James Joyce’s novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, written in 1916 follows the life of Stephen Dedalus, a young man trying to find his identity through art. Each chapter of the novel represents Stephen in different phases of his life, from boyhood to a young adult. In his resolve to find himself, he flounders by placing his identity in one Irish institution after another--education, religion, carnal pleasures. This presented the audience with several versions of Stephen—first as a young boy trying to survive the arduous nature of school and lastly as a nearly confident young adult, determined to make a path for himself with his art. In his journey of self discovery, his identity seemed to be determined by his relationship with the
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This drastic shift in behaviour is based on his sexual encounter with a prostitute in the previous chapter. Sexual shame seems to be conducting the majority of this part of his life. to fall into a downwards spiral, where only the punishment of his senses, seems to make him spiritually satisfied and regain some part of his “spiritual energy”.
The church was also a means of achieving perfection. Stephen’s belief that through piety and mortification he can, as Sidney Feshbach argues, rise on the “ladder of perfection” (292). Freshbach explains that the ladder was the measurement in which“...a person's life as a sequence going from the lowest materialism to the highest divinity” (293). Once Stephan comprehended the concept that all of his past sins could be absolved through confession, he fully immerses into the …show more content…
No king or emperor on this heart has the power of the priest of God. No angel or archangel in heaven, no saint, not even the Blessed Virgin herself has the power of a priest of God: the power of the keys, the power to bind and to loose from sin, the power of exorcism, the power to cast out from the creatures of God the evil spirits that have power over them, the power, the authority, to make the great God of Heaven come down upon the altar and take the form of bread and wine. What an awful power Stephen!” (Joyce 171).
Within this single passage, the director alluded to power nine separate times and even stated that the priests of the church had power over kings, emperors, and even God himself. “Stephen thus becomes elusive of social or religious order (296), because he notices gradually that both religious order and Dublin, which are the tangible and centers of his nationality, have failed to provide him with a vision of reality corresponding with his own experience” (Gunes 43). This initial invitation into the fold of the church is what turned the boy away, even though he once enjoyed the concept of
This drastic shift in behaviour is based on his sexual encounter with a prostitute in the previous chapter. Sexual shame seems to be conducting the majority of this part of his life. to fall into a downwards spiral, where only the punishment of his senses, seems to make him spiritually satisfied and regain some part of his “spiritual energy”.
The church was also a means of achieving perfection. Stephen’s belief that through piety and mortification he can, as Sidney Feshbach argues, rise on the “ladder of perfection” (292). Freshbach explains that the ladder was the measurement in which“...a person's life as a sequence going from the lowest materialism to the highest divinity” (293). Once Stephan comprehended the concept that all of his past sins could be absolved through confession, he fully immerses into the …show more content…
No king or emperor on this heart has the power of the priest of God. No angel or archangel in heaven, no saint, not even the Blessed Virgin herself has the power of a priest of God: the power of the keys, the power to bind and to loose from sin, the power of exorcism, the power to cast out from the creatures of God the evil spirits that have power over them, the power, the authority, to make the great God of Heaven come down upon the altar and take the form of bread and wine. What an awful power Stephen!” (Joyce 171).
Within this single passage, the director alluded to power nine separate times and even stated that the priests of the church had power over kings, emperors, and even God himself. “Stephen thus becomes elusive of social or religious order (296), because he notices gradually that both religious order and Dublin, which are the tangible and centers of his nationality, have failed to provide him with a vision of reality corresponding with his own experience” (Gunes 43). This initial invitation into the fold of the church is what turned the boy away, even though he once enjoyed the concept of