necessary for him to be the person he is. Stephen’s struggle with religion and following a certain order will shape his thinking and allow his mind to be free to create its own thoughts and go in its own pathway to art.
"His language, so familiar and so foreign, will always be for me an acquired speech. I have not made or accepted its words. My voice holds them at bay. My soul frets in the shadow of his language." chapter 5, page 205
This quote comes into the book when Stephen is talking to the dean of studies at his school. Earlier in context, Stephen uses the word “tundish” in their conversation, which is an Irish based word, and the English dean does not understand what the word means. This small misunderstanding creates a huge controversy for Stephen about the language that he is speaking. Stephen is an Irish man who was brought up speaking English as his first and only language, yet Stephen begins feeling that the language is “foreign” to him because he is Irish. Stephen talks about how different the English words sound to him when they are spoken from the lips of a true English man, versus from his being an Irish man. This is one of the main points where Stephen feels some pride and connection to his Irish heritage. This point in the story was the first time that I really felt that Stephen realized the importance of this, in a sense, language barrier. Stephen does not feel comfortable speaking the words of the English, yet he cannot speak Irish and actually drops out of his Irish language class. His relationship to his language and culture are truly complex and torn between the two cultures. Stephen will soon build his own language in between the two; his art. His own way of expression will be a way for Stephen to show what he is feeling and speak for himself without making him chose a language to speak to others.
Hilary E
ReplyDeleteThroughout the book we see Stephen develop from a child to a grown artist through his thoughts and descriptions. As a child Stephen did just as he was told, and continued to be a follower until he decided to leave the church and the religion he was brought up on and become an artist. The lyrical writing style contributed emphasized this idea. The words flowed just as the third person narration switched between thought and description. As the book progressed the words and ideas became more advanced and the thoughts that followed stayed more focused on the topic in the last few chapters than it had in previous ones. The earlier thoughts and feeling eluded toward the struggle of church verse his true desire to become an artist that comes towards the end of the book. The final chapter switches from a third person narrative to a first person narrative that is read through the journal entries. This allows the reader to make a closer connection with Stephen as an artist than they could have with Stephen the priest.
Michelle Rogers
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Throughout the book Steven is constantly searching for himself and who he is supposed to be in life. He wonders about his identity and were he should be in the eyes of his family, the church, his peers, and politicians. Throughout the whole book we see Stevens’s struggles to find and discover who he is supposed to be from the time when he is a young child to his early adulthood. The book is written in Stephens’s stream of conscious so we see everything from a narrators view point, which is scattered at times. One of Stevens struggles in particular that stands out is his relationship with the prostitute and the amount of guilt and shame that he feels after it. After this downfall, Steven believes the only way he can redeem himself is to completely devote himself to God and prayer. This devotion causes him to become increasingly more distant with his family, but to greatly consider the possibility of being a priest, which he eventually realizes he can not do. After this he begins to lose his faith and distant himself from God and the church completely. After his one ephiney at the end of chapter 4, we see that Steven becomes more of an individual and more distant from his family. He finds himself disgusted with their carelessness and increasing financial problems. His family also begins to turn his back on him as well believing that life at the University has changed him. Steven realizes that he no longer needs to be accepted by his family and that his identity may be separate from them all together. Steven is beginning to break away from his past and start a life that he will consider all his own. One thing that keeps him tied to his past is his relationship with Emma, a girl who he met in his childhood and has longed for ever since. In the final sections of the novel the type of writing switches over to journal entry from, from Stevens personal journal. It is with this switch in narratives that we see that Steven is really beginning to find his voice and discover his true identity. He is no longer searching for his identity but has found it and it now expressing himself. We see Stevens own thoughts, insights, and dreams and beginning to learn who he is as a person.
“He was destined to learn his own wisdom apart from others or to learn the wisdom of others himself wandering among the snares of the world. The snares of the world were its ways of sin. He would fall” (141).
ReplyDeleteBecause, as apparent earlier in the paragraph of the above quotation, Dedalus will not lose his freedom to the life of a priest with “so many years of order and obedience,” he will set off on his own ways. There is a paradox here that in order to obtain freedom, to fly, Stephen says he will fall. I think it is important that this is not merely an act of rebellion, but it is the result of careful thought, through which Stephen finds that this thought, his own, is necessary. Rather than merely take on, he will use others’ wisdom in order to form his own.
