James Joyces Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Article Example

The Role Of Catholicism In James Joyce’s the “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” Stephen Dedalus, Joyce’s alter ego which is the main protagonistof the novel “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, is a character that is sensitive and dynamic in its mental projections. It is this journey of the sensitive guy through troubled youth and political times, that we get to discern in the book. While the book is considered as on the rarest literary works of all times, the author is known to have used the literary style he created through this novel to create further masterpieces like Ulysses and more. In the present study, we assess the role of Catholicism in the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and try to understand the journey of young Stephen has he transforms from a simple Jesuit boy brought up in Ireland to a non-conformist that denounces the country. To make our assessment of compelling reading and story-telling factors complete, we divide the study into four parts. The first part deals with the book, its characters, the storyline, and the psychological impact that the narrative has on the reader. The second part deals with the different stages in which Catholicism comes around as a prominent topic of discussion during the narrative. The third section will deal with the misconceptions that the beliefs followed by Stephen Dedalus were giving rise to in his mind, and assess the slow change that they caused inside him. The fourth and the last segment will deal with the author’s perspective and how he created a marvelous character using his own alter ego and how Catholicism resounds in his life and reflects the silent mental make-over of Stephen Dedalus. Part I: About The Book And Its Excellent Narrative Set in the Irish background of post-Parnell days, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a book replete with Irish culture and political realities as perceived through the eyes of the chief protagonist, a fictional character created by the author that goes by the name of Stephen Dedalus. Interestingly, the character’s name is an allusion to Daedalus, a mythological character who frames wings of wax that helps his son, Icarus escape from the punishment of the King who imprisons both father and son. While Icarus has a safe flight, his happiness and quest for freedom takes him unbeknown to the nearness of the Sun, the heat from which melts the wax in the wings and Icarus plummets into a sea. The book, like its main character Stephen, is a journey of a small boy who like Icarus is looking for freedom and the right answers to life and destiny. He is wondering why the precepts of what his mother and father has taught him does not work well in the world he has to survive. Stephen as a child is timid, he is sincere, he is inquisitive, and above all, he is very sensitive. He finds poetry and beauty in simple works of literature that he has to learn up in school: “Wolsey died in Leicester Abbey, Where the abbots buried him. Canker is a disease of plants, Cancer one of animals.” – (Joyce, 7) Every little happening around him ignites a flow of relentless thoughts and questions in his mind. Stephen is like a volcano of thoughts and experiences, which gets ignited with every social, political, spiritual, and social happening around him. He picks every fragment of thoughts and actions happening around him and subjects them to the hourglass of his reasoning mind, one that is growing to become an artist. This happens at the closure of the book, and all along we are treated to an assortment of facts and thoughts, fantasies and realization. While the reader is treated to all his thoughts in childhood, through a third person tone, the book proceeds into taking the psychological journey of Stephen by slowly converting the tone from third person narrative to first person narrative (Ellman et al, 10). This oscillation leaves the experience of the read-up or the story as a personal journey that the reader goes through. He identifies with the psyche of Stephen and instead of being dealt with judgmental statements; he is left to conclude from the queer and interesting narrative as to what is right and what is wrong. The personal experience that the book provides, opens up a whole new dimension to the understanding of Stephen’s character, psyche, and mental growth; and what he goes through as a young man oscillating between spiritual quest and sexual desire, and ultimately finding solace through surrender to the worship of artist’s life and thinking. Part II: Catholicism as it appears in different parts of the book Just as it was in the real life of James Joyce, Stephen Dedalus is born into a Jesuit family and is christened under the Jewish culture and practices that his father follows. With a mother who is devoutly Christian, he learns his first precepts of the Bible at home. But his father is through hard times and child Stephen watches as political and financial strife overcomes the happiness of the family he is born into. Further on, in his own life conflicting ideologies of Catholicism and Jesuitism leave him deeply affected. Catholicism occurs in