A portrait of an artist as a young man

Chapter II A portrait of the artist as a young man.
2.1. Publication history of A portrait of the artist as a young man
The artist’s youthful portrait is the first novel by Irish writer James Joyce . A contemporary-style Kunstlerroman, he traces the religious and intellectual awakening of the young Stephen Dedalus, Joyce’s imaginary alter ego, and a reference to Dedalus, the perfect master of Greek mythology . Stephen doubts and rebels against the Catholic and Irish conventions in which he grew up, which led to his self-deportation from Ireland to Europe. The work uses methods more fully developed by Joyce in Ulysses (1922) and The Awakening of the Finnegans (1939).
Portrait is an autobiographical novel of 63 chapters in a realistic style, which began its life in 1904 as Stephen Hero. After 25 chapters, Joyce abandoned Stephen Hero in 1907 and began to turn his themes and protagonist into a concise five-chapter novel, renouncing rigid realism and making extensive use of free indirect speech to allow the reader to see Stephen’s evolving consciousness. . The novel by the American modernist poet Ezra Pound was published in the English literary magazine The Egoist in 1914 and 1915, and in 1916 as a book by B. V. Hubsh of New York . The publication of a collection of short stories , Portraits and Dubliners (1914), placed Joyce at the forefront of literary modernism.
Born into a middle-class family in Dublin, Ireland, James Joyce (1882–1941) excelled academically, graduating from Dublin University College in 1902. He moved to Paris to study medicine, but soon surrendered. He returned to Ireland at the request of his family because his mother had died of cancer. Despite his pleas, the evil Joyce and his brother Stanislav refused to confess or communicate, and when he fell into a coma , he knelt down and refused to pray for him. After a series of unsuccessful attempts to publish and run his own newspaper , Joyce is engaged in teaching, singing, and reviewing books.
In early 1904, Stephen made his first attempt to write a protagonist. In June of that year, he first saw Nora Barnacle walking down Nassau Street. Their first date was June 16, the day his novel Ulysses was described . Almost immediately, Joyce and Nora fell in love, and they became close because of the general discontent of Ireland and the church. Nora and Joyce fled to continental Europe , first settling in Zurich, then staying in Trieste (then Austria-Hungary ) for ten years , where they taught English. In March 1905, Joyce was transferred to the Berlitz School in Trieste due to the threat of spies in Austria. There, Nora gave birth to George in 1905 and Lucia in 1907, and Joyce wrote her first essay and short story, Stephen Dedalus, and wrote fiction. The stories he wrote formed the Dubliners (1914) collection, which took about eight years to publish due to its controversial nature. In anticipation of the publication of Dubliner, Joyce began in Ireland in 1904 and reworked the main themes of the abandoned Hero Stephen in 1907 into The Portrait , published in 1916 , a year after he returned to Zurich. from the war. The First World War.
On January 7, 1904, Joyce presented a work of philosophical fiction to the Irish literary magazine Dana , entitled "Portrait of an Artist." Don't publish what I don't understand. "On his 22nd birthday on February 2, 1904, Joyce began a realistic autobiographical novel, Stephen Hero, which embodied aspects of aesthetic philosophy as described in Portrait . and brought the manuscript with him when he moved to Trieste that year. Although his main focus was on the stories that formed the Dubliners, Joyce Stephen continued to work on the protagonist. Joyce completed 25 of the 63 chapters on the page and considered the book half-finished. However, in September 1907 he abandoned the work and began a complete reworking of the text and its structure , creating a "portrait of the artist's youth . " came and the work began to take shape, and Joyce showed one of his linguistics students, Ettore Schmits, sketching several chapters as an exercise. Schmidt, himself a respected writer s impressed and with his support Joyce continued to work on the book.
In 1911 , Joyce was outraged by the publishers' constant refusal to publish Dubliner , and set fire to the Portrait manuscript. He was rescued by a "family fire brigade" that included his sister, Eileen . Joyce 's book of poetry , Chamber Music , was published in 1907.