“Or was it that, being as weak of sight as he was shy of mind, he drew less pleasure from the reflection of the glowing sensible world through the prism of a language manycoloured and richly storied than from the contemplation of an inner world of individual emotions mirrored perfectly in a lucid supple periodic prose” (146).
Writing becomes to him then, not something so much to reflect the “sensible world” as it is to mirror the “inner world of individual emotions.” It is through this expression that one, having a less abstract mirroring of oneself, may form an understandable relation to the world. In a way, it is this relation that ties one into the rhythm that Stephen discusses:
“Rhythm is the first formal esthetic relation of part to art in any esthetic whole or of an esthetic whole to its part or parts or of any part to the esthetic whole of which it is a part.” (183)
It is through this development that Stephen reaches where he is at the end of the book, that he can “encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race. . .Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead.” (225)
Andrew Mizzoni
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James Joyce’s ability to mature and evolve language in “A Portrait” allows the reader to distinguish maturity. Throughout the story Joyce’s language changes with Stephens evolving maturity. His ability to connect language and maturity gives the reader a better interpretation of the story.
“He was a baby tuckoo. The moocow came down the road where Betty Byrne lived: she sold lemon platt.” The awkwardness of this sentence translates into Stephens’s awkwardness and maturity. Through the first few chapters you can feel the confusion in Joyce’s writing technique and styles. This technique allows for the reader to feel more connected with the story because you feel almost connected with Steven. When reading stories with language that does not flow well with the theme of things you are given an awkward rhythm. Throughout the book I have found myself confused deeply at certain point however I do understand what techniques he is trying to use. Hopefully over time I will understand the story the way Joyce intends for it to be understood. In the beginning of the story Steven jumps around more frequently with his train of thought. These techniques confuse the reader in a good way because immature minds cannot keep focus. It is obvious that this story is a perspective of a character maturing through the years.
Invisible characters become reality in the later chapters in Stephens mind and life. Stephens’s first invisible character is Mercedes, a fantasy character that he connects to his lust and sinful desires. Over the course of the book however fictional characters are given true identity much like Steven is. E.C is a true character however there is no full name given but towards the end of the story E.C becomes Emma. Emma is Stephens matured mind finding truly what he wants.
“His soul had arisen from the grave of boyhood, spurning her graveclothes. Yes! Yes! Yes! He would create proudly out of the freedom and power of his soul, as the great artificer whose name he bore, a living thing, new and soaring and beautiful, impalpable, imperishable.” In the final remarks of chapter 4 Stephen completes his transformation into maturity. His sexual desires and mind connect vivid idly in the language that Joyce uses. His language that Joyce uses is in-depth and descriptive that flows in a graceful rhythm. The rhythm is much different from the beginning of the story where Joyce’s language is awkward. Stephens new being in chapter 5 appeals to me in his agnostic views and sinful thoughts. The end of the story shows a struggle that Steven feels is no longer a struggle. He feels comfortable with his environment although his surroundings do not agree. A situation that is common among the artist.
We can see the development of Stephen’s identity as Stephen develops into an artist. His idea of his soul is so closely related to his idea of himself and his critique of himself. As he develops into an artist Stephen finds the gift of art and how it can be used to critique his environment. In my earlier post I said “He can judge himself and he creates his identity by trying to figure out his environment through looking at himself after becoming the environment”. I feel in these last chapters he has formed himself by developing with his environment. He has been in extremes of submerging into the ideas of his surroundings such as the Christian faith and then becomes opposed to much of his surroundings such as loosing his faith. But by judging his surroundings he judges himself and sees he himself has lost the faith yet still can see faith still exists or that the church and god still has great powers. This judgement of himself is this development of his soul which is what Stephen portrays as his inner self. His soul is art, it is his creation.
ReplyDeleteStephen explains that the soul takes time to develop longer than the body. Again their is this separation of him and his body. The soul to him is artwork it is something that takes time to develop and create. It is also art because he is critiquing his environment because he has used his environment to create his soul. More importantly he sees his soul as a way to judge himself not just as a symbol of who he is but what he should be. You have to dig deep into the soul to find its understanding of sins and deeds while the body seems so much on the surface not needing time to form and develop with its environment. His soul contains his morals his developed ideas of what he accepts and denies of his environment.
