Stephen Dedalus’ Evolving Perception on Women in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Mary Morkunas
The novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) by James Joyce is a künstlerroman and one of the most famous pieces of literature from the Modernist period. [2] The novel is influential for its use of stream-of-consciousness, its regard for “the artist,” and its semi-biographical references to Joyce’s life. The story depicts the coming-of-age of a young boy named Stephen Dedalus. Stephen is a sensitive and thoughtful protagonist who throughout the novel searches for his true identity, whether it be within the Catholic Church, in educational institutes, or elsewhere. By the end of the novel, Stephen recognizes that his true calling is to be an artist. The novel concludes with Stephen at the beginning stages of the great artist he will become.
As Stephen develops through the novel, he is impacted heavily by his surroundings. Stephen has strong views on women, which are influenced by the period of his life he is in at the moment. Stephen’s views on women are not arbitrary but tied to his intellectual and spiritual growth. Maria Margaroni writes that the female characters act as “manifestations,” or the literal embodiment of Stephen’s struggles as he grows into an artist: “... [They] exist as manifestations of Stephen’s inner struggles, concerns, and desires” (234). Therefore, Stephen’s evolving ideas about women serve as an indicator of change for his spiritual and intellectual development.
Stephen changes in three specific periods: childhood innocence; his period of extreme Catholicism; and his period as an early artist. To truly form his identity as an artist, these moments lead to Stephen’s cruel but purposeful separation from his home, his religion, and his university. Ultimately, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man proves how one’s environment affects their perceptions and judgements about the world: Stephen leaves his “comfortable” life behind to pursue the life as an artist in exile. Each moment with a woman pushes Stephen closer towards his true identity, but he views gender and gender roles negatively. Even as small as a brief interaction with Eileen Vance, Stephen starts to learn how important religion plays in shaping one’s identity.
Interactions with prostitutes make Stephen question who he is, in both his innocence and his extreme Catholicism. Stephen’s coming-of-age negatively impacts his relationship with his mother and his family and creates feelings of unrest. Experiences with Emma and the “Bird-Girl” solidify feelings about needing to leave Ireland and separate himself from society. Tracing the role of women throughout the novel is evidence that Stephen is evolving during his journey while also recognizing the impact the world has on him and how his environment shapes his sexist views of women.
Literature Review
Almost all the sources I encountered state that women represent two dichotomies reflected throughout all of Joyce’s novels (especially since Stephen Dedalus is a recurring character in many of Joyce’s works). [3] Scholars who focus on women and gender discuss the virgin/whore dichotomy in Joyce’s Portrait and masculine/feminine and religion/politics oppositions. Suzette Henke writes extensively on duality. Maria Margaroni believes that women represent Stephen’s internal struggles and fears. Fabio Luppi, Nehama Aschkenasy, and Agata Szczeszak-Brewer believe that the characters in Joyce’s novels, specifically the female characters, represent Ireland. Sources emphasize the importance of women in Joyce’s stories, no matter how trivial the role, to understand the influence women had in Stephen’s world and in Joyce’s life as well.
Suzette Henke and Maria Margaroni both discuss dichotomies in their scholarship. Henke is one of the most influential writers on Joyce, especially during the 1980s when much of her work was being published. Although her sources are a few decades old, they are still relevant. Henke writes that women reflect Stephen’s fears and desires in “the flesh” (Henke, “Stephen Dedalus and Women” 83). She also argues that women serve as “antagonists” to Stephen as the protagonist in the novel (Henke, “Feminist Perspectives” 14). Furthermore, Henke reiterates that many of the overarching influences in Stephen’s life represent a duality of some sort; for example: “male and female, mother and father, politics and religions, and Davitt and Parnell” (Henke, “Stephen Dedalus and Women” 83). Henke argues that these pairs shape Stephen from a “psychological perspective,” which influences his perception of his world; however, she argues that Stephen’s own ideas of misogyny -- influenced by his country and his father -- deeply influence the categories in which Stephen puts women (Henke, “Stephen Dedalus and Women” 82). While I agree with most of what Henke writes, I believe that Stephen’s tendency to categorize his world into dualities is nurtured by his environment rather than within his natural instincts. Similar to Henke, Margaroni writes that women in Joyce’s novels represent Stephen’s internal struggles, desires, and fears; women reflect Stephen’s Catholic and Stephen’s structured up-bringing oppose his desires while simultaneously latching to his struggles (Margaroni, 234). Margaroni writes about the influence that Stephen's mother, a prostitute, the Virgin Mary, and the “bird girl” have on Stephen. She states that Portrait may offer the ability to recognize how a Catholic upbringing may influence the idea of spirit over body and how Stephen focuses more on women as a “body” than their overall spirit (Margaroni 236).
In addition to examining women in Portrait, scholars emphasize how certain characters or ideas are connected to Ireland. Luppi states that Joyce’s women represent Ireland post-colonial Ireland. Luppi remarks that Joyce puts “Irish People” into categories to show “the distance and distinction between the author and the object” (87). Some female characters are “Mother Ireland,” while others reflect “Irish peasants” or other parts of Irish society (Luppi 89), as well as “Mother Nature” and the “Great Mother” (Luppi 85): “[Women] Share the same nature as the mythical figure of Cathleen Ni Houlihan, representing the ruin of the men they seduce” (Luppi 88). [4] Therefore, women who represent Ireland are obstacles, which means that Ireland itself is also an obstacle for Stephen in his quest to becoming an artist. Aschkenasy also focuses on one moment in Portrait to prove that women characters represent Ireland.
Aschkenasy writes about when Davin tells Stephen about the “strange woman” incident. Aschkenasy argues that the story Davin tells (and that Stephen must retell since he is a part of the narration of the novel) can be compared to many Biblical passages: the Bible story of Jael and Sisera in Judges (Aschkenasy 29). Aschkenasy argues that the peasant women in Davin’s story are connected to “Irish soil” and represent some type of “Mother Ireland” (Aschkenasy 31). Aschkenasy says that since peasant women were seductive while also a dirty, Stephen will use women as further evidence to leave the homeland (32-33). Szczeszak-Brewer and Brivic further examine how women represent Ireland. Szczeszak-Brewer says that Joyce's female and male characters reflect coloniality and post -coloniality.
However, Stephen sees lower ranking “women and ethnic others” as threatening to his racially pure masculinity (Szczeszak-Brewer 2). Szczeszak-Brewer discusses the trope of the “vagina dentata,” which is a creature in folklore that is a woman with sharp teeth in her vagina (Szczeszak-Brewer 3). This mythical creature represents the fear of the female sexuality; Joyce creates female characters who symbolize masculinity to avoid fears of female sexuality, which is embedded into the minds of his male protagonists (Szczeszak-Brewer 5-6). Likewise, Brivic writes that women bring out feminine or “uncanny” traits from Stephen that threaten his manhood (206). He explains that the image of God is impactful on Stephen because it is a masculine figure asserting dominance (Brivic 207).
Feminist Readings of Joyce
Scholarship helps us understand Joyce’s complicated relationship towards women, Ireland, his ideas about masculinity, and the factors that impact Stephen’s coming-of-age and growth as an artist. It is important to read this novel through a feminist lens as it helps