Joyce, in his own words, showed "conscientious cruelty" in the use of materials for the novel. He reworked his previous two attempts to explain his aesthetics and youth, The Portrait of an Artist and The Hero Stephen , as well as his notebooks on the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas ; they all come together in five carefully crafted chapters.
Stephen Hero written from the point of view of an all-knowing third-person narrator, but in Portrait, Joyce uses a free indirect style, a change that firmly and clearly reflects the shift of the story center of consciousness to Stephen . Individuals and events take their meaning from Stephen and are accepted from his point of view. The protagonists and locations are no longer mentioned simply because young Joyce knew them. The bright details are carefully selected and incorporated into the aesthetic scheme of the novel .
In 1913 , the Irish poet VB Yeats recommended Joyce’s work to the avant-garde American poet Ezra Pound, who was compiling an anthology of poetry . Pound wrote a letter to 12-year-old Joyce , and in 1914 Joyce handed over the first chapter of the unfinished Portrait to Pound, who was so fond of him that he demanded that the work be published in the London literary magazine The Egoist . Joyce hastened to finish the third novel, which ran from February 2, 1914, to September 1, 1915, and consisted of 25 parts in The Egoist .
It was difficult to find an English publisher for the finished novel, so Pound arranged for it to be published by the American publisher BW Huebsch, who published it on December 29, 1916 . Jonathan Cape undertook to publish it in 1924. In 1964 The Viking Press released a revised version under the supervision of Chester Anderson , which included Joyce's manuscript, a list of corrections, and marginal corrections to the proof sheets. This publication is " accepted by many as a prestigious and" standard " publication." 14 Since 2004, this text has been used in the fourth edition of Everyman’s Library, Bedford, and Oxford World’s Classics. In 1993, Garland published Hans Walter Gabler's Copied Text .

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  Stephen Daedalus is the protagonist of the artist’s youthful portrait . Growing up, Stephen goes through long stages of hedonism and deep religiosity. Eventually he embraces the philosophy of aesthetics, appreciating beauty and art. Stephen is essentially Joyce’s changing ego, and many of the events in Stephen’s life reflect the events of Joyce’s youth. 15 His surname is derived from the ancient Greek legend of Daedalus , who fought for autonomy .
  
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  Simon Daedalus is Stephen’s father, a poor former medical student with a strong sense of Irish nationalism. Sentimental Simon Daedalus about his past often remembers his youth. fifteen ozod based on that on Joys his ota and they are attitude .
  
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  Mary Daedalus , Stephen’s mother, is very religious and often argues with Stephen about going to services.
  
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  Emma Claire is Stephen’s lover, a young girl she has been passionately connected to for many years. Although Stephen doesn’t know Emma very well, he builds her up as a feminine ideal.
  
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  Charles Stuart Parnell is an Irish political leader who is not an active hero in the novel, but his death has affected many of his heroes. Parnell was a strong leader of the Irish parliamentary party until his relationship with the married woman was exposed and he was removed from public life .
  
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  Cranly is Stephen’s best friend at the university, where he shares some of his thoughts and feelings. In that sense Cranly introduces Stephen, a secular confessor. Eventually, Cranly urges Stephen to submit to his family’s wishes and do his best to reconcile with his peers, a advice that makes Stephen strongly dissatisfied. Towards the end of the novel , he witnesses Stephen show his aesthetic philosophy. Partly because of Cranly, Stephen Cranly decides to leave after seeing Emma’s new (and mutual) romantic interest in her. fifteen
  
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  Governor of the Children of Daedalus . He is a very strict and loyal Catholic.
  
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  Lynch is Stephen’s friend at the university, and he has a very dry character.
  

A long time ago, at a very good time, there was a muko on the road and while this muko was walking on the road , he met a cute boy named Baby Taku ...
His father told him the story: his father looked at him in the mirror: his face was hairy.
He was a baby . The flour went down the road where Betty Birn lived: she was selling lemon cake .
- James Joyce, the discovery of the artist's youthful portrait .