three main sections of the story. Firstly, there is a lavish Christmas feast or dinner that the child Stephen witnesses at home. The happenings therein and how they have a strong impact on the child’s mind is discussed hereafter. The second major Catholic influence in the story comes when Stephen as a teenager starts attending Church on a regular basis. His understanding and realization of the precepts of the religion is based on the sermons that he attends at the Sunday mass, and leaves a deep religious impact on his personality. The third major reference to Catholicism in the book happens when Cranly, Stephen’s best friend discusses different aspects of Jesus’ life with him and succeeds in getting Stephen to confess his fears to the friend. The role of Cranly is enlightening and endearing in this book, and it is he who by sharing his understanding of love, propels Stephen to accept aestheticism as a religion and turn into a non-conformist who regards the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church as mere ritualistic practices that govern the lifestyles of people who according to Stephen, live unfulfilling lives. We discuss each of the incidents below. The Christmas Dinner: The book opens with a child’s reflections of simple village life, through a poem that he learns from an elder. With such a marvelous opening, the book has a riveting impact on its readers, while timid and random thoughts of the child Stephen’s mind are shared in the opening pages. Stephen is shifted to a boarding school as the first chapter unfurls, and we are treated to his experiences in there. In between the bully scenes and new friendship scenes, we are suddenly taken back in time wherein Stephen, in a bout of homesick thinking recalls the lavish Christmas dinner that he last attended. The father, the uncle, the aunts and the mother had been major influences in Stephen’s life up to that point of time. He watches and shares how his father takes a dig at the futility of political times in Ireland and how his uncle narrates an experience that is funny and shows the family members as to how to deal with a troublesome woman. All through, Stephen’s imagination of the perfect woman in his life, Dante keeps frittering in and out of the account of the Christmas dinners that he provides us. While he is lost in his reverential observation of actions happening around him, we are startled at the important social and political concepts that the scene shares with us. On one end, there is a fight amongst members of the family regarding the Parnell story and the impact it has on the Irish political scenario, while on the other hand subjugation of women is written in bold all throughout the scenes. The Roman Catholic Church is known to hold extreme portrayals of women and believers of Christianity also follow the same. Women are considered either too pure like Virgin Mary, or too impure like Mary Magdalene. Christians in those eras were prone to treating women with disrespect since according to them any version of womanhood other than that of Mother Mary was bound to be impure. Stephen watches the subjugation and every detail stays in his mind and governs his beliefs. The Church Sermons: By the time Stephen is a teenager, he has seen a great deal of boarding school and has learnt that not everything that his parents taught him were meant to work in his favor while he faced the world. But his belief in Catholicism and its practices were strong and he hoped to find a definite direction in living and practices through the study of the religion. His regularity at the mass sermons was something that any student of his times would be proud of. However, his experience of the sermons complete with the realization that he had of every bit of religious wisdom being shared through them was far from pleasant. The lengthy lecture of a Father who discusses redemption and punishment in the after-world called Hell, leave shim feeling sick and deeply disturbed. His association to life of sin up till that point of time had been nil and his fanciful understanding led him to believe that redemption lay in feeling guilty. However, examples of rigorous punishment that were related in the sermon left him feeling sick and utterly negative about his respect for the religion. Stephen looked up at religion as a source of guidance towards ideal living. His experience of the Church masses during teenage and subsequent attempts at leading the ideal life was beaten by the futility of the strict rules of the Roman Catholic Church. This is the first time in the length of the book that we see Stephen unable to accept a few beliefs of Catholicism. In a way, this stage of ultimate and in-depth spiritual and religious realization is the beginning of the metamorphosis of Stephen from the simple, believing Jesuit boy to the non-conformist artist that he slowly turns into. After this stage, he slowly starts realizing that ideal living does not exist and that every man sins and repents for it right in the same world and in the same life. He starts challenging his faith and develops degraded habits like visiting prostitutes and squandering money. His respect for women goes lower with such habits and the only pure form of womanhood that