Jane Eyre and Stephen Dedalus are literary embodiments of the timeless notion of growing up. Charlotte Bronte and James Joyce are able to capture the true essence of growth in mentality and physicality, from childhood to adulthood, through the use of these characters’ tribulations. Both works of literature are able to encompass the underlying message of learning to accept one’s self-defined identity through the use of social norms and established societal cultures as a platform. Though Bronte and Joyce both utilize religion as an outlet for their portrayal of this message, Bronte chooses to emphasize the societal hierarchy and its stigmatisms, while Joyce chooses to adhere to the strict principles of religion and its accompanying burdens.
Religion proves to be a fundamental tool for both Jane Eyre and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in establishing the constraints Jane and Stephen were kept beneath their entire lives and the foundation of their reasoning and character. Similarly, both protagonists’ lives start in humble beginnings at religiously doctrinated boarding schools, in which Jane and Stephen learn of their social bounds and their natural tendencies to …show more content…
Stephen grows from a character that passionately believed in and practiced his faith to a character who comes to the realization that it is okay to experience and appreciate the beauties of life that religion may call “sin” but he knows to be a source of light in his life. “Yes; and it was not darkness that fell from the air. It was brightness. Brightness falls from the air.” (Joyce 171) Unlike Jane, Stephen experiences freedom because he is able to philosophically refute what he has known to be solid ground all of his life. He didn’t have to inherit a fortune from a long lost relative, he just had to experience a few circumstances and time to ponder what he believed
Religion proves to be a fundamental tool for both Jane Eyre and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in establishing the constraints Jane and Stephen were kept beneath their entire lives and the foundation of their reasoning and character. Similarly, both protagonists’ lives start in humble beginnings at religiously doctrinated boarding schools, in which Jane and Stephen learn of their social bounds and their natural tendencies to …show more content…
Stephen grows from a character that passionately believed in and practiced his faith to a character who comes to the realization that it is okay to experience and appreciate the beauties of life that religion may call “sin” but he knows to be a source of light in his life. “Yes; and it was not darkness that fell from the air. It was brightness. Brightness falls from the air.” (Joyce 171) Unlike Jane, Stephen experiences freedom because he is able to philosophically refute what he has known to be solid ground all of his life. He didn’t have to inherit a fortune from a long lost relative, he just had to experience a few circumstances and time to ponder what he believed