Stephen Daedalus’s childhood is narrated in a voice that is sensitive to his emotions, not his own, using a dictionary that changes as he grows up . The reader feels Stephen’s fear and confusion as he is in a series of 16 unrelated episodes. 17 Stephen attends the Jesuit-run Clonehouse Wood College, where a cautious, intellectually gifted boy endured the ridicule of his classmates as he learned the etiquette of a schoolboy . Although he may not understand what they mean, at Christmas dinner he will witness social, political and religious tensions in Ireland involving Charles Stuart Parnell , which will lead to disputes between his family members and what social institutions Stephen is on your side. raises doubts about the possibility of 18 Returning to Klongouz, there were rumors that a number of older children had been arrested for “ smuggling” (a term referring to a covert homosexual game in which five students were arrested); discipline was strengthened and the Jesuits intensified the use of corporal punishment . When one of his teachers believes that he broke his glasses to avoid reading, Stephen is in a difficult situation, but Stephen, who is motivated by his classmates, boldly complains to the rector , Conmen's father , and convinces him that he will win. t happens again and goes away. Stephen with a sense of victory.
Stephen’s father is in debt and the family leaves their lovely country house in Dublin. Stephen realizes he won't be returning to the Clonehouse . However, thanks to a scholarship given by Conmen’s father , Stephen has the opportunity to study at Belvedere College , where he excels academically and becomes a class leader. 20 Stephen wastes the big prize money he got from school and starts meeting prostitutes as the distance between him and his drunken father increases.
When Stephen is indulged in sexual pleasures, his class goes to a religious recreation area where the boys sit while preaching . 22 Stephen focuses on the themes of pride, guilt, punishment, and the last four things (death, judgment, hell, and heaven). He feels that the words of the sermon, which describe the terrible eternal torment in Hell, are directed at him and that he is caught with passion and comes to forgiveness. Delighted to return to church, he devotes himself to the act of ascetic repentance, although this will soon become the norm as his thoughts turn elsewhere. His devotion caught the attention of the Jesuits, who persuaded him to consider joining the priesthood. 23 Stephen needs time to think, but there is a crisis of faith because of the conflict between his spiritual beliefs and his aesthetic ambitions. Across Dollymount Strand he sees a girl going his own way and he dreams of finding a way to express her beauty in his works .
As a student at University College Dublin , Stephen will be increasingly wary of the institutions around him: church, school, politics and family. At a time when his family’s wealth is crumbling, his father reprimands him and his mother encourages him to return to church. 25 Increasingly dry and joking, Stephen explains to his friends that he is moving away from the church and the aesthetic theory he has developed, which they too cannot accept. 26 Stephen concluded that Ireland was too limited to fully express itself as an artist, so he decided to leave. He plans to deport himself, but without mentioning in his diary his connection to the homeland:
novel is bildungsroman , reflecting the essence of character growth and understanding of the world around us. The novel mixes a third-person story with free indirect speech , allowing Stephen to meet and move away from him. The narrator refrains from judging. The all-knowing narrator of the previous Stephen Hero informs the reader that Stephen intends to write “a few pages of sad poetry,” while the “Portrait” only gives Stephen’s attempts and leaves the evaluation to the reader.
novel is written primarily as a third-person story with minimal dialogue until the last chapter . This chapter features intense dialogue scenes starring Stephen, Devin and Cranly . Stephen reveals his complex Thomistic aesthetic theory in an extended dialogue, an example of such a scene. In the last pages of the novel, Joyce uses a first-person story for Stephen’s diary entries, suggesting that perhaps Stephen has finally found his voice and no longer needs to master the stories of others. 29 Joyce makes full use of the free indirect method and demonstrates Stephen's childhood education, growing independence, and intellectual development from his youth until his deportation from Ireland. The style of the work develops in each of the five chapters with the complexity of language and the gradual growth of Stephen’s ability to perceive the world around him. 30 The first pages of the book tell of Stephen's first consciousness as a child. Throughout the work , language is used to indirectly describe the mental state of the protagonist and the subjective impact of events in his life.