he worships, writes, and paints about happens in his fantasies or dreams. Confessions with Cranly: In Stephen’s life, Cranly is a friend with whom he can share the darkest secrets of his life. While he is almost like the confessionary when with Cranly, the friend is more interested in hearing Stephen’s confessions and understanding of life rather than correcting his misgivings or misconceptions like the way it is in Church. While Cranly (Mulrooney, 160) is his best bud who shares every thought on life with him, Stephen’s deep spiritual understanding of his religion is different from how Cranly sees it. According to Cranly, Jesus is a betrayer who never respected his own mother and also pretended to be what he wasn’t. These interactions between Cranly and Stephen, wherein, Stephen supports Jesuit logic and exhibits tremendous faith in his religion are great conversations that challenge some of the core values and practices of Catholicism. While Cranly is brash and candid, Stephen is the true artist who uses his words carefully in support of Jesus and how his actions have been described as legitimate and accounted for by later believers and thinkers. Their interactions finally reveal the growing obsession of Stephen towards aestheticism and his wont to treat it as a replacement to religion and a decider of a person’s way of life. In the last part of the book, his interactions with Cranly reveal to us his fears and as aspirations, which he shares when prodded on by Cranly. Also, we are more into finding the new Stephen ready to take his flight from the bondage of Ireland through their conversations of Jesus and love, which slowly reveals the mental wings that Stephen Dedalus has built for the free existence of his psyche. Part III: Critical discussion of the role played by Catholicism in the different stages of Stephen’s psychological development On the outset, it would be right to start this discussion with the understanding that no religion is able to completely define the right way of living, the ideal code of conduct, and the best solution to dealing with worldly problems on a daily basis. Jesus had exemplified a life full of miracles which is not easy to emulate for a common man wound by the mesh of desires and emotions. The precepts of the religion that Stephen followed were considered perfect for a by-gone era and with passing time, Stephen realizes this difference. His realization and deep conviction in religious matters receives its final golden touch when e realizes that the love that defines spiritual healing is to be found either in the woman of his dreams, to whom he would allure as the perfect woman of purity in his writings; or in the translation of his own life to that of an artist’s life that surrenders itself to any form of beauty and aesthetic pleasure that he finds in the world around him. In each of the situations described above, we see this ultimate outcome happening in bits and pieces. Take for example, the case of the Christmas dinner at home. Stephen is a part of the lavishness that a well-to-do Irish household enjoys during Christmas. However, his mind keeps getting attracted to the doings of his perfect woman of beauty and purity, even in the midst of such loud a gathering. Dante appears to him no matter how busy or pre-occupied he is, a direct indication of the artist’s imagination present in the child, one that Stephen believed in right from his childhood. He was always on the quest to find beauty in all that he saw around him, irrespective of the fact whether the ongoings were pleasant or not. The quarrel that happened at the table does leave little Stephen wondering, yet keeps him alert about his Dante’s movements, reactions, and doings. Catholicism and the disregard for women that it upheld has almost no impact on Stephen’s imagination, since he finds any disregard to his dream futile. The first conflict though not fully defined is at its right place in his mind. The teenage masses influence the understanding towards life that Stephen Dedalus holds. His capacity to fantasize helps him realize many aspects of religious conduct to be truly uplifting experiences and he believes that using these principles in life he will be able to hit the right balance. He hopes to find answers to the identity crisis that he suffered from while at school, and hoped to find answers to right conduct from the religion’s doctrine. This is a typical teenager’s mentality and with the sincerity with which Stephen pursued his dreams, his sensitive mind could only take in precepts as they came from the preachers at these masses. His biggest reality check happened when a long discourse on the prospects of living in hell shook him up and made him feel sick. Sensitive that he always was, Stephen realized that the details of the punishments were so much in contrast to his understanding of the religion. While his conviction in the chastity and divinity of Jesus was intact, he realized that whatever was being taught to people attending the Churches was not always true. The first official conflict with Catholicism registers itself in the narrative here. After this initial contradiction, Stephen embarks upon a self-depreciating journey of finding more contrasts to ideal