His idea of his soul is finally defined in chapter 4 when it says, “His soul was soaring in an air beyond the world and the body he knew was petrified …” Stephen is responding to his environment by building a new soul to rise above bad situations. This also represents the creation of art to respond to the environment by making wings to flee imprisonment. Stephen reflects on this myth of Daedalus and his similarities to the “Fabulous artificer”. Stephen is building a new soul to rise above bad situations and react to his environment.
After reading Paige’s post, I can definitely see where she is coming from when she says the last chapter was a disappointment; for I too thought that the final chapter of the novel was a bit of a let down. Like I said in my last post, Stephen is a character that many of us can relate too and distinguish similarities from in relation to our own lives. Especially during the teenage years is when many young adults go through the most change and struggle to keep up with it. The constant battle or race even to discover your identity, self, and soul keeps one at an endless search for purpose and position in society. However, I do agree that the last chapter portraying the journal entry style of writing diminishes the final stages of character building for Stephen; for James Joyce takes over in setting the mood and atmospheric feelings that we no longer feel from Stephen. Yes, James Joyce has an incredible knack for writing, but at this point the character Stephen has taken a different role in the book so Joyce can continue speaking upon what he thinks through Stephen.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel Stephan Dedalus is a troubled young man, Joyce uses a particular theme, of smell to calm Stephan down from his hysteria. This can be seen many times in the book, and especially in the last chapter. In chapter five Stephan leaves his house after being ridiculed and embarrassed by his family, but seemingly is only affected by this in that he mocks his family. As he goes outside a smell seems to calm him, and his soul, “smell of wet leaves and bark, his soul was loosed of her miseries.” The smell of wet leaves and bark also brings up another motif used by Joyce, wetness. Earlier in the book Stephan is pushed into an open septic, and he vividly describes the wetness which I believe is paired with Stephan’s embarrassment or isolation because he is clearly separated from the other boys when it happens. Also in the beginning of chapter five Stephan is shamed by his family as he has his mother bathe him, this is clearly ridiculous for a child his age can bathe himself. He is also clearly separated from the family, and has no shame in that he doesn’t care about his family’s abrasive comments; I believe this is connected to him being wet (in a bath). But as he smells the wet leaves and his soul is eased it seems that these motifs represent Stephan’s isolation from others, and the misery he almost constantly feels. Stephan seems to feel most comfortable while he is isolated and miserable. Stephan also smells wet branches later in the chapter that “war against his thoughts” this is odd because, he is usually calmed by smells and here the smells are stopping his thoughts. This could mean that Stephan feels calm when not thinking about the big concepts that scare him so much earlier in the book, like who he is and where he stands in the world. When young it is clear Stephan was very concerned with figuring out where he stands in the world, and what his identity is, this quote shows that maybe even as he is older he is stressed by these very questions. Also in the chapter, smell is compared to thought when the dean is talking about the ideas of Aristotle and Aquinas. The dean says that he can work “on at present by the light of one or two ideas of Aristotle and Aquinas…If the lamp smokes or smells I shall try to trim it.” This quote is hard for me to understand, but I think that it is a similar concept, that when one thinks too much about broad topics like what is a self, or an identity one will merely be stressed and fret about the answer. Overall smell has been an obvious motif in the book, seen as calming down Stephan’s fretful soul with bad odors. He seems to be most comfortable when things are wet and rank, and possibly when he is not happy like many other artists who create art from their emotions.
ReplyDeleteEthan Bergeron
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Stephen in my opinion seems to be very stressed with himself through out the novel from beginning to end. At the end of chapter 5 Cranely asks Stephen a question. "Do you love your mother?" Stephen simply replies "I don't know what your words mean." This immeditately reminds me of when Stepehen was a child and he was asked by a group of kids if he kissed his mother or not and whatever response he gave the kids would make fun of him. These two instances relate directly to each other. Stephen seems to repress his feelings because he has been made fun of for it or in the case of his sexual desire for women he would have been denounced by the catholic church. The main reason that I think Stephen really wanted to be a priest was because it was a shelter to live a life filled without emotional conflict. He even says "I tried to love god.... It is very diffucult." What is holding him back from being a priest is his darker desires. His want for sexual pleasure or more modestly his want for Emma. Like Edan I feel sympathetic for Stephen who has no emotional outlet.