The writing style is also distinguished by the absence of quotation marks in Joyce: it expresses the dialogue by starting the paragraph with a hyphen, as is the case in French, Spanish, or Russian editions.
Conde -Parilla points out that as a character described in the formative years of the character , personality is probably the most common theme in the novel. 32 At the beginning of the novel, Joyce describes the growing consciousness of young Stephen, a concise version of Daedal’s life arc as he continues to grow and shape his personality. Stephen’s growth as an individual character is important because through him, Joyce complains about the tendency of Irish society to adapt people to types, with some defining Stephen as a modernist character. The themes in Joyce’s later novels find expression in them.
is abandoning its Catholic religious identity, which is closely linked to its national identity. His renunciation of these two kinds is also a renunciation of coercion and an acceptance of the freedom of the self. Also, references to Dr. Faust throughout the novel suggest something devilish about Stephen’s renunciation of Catholicism. When Stephen later refuses to perform his Easter duty in the novel, his tone reflects the nature of characters like Faust and Lucifer in his rebellion.
Brother Michael reads the paper to them. Stephen and Eti know about the death of Irish nationalist politician Charles Parnel . Stephen won the respect of the guys for not giving up on Wells.
For the first time during the Christmas holidays, Stephen eats at a table with an adult. The joy of this event is destroyed by a bitter argument between Dante on the one hand and Simon Dedalus , Stephen’s father on the other, and his family friend John Casey. The battle was ended by Charles Parnel. Dante is a fanatical Catholic and he approves of the church's decision to convict Parnel for adultery. This move ruined Parnel’s career and led him to death from exhaustion. Both Casey and Simon were ardent fans of Parnel; he was a hero to the Irish nationalists. They point out that the church has betrayed Ireland many times. The fight is emotional and fierce, ending with Dante running out of the room. Casey with tears; Stephen is horrified to see his father start crying too.
to Congloose , Stephen learns that several boys stole and drank wine from the altar. She overhears other children talking about it. She remembers Eileen's blond hands and blonde hair; because he understands these hands and hair, he feels that he can understand the meaning of the two phrases Catholics use to describe the Virgin Mary, “Ivory Tower” and “Golden House”.
Some of the children involved in the abduction of the altar were given the choice of exile or beating. Only Corrigan chose to beat. Other children approve of his choice; A boy named Fleming adds that Mr. Gleason will not hit Corrigan hard because he will look bad if he does. Next, Stephen thinks about Mr. Gleason. He agrees that Gleason will not hit Corrigan hard, but silently disagrees with Fleming's verdict. Mr. Gleason is compassionate, but not outwardly; he will be kind because he is a kind person.
We see Stephen and the boys in a Latin class led by Father Arnall , who scares them . The frightened father Dolan enters, looking for the children to punish as an example to the rest of the class. Stephen doesn’t work because his glasses are broken; When Dolan's father sees him, Stephen explains that his glasses are broken, but Father Dolan accuses him of deliberately breaking them. He delivers the donkey with Stephen's hands.
Stephen is humiliated by the punishment and is outraged by his injustice. After class, his friends persuade him to complain to the rector. Stephen thinks he can do it. But he is horrified when he sits at home during the break and makes his way to the rector’s office. He walks through horrible corridors filled with images of saints and finally summons the courage to knock on Father Conmi’s door . He gets nervous and explains to his father what happened. Father Conmi promises to talk to Father Dolan about it and sends Stephen on his way. When Stephen enters the playground, he is surrounded by friends who are eager for news. He tells them what happened and they shout for joy and lift him into the air. They throw their hats in the air and praise Stephen as a hero.
Analysis:
We follow Stephen through his first year at Congloes, ending with a small victory in his father Conmen’s office . The opening briefly tells the story of Stephen’s journey through the novel as he decides to become an artist; We also get to know the main forces that shaped Stephen: Irish nationalism, Catholicism, and his incredible sensitivity.