living and realizes that the human nature is such that its wants and desires cannot be explained by the religion. His beliefs are further strengthened when he finds more creativity while pursuing his form of non-ideal living. Thus, we see that Catholicism is at the core of the understanding that the main protagonist of the book, like the author has of life and styles of living. On careful assessment, we find that Catholicism has been depicted along the lines of belief that the Irish society and Stephen followed. There are simple rituals and practices that have been depicted in the story, but they are not as effective or important as the beliefs that local populations and consequently our main character have. While Stephen undertakes a modified version of his beliefs to gain control of his life, such is not the case with the rest of his companions. Right from the beginning of the book, Stephen’s obsession and enjoyment of beauty in words and images takes a front seat in his belief driven life. His fantasies, the epiphany of spiritualistic beauty and the harmony of his lifestyle with his pursuit of the ideal beauty are all resonant of how well a person can manage his life even if his beliefs in Catholicism are not as strong as his beliefs in beauty, aestheticism, and harmony in life. Although not preached in the Catholic books, such seeking is also a form of seeking the divinity latent in all human beings, which though wrongly, was realized by Stephen Dedalus in his years of youth and built his deep conviction in the need to stay committed to his search for beauty and harmony. As we can see it, Stephen’s initial pursuit and love for beauty was more relative to the faith he had in Catholicism, while with growing number of contradictions, he had to extract his love for all things beautiful and abstract from his faith in Catholicism. While he chose to pursue a life dedicated to this pursuit, he also adopted a worldly approach, one that was often termed as unethical going by the books on Catholicism. His separation from his father caused further degradation of values and beliefs (Epstein, 142). Also, during the heavy phases of religious belief and realization which happens in his teenage days, Stephen Dedalus is portrayed to consider Christianity as a source of a fulfilling personal life. However, in his interactions with Cranly, we find that he has actually measured the applicability, acceptance, and impact of Catholic practices in the society. His quoting major thinkers and political leaders, who have stood by Christianity and its precepts, while defending his beliefs with Cranly, stand witness to the deep acknowledgement of Catholicism as a socially defining religion. However, this comes only later in life when he is finally ready to spread his wings and make the flight out of Ireland. During his teenage days, young Stephen is more inclined towards considering Catholicism for dealing with personal issues and living styles. However, in advanced years, his youthful confidence and vigor leads him to consider the strict norms of Catholicism responsible for the half developed condition of the Irish society, which is a great indicator of the social awareness of the artist’s mind. Every young man is surrounded by a society that is active and full of contradictions. Stephen, owing to his initial faith in Catholicism holds the religion and its regulations responsible for the creatively stifling atmosphere that one found in the country. His interactions with Cranly also revealed to him that he lived in a land surrounded by people who had ideas of love and affection based on Catholicism. This further led him to seek freedom and space where his thoughts would be appreciated and not stifled as he was seeing it being done in the half conservative society of Ireland. Thus, to some extent, his deep religious understanding, in spite of his erratic lifestyle, takes him towards a higher metaphysical goal in life, though not conforming to set dictums of Catholicism. Part IV: Stephen Dedalus and James Joyce: The Closeness to Reality That the Reader Cannot Miss Both Jame Joyce and Stephen Dedalus have a few things in common, which had to be since the author had created this character basing on his alter ego. Both are based in Ireland, are brought up on Catholic teachings (though for Stephens the spiritual understanding is more Jewish in the beginning and only later does he get to attend a Catholic Church), both have felt identity crisis during their growing years, both have had cold affection for their mother, an undying fascination for all things beautiful, and the mysterious woman of all beauty about whom they have continuously mentioned in their works. James Joyce did find Ireland to be not very receptive to his understanding and portrayal of aestheticism, and therefore, chose to send Stephen abroad by the end of the book, calling it his pathway to freedom (Gifford, 15). With this story line supported by three different narration styles, the author created a huge impact in society. In what is considered as a literary masterpiece (Belanger, 2), the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, resonated with youngsters of erstwhile Ireland who wanted freedom and had been denied it