PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN


How does the quality of our choices affect the quality of our lives? How does our view of the world change? What Creates Man's World View? 

How does the quality of our choices affect the quality of our lives? How does our view of the world change?

To say the least, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce has quickly become one of my favorite novels of the semester, and one of my favorite books of all time. Not only is there an incredible level of depth in Joyce’s work, but there is a power of description that flows through the entire novel. There are segments of this novel that have left images and impressions on my mind that will certainly stay with me for years to come.

Portrait, in many ways, is one of the best studies to answer my big question that we have read throughout the semester. As the novel progresses, the reader is given an intensely detailed look into the past of Stephen Daedalus, the novel’s protagonist. As a child, Stephen is highly influenced by those that surround him – the political views of his father, his interactions with his schoolmates, and in particular the religious views of his mother and Dante, his aunt.

Religion quickly becomes a central focus of Stephen’s worldview, and an aspect that becomes the litmus test on his path towards adulthood. As a young boy enrolled in Clongowes, a Catholic boy’s preparatory school, Stephen has a simplistic yet conflicted view of the Catholic Church. On one hand, Stephen is enamored with the church – comparing Eileen, a young Protestant friend, to the Virgin Mary, and fearing the “terrible sin” of stealing the monstrance from the Church. Yet this characterization is coupled with the harsh practices of his Jesuit teachers, and on one occasion when Stephen is reprimanded and caned without cause, Stephen speaks out against the injustice, earning the respect of his peers and the smirks of his instructors.

This occasion appears to drive Stephen away from the Church for a time, in which Stephen begins a hedonistic journey into the world of prostitutes and sex. During this period, Stephen falls away from everything; he forgets his friends, his family, and almost entirely forgets the Church. Stephen continues pursuing the desires of his flesh until he attends a scathing sermon on the nature of Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven.   This sermon brings about a fearful change in Stephen, and “weep[ing] for the innocence he had lost” he turns from his ways, confesses to a priest, and begins a life of pious prayer and introspection. This life, however, leaves Stephen even further isolated from those he cares about, giving his soul with a sense of “spiritual dryness together with the growth of doubts and scruples.”

This doubt provides the grounds for the intense change in Stephen in the final chapters of Joyce’s novel. As Stephen nears the end of his school years, he is asked by the head of his school to consider joining the priesthood. Although he contemplates this path, in the end, Stephen recalls his days as a child at Clongowes, as well as his years of hedonism and years of piety, and chooses a middle path. Stephen rejects a direct role in the Church, and instead pursues life as an artist. His past – in particular his past relations with the Church – gives way to a new life, and is described as “ the cerements shaken from the body of death...the linens of the grave.” Stephen breaks with his past and the church and continues in a new direction entirely.

This direction leads Stephen into the final stage of his manhood. After attending the university, Stephen has progressed immensely from the simple schoolboy Joyce relates at the beginning of the novel. This new Stephen, empowered by his art and his freedom from the world, issues one of the most powerful (and one of my personal favorite) statements of the novel:

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 defense the only arms I allow myself to use, silence, exile, and cunning.

Stephen, in a sense, creates his own religion by the end of the novel. No longer bound by the stigma of society, nor the judgment or support of his family and peers, Stephen pursues that which gives him meaning and purpose. Stephen’s rejection of organized religion and the Catholic Church marks the beginning of his adulthood, a young man on a mission to change the world and the way we live in it.

To some extent, I think that Joyce has done exactly this. Although I don’t necessarily agree with his stance on Christianity or other major topics of the novel, I am inspired by Stephen’s dedication to that which gives him meaning. In spite of all difficulties, Stephen remains true to his art, a determination and drive that we all must have in our lives, whether we are a young man striving towards the artistic ideal, or a young man writing a blog post for his Literature class. And, as one who has some experience in both, it appears to me that determination and perseverance are the most important step on this path to purpose and meaning.