We observe that Stephen is gradually becoming more and more popular with his classmates. Although he will always be an outsider, some of the events in this passage predict his future position as an unwilling leader. Although it was initially an easy target for thugs due to its delicate nature, small size, and social inconvenience, we see several features in Stephen that are the seeds of a terrible personality. He doesn’t bother, despite his sensitivity: when Wells pushes him into the trash, he remembers his father ’s warning never to gossip about anyone. He goes to the rector and is so cold that Dolan complains about his father's injustice. Still, these moments of power are not easy for Stephen. He is a very sensitive child and his failure in sports makes him nervous and scared. In her interactions with other boys, she is almost silent. If he does not agree with their judgment, he keeps his thoughts to himself.
The two main themes are Catholicism and Irish nationalism. We see that Stephen is a very pious boy who is afraid of hell and admires the Virgin Mary. But his relationship with religion will soon become turbulent, and the difficulties here are predictable. The debate at Christmas reminds us that Ireland is a country of conflict, and here we see how it lost one of its great heroes. Catholicism is part of Irish national identity, but the argument shows that the church is not always compatible with the Irish desire for freedom.
Violent Catholicism also does not fit Stephen’s main character. Dante's anger at Eileen's friendship contradicts Stephen's delicate nature: he later remembers Eileen's hands and hair and understands the Virgin Mary. Surprisingly, he recalls the beautiful features of a young Protestant girl and points to a symbol of his faith.
we see again and again . He observes his world through the eyes of a poet; even simple and childish , he explains the things around him, displays intellectual grace and imagination. He is already a male observer. Note that he alone is generous and sensitive enough to understand the real reason why Mr. Gleason Corrigan is not hit hard. There are many similar moments in the first chapter, as we see how different Stephen is from other children as he looks at the world.
Stephen will spend the summer at his family home in Blackcrock, near Dublin. His elderly uncle Charles is his constant companion. Uncle Charles smokes a stinking cigarette and takes Stephen on a long walk. Stephen spends part of the day with Uncle Charles and Mike Flynn, an old friend of Stephen’s father . Mike Flynn coached the famous runners, and Stephen himself trains. Stephen also goes to church with Uncle Charles every day, where his uncle prays fervently. Stephen respects his uncle’s piety, but he doesn’t know what the need or desire might have caused Uncle Charles to pray so fervently. Stephen also goes to a weekly constitutional review with his father and grandfather; together they cover many miles.
He marvels at Count Monte Cristo and imagines himself experiencing the hero’s adventures, ending in his rejection of his old love Mercedes. As another tool for Stephen’s passion for adventure, Stephen and a neighbor named Aubrey Mills lead a group of boys and go on adventures together. In the fall, Stephen will be happy because he doesn’t have to return to the Clonehouse ; but he also knows that this change is related to some of his father’s financial problems. While the gang of kids in the neighborhood is dispersing , he plays with Aubrey. Stephen still sets himself apart from other kids. Sometimes their game bothers him. He has a vague idea of the world of images he dreams of meeting; some change awaits him as well, though he doesn’t know exactly what that will lead to.
That fall, the family moved into a dilapidated house in Dublin. Stephen realizes that his father has a problem, but Stephen has very little to help. Uncle Charles is getting old. The move is depressing and Dublin is a world of new urban experiences. We saw Stephen at a Christmas party: he fell in love with the girl next door . But he can’t muster the courage to kiss; the next day he tries to write love poems for her.
Soon Stephen offers to go to Belvedere, where he is a Jesuit school - his father met Stephen’s former rector and talked to him. The rector arranges for Stephen to return to school with the Jesuits. His brother Maurice is also old enough to walk.
We jump forward in time; Stephen is now a teenager, a reluctant leader in his own right, and a successful essayist and actor at his school. It’s Trinity Night and Stephen pulls himself up for a moment and prepares to take the stage and play his role. Outside, he encounters two other sons from Belvedere - Wallis and Heron; Heron is his opponent and friend because Stephen and Heron are the two brightest kids in their class. Heron and Wallis make fun of Stephen about a girl in the audience. Their reprimand causes Stephen to start a new life as he remembers what happened during his first term in Belvedere.