politically. Also, it stung at the then existing societal system (Gilbert, 67) in Ireland and showcased how young talent was going under a stereotyped thinking based on Catholicism. He brought out the extent to which Catholicism had entered the Jesuit society and how in spite of all the goodness it brought with it, the Church was slowly eating away at the local culture of the Irish people (Akca, 9). The book also portrayed that however deeply religious a person may feel towards his country and faith, his creativity and talent gets expressed only when he has been granted the freedom to do so, and not silenced by ritualistic thinking of friends and family. The author has successfully fulfilled these goals by depicting the influence of Catholicism in the life of Stephen Dedalus who goes through immense transformation from being a simple Jesuit school boy to a non-conformist whose only religion is aestheticism and to worship which he can eve leave the love for his motherland and seek freedom. As Farrel puts it rightly in words: “Stephens soul is being born. Wherever he turns he sees "nets flung at it to hold it back from flight." But he will be free. The homeless Irishman in Ireland, the homeless genius in the world, he will fly off like Icarus, onward and upward. Proudly rebellious, he has proclaimed: "I will not serve." Instead of the vocation he could not find as a priest he will find it in service as "a priest of the eternal imagination." Creating without fetters, he will "forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race." One of Irelands most brilliant wild geese has found the wings with which he may fly away.” (Farrel). Conclusion: Ireland was a country with predominant Jewish natives which was experiencing political tumult during the time when this novel was created. The author himself had made two different versions of Stephen Hero before he trashed every old manuscript and redid the entire novel all over again with a completely different approach. The language used was subtle and non-judgemental and aimed at giving the reader a personal experience for the thoughts, the mentality, and psychological growth happening in the mind of Stephen Dedalus (Mitchell, 62). He brings in appropriate twists in the story in the form of sexual and religious adventures that the young Stephen undertakes, and finally achieves the goal of converting him into a youngster whose passion for all things beautiful and the poetry latent in life keeps him from staying rooted in his mother land or the principles of religion and redemption that the Church or any other religious body allows him to realize. A sensitive boy who soaks in every bit of activity that goes on around him, Stephen undertakes an internal journey of artistic realization that reveals to him that unlike Catholicism, aestheticism allows him to be freer. The very same concept of womanhood, that he simultaneously worshipped and hated, turns into his means to an end, wherein he seeks to find artistic revelation of his personality and live in it. Stephen’s journey towards aestheticism is wholesome and filled with the epiphany of spiritual detachment and beautiful fantasies, one that gets triggered when he watches a rare sight of a girl wading through a water body. However, with the personal touch in tone used at the end of the book, the author leaves the reader to decide for himself as to how Stephen will fend for himself after he has taken his flight to freedom using Daedelus’ wings of wax, which signifies his fantasies and love for aestheticism. The question remains if his pursuit will be fruitful and lead him to a better understanding and experience of life, or whether it will be an over-ambitious leap to freedom like Icarus, whose nearness to the Sun melts his waxen wings and causes his fall back to earth. References: Akca, Catherine. Religion and Identity in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Online Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, (2008) 1.1, retrieved on May 6th, 2014 from: Belanger, Jacqueline. “Introduction”. In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Ware: Wordsworth Editions, 2001, Print. Epstein, Edmund L. The Ordeal of Stephen Dedalus: The Conflict of the Generations in James Joyces a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1971, Print. Ellmann, Richard et al. Light Rays: James Joyce and Modernism. Ed. E. Heyward. New York: New Horizon Press, 1984, Print. Farrel, James T. Joyce and His First Self Portrait, New York Times, 1944, May 7th, 2014 from: Gilbert, Stuart. (Ed.). Letters of James Joyce. New York: Viking Press, 1957. Gifford, Don. Joyce Annotated: Notes for "Dubliners" and "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". California: University of California Press, 1981, Print. Joyce, James. A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, New York: Bookpubber, 2014, Print. Mitchell, Breon. “A Portrait and the Bildungsroman Tradition”. Approaches to Joyces Portrait: Ten Essays. Ed. T.F. Staley, and B. Benstock. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 1976, Print. Mulrooney, Jonathan. "Stephen Dedalus and the Politics of Confession." Studies in the Novel 33.2: 160. 2001 Retrieved on May 6th. 2014 from: Read More