I understand how Paige and Moriah can be disappointed with the ending of the novel; however this narrative shift was completely necessary for James Joyce to strengthen the message of the novel. Joyce’s narrative transition from a stream of consciousness to a journal-style narrative is necessary to establish Stephen’s voice. Throughout the novel, we have observed Stephen’s playfulness with words and his development of his poetic ability; the stream of consciousness narrative gave us Stephen’s thoughts, but did so without Stephen’s consent. The journal entries are his own, and foreshadows that his future endeavors with his art (language) will be independent. I disagree with Paige’s assertion: “All of the conflicts of his past that he had fought with earlier in life became inconsequential.” All of his past conflicts were highly influential in his decision to leave Ireland. Irish society did not provide an adequate environment for him to flourish as an artist. At the beginning of the book, Stephen begins his alienation from his family and school mates (society). This alienation increases as the novel progresses and as he encounters difficulties with religion and nationality. Stephen’s alienation from Irish society forces him to leave and find an environment that suits his needs. I understand that they may see too much of Joyce in the ending, but we must remember that he too left Ireland for new pastures because he too felt alienated.
ReplyDeleteIn my chapters 1-3 post, I talked about the role of birds in this novel. I noticed that Joyce uses images of birds to comment on Stephen’s alienation. The birds in the first few chapters were used when Joyce was describing Stephen’s conflicts and his inability to “take flight”. There is a shift in their use when Stephen sees the girl staring out to sea in chapter 4. “She seemed like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful seabird. Her long slender bare legs were delicate as a crane’s… the white fringes of her drawers were like feathering of soft white down… Her bosom was as a bird’s, soft and slight, slight and soft as the breast of some dark-plumaged dove.” Whereas Stephen had previously viewed (with a sort of jealousy) his rival Heron as a bird, here he has an epiphany as Andrew has already explained.
The language used in the closing passages of chapter 4 enhances the message of Stephen’s transformation. He has gained maturity from this epiphany, and Joyce underlies his change in his descriptions of the scenery. “But the tide was near the turn and already the day was on the wane.” Stephen is close to being able to “take flight” and become the artist he shows the potential to be. Previously, Joyce used the color grey to describe the Irish settings (when we commonly would associate Ireland with green). As Stephen falls asleep on the shore, dusk falls and fills the area with vibrant colors. At the same time Joyce includes: “His soul was swooning into some new world…” Joyce ends the chapter by hinting that Stephen must leave Ireland, before he can enter this “new world.” “…the rim of a silver hoop embedded in grey sand; and the tide was flowing in fast to the land with a low whisper of her waves, islanding a few last figures in distant pools.” Joyce’s switch back to grey indicates that Stephen is still in inhospitable Ireland; nevertheless, he still provides that there is hope for Stephen in the image of the islands of sand surrounded by pools. Soon the tide will turn and will release Stephen from his entrapment in these pools. Ireland is figuratively the cesspool from chapter 1, and the tide will bring him out to the open sea (Europe) where he will flourish.
Adrian D.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the progression of this novel we, the readers, are thrown into the world of Stephen Dedalus and to be honest it doesn’t make much sense at all at the first glance. Delving deeper into the nonsensical situations that Stephen is placed into and how he reacts builds a character that, to me, is very real…relatable. Having said that, the last two chapters of this book, for me, made Stephen feel almost less dimensional. What I mean to say is, Stephen dismissed many conflicts and had a “Spok” like mindset (completely rational; not human) in the last chapter and that new characteristic wasn’t real. As people, we are beings of emotion, we need something more than what just is in front of us and Stephen in the last chapter doesn’t seem to posses that quality anymore. I understand that Joyce needed to wrap the book up but making Stephen disconnected completely from his surroundings, for me, wasn’t the best way the book could have ended. The journal entry type narration especially contributed to my feeling of Stephen being objective to his environment (no loner deeply involved or concerned). Despite the fact that I didn’t particularly like the way Joyce brought this book to a close I do have to say that I liked the book as a whole. Maybe Joyce meant for the reader to become attached to Stephens human emotions and fragment him from them at the last second, leaving you wanting him to rely on his emotions once again; Therefore bringing to light the human tendency to want such emotions despite their role in gunking up lifes experiences. Whatever Joyce was attempting to accomplish in the last chapter, he certainly left the reader just as enthralled in the novel as they were when they read the first paragraph.