The teacher found heresy in one of Stephen’s writings, but Stephen simply explained that he meant something else; yet the thought of heresy gave him a strange sense of joy. After a while , Heron, Nash, and Boland caught Stephen outside and got him into a conversation about the writers. Stephen refuses to say that Tennyson is a better poet than Byron, although Byron was a heretic and the boys physically attacked him to tell him that Tennyson was better. He managed to escape. We return to the evening of the Trinity performance , and Stephen, Heron, and Wallis continue the conversation. Stephen now looks at Heron, remembering the past and Heron's cowardice, but realizing that he is not angry. He thinks of the girl in the audience, their shy relationship and their unsatisfied desire to kiss her. The boy comes to tell Stephen to get dressed and get ready for his part. As the curtain rises, Stephen thinks about the stupidity of his role and feels humiliated. When the show is over, he doesn’t communicate, on the contrary, he goes for a walk, anxiously looking for something. Sometimes the fresh night air, saturated with the smells of the city, calms him down and he comes back.
Some time later, Stephen travels by train with his father. They go to Cork to put the property up for auction. The journey is marked by Simon’s attempts to connect with Stephen, but Stephen is confused by his father’s harsh nostalgia and simple advice. The images of the dead are not real to Stephen, except for a picture of his dead uncle Charles (we hear about Charles’s death for the first time). In Cork, his father talks to everyone about how the old days and events went; Stephen's stories come to life before he goes to King's College with his father. There, in the old dissection theater, Stephen sees the word "Flutus" engraved on his desk. Suddenly he sees the student world come to life: he imagines a boy carving letters, past students sitting and teaching, all of whom are already old or dead. The word also reminds Stephen that he is having sex. He tries to remember his childhood, but the memories seem faded and unreal; he is another man now. For the rest of the journey, he suffers with his father, meets Simon’s old friends, and sits with tears of longing and good advice.
We returned to Dublin. Stephen won pretty money in the essay competition. Instead of saving money, he starts wasting a lot of time, buying unnecessary gifts for everyone and pampering himself. If there is no money, he will be ashamed. He tried to use money to create a sense of elegance and wealth, but in reality they are as poor as ever. She also wanted to use the gifts to be closer to her mother and many younger sisters; however, he felt more isolated from them than ever. She suffers from loneliness and strong sexual arousal on the streets of Dublin. He accepts the prostitute's offer; the time he spent with her was his first sexual experience.
Analysis:
The second chapter describes the transition period of Stephen from late childhood to adolescence. We begin in a world that Stephen can’t clearly remember later: his uncle Charles, “The Adventures of the Neighboring Children ” . There is also a strong contrast between Stephen’s romantic fantasy at the beginning of the chapter and his encounter with the prostitute at the end of the chapter. We move from an ambiguous notion of a romantic relationship to an inner sexual experience under the influence of the Count Monte Cristo.
Adolescence is a controversial and very important period for Stephen. We see him succeeding as an actor and publicist, to a certain extent popular among his peers, a “leader who fears his own authority” (103). But the legend repeatedly emphasizes that Stephen was separated from the others. He is full of thoughts and feelings that he cannot tell others. The world blows him so hard that he is not yet ready to share.
The voices of elders and peers often seem muffled to him, but he still has no chance to rebel. Rebellion doesn’t have to be the way he wants it to be, either. His isolation does not mean that he ignores his family and peers; he simply feels disconnected from them. The child in Chapter 1 is often frightened, ashamed of the difference between himself and others; The teenager Stephen is more independent. Here he is predicted to reject the church : he defends Byron in spite of the poet’s heresies, and he himself writes an essay on a philosophical question that contains a small amount of heresy. Stephen’s independence and sensibility contradict the dogmatism and narrow-mindedness of Christian philosophy.
The gap between his childhood and adolescence continues in parallel with a series of actions and deaths : we move to Dublin and move to Belvedere, and Uncle Charles ’o, described as an integral part at the beginning of the chapter. We see the limit. Stephen's childhood. During his trip to Cork, Stephen realizes that he has changed so much that his childhood seems to have become a vague memory. In a sense, the fate of Stephen’s child is like death; he did not die, but he disappeared.
His intelligence is often a source of discomfort. He is very smart, misses and takes his father’s advice lightly. Stephen enjoys his father's wisdom , but he realizes more and more of his father's many failures. Stephen is also characterized by the intensity of his sexual desire. As the church teaches, he is honest with himself to know that his feelings are far from romance or love . His decision to go with a prostitute was a turning point in his life.
Stephen continues to see prostitutes and enters a period of deep confusion and mental paralysis. He considers his actions a terrible sin, but remains strangely indifferent to the idea of an eternal curse. He is strangely indifferent to his hypocrisy and continues his studies and duties in the company of the Most Holy Theotokos. He sees himself as a much less pleasant man, as if his violation of a single rule had led to a complete loss of self-control; although he began with lust, lately he has defiled himself with all seven deadly sins. The feast of St. Francis Xavier is approaching, and every year, three days before the feast, the sons of Belvedere take a spiritual rest.
Every three days in solitude, Stephen hears a fiery sermon about the torments and punishments of hell, measured by a just but stern God. The sermon on the first day speaks of the inevitability of judgment. God, who has given many opportunities for repentance throughout his life, will change from a Merciful God to a just God. Stephen is sick of fear ; the sermons seem to have been written specifically for him. She thinks about her sins and is very afraid to confess to God, who looks so scary, or to Bibi, who looks so pure. He imagines that the girl who wanted to write a poem was returned to God through Emma. It seems to be much cheaper. The sermon of the second day is dedicated to the incredible physical torments of hell. Stephen thinks he has to admit it, but he’s too embarrassed to do so. The sermon on the third day details the torments of hell, the greatest of which is separation from God. That night Stephen has a nightmare about hell; the dreams are so strong that he wakes up and vomits. He is looking for a church where he can go and confess with real anonymity. Finally, he finds one and admits everything. The world seems to be reborn when he leaves the church. He decides to live a new godly life.
Analysis:
The whole chapter 3 is devoted to the results of Stephen's first rebellion against Catholic values. At first he enters a state of moral paralysis and confusion. By breaking a rule, he loses any moral structure or ability to self-discipline. His deep anxiety manifests itself as a general resentment of his whole personality. His condition is serious. He indulges in physical pleasures for the first time, but soon learns that it is not easy to give up the moral order in which he was brought up.
In the end, Stephen proves to be a very independent thinker for Catholic doctrine. His love of beauty and the peculiar pleasures offered by the human body do not mean that he was destined for a delicate life; Even before Arnol was afraid of the Father’s sermons , his period of depravity caused many protests and riots. This period foretells the difficulties he will face in the future: if he rejects the Catholic Church and its teachings, he will have to find a new moral system independently.
His sense of loss allows Father Arnol’s sermons to bring him back to church. The sermons are very well written and are a popular part of the novel. Full of vivid images and emotional descriptions, they make perfect use of Stephen’s vivid imagination and delicate nature. At the same time, he cannot declare his independence from the religion in which he grew up . Fear forces him to return. The themes of Irish independence and falling into the trap are central to Chapter 3. We see Stephen's first rebellion, his next repentance, and his return.
Stephen is almost a fanatic, devoting himself to daily prayer and meditation on Catholic teachings. He puts aside any doubts or fears he may have with the idea that in the next stage of his spiritual development everything will be clear. He imposes various problems on himself to punish each of the five senses. He prays fervently and attends ceremonies every day. Sometimes he is overwhelmed by his great spiritual love for God and His creation.
But soon Stephen's former independence begins to be restored. It is difficult for him to maintain a state of sacred peace. If anything, his various ways of self-management make him even more nervous. He does not remain compassionate or kind to his family or peers. He thinks of the various priests he knows, and how they seem to be subject to human pettiness and nervousness like everyone else ; he is also skeptical of the strict Catholic division of different qualities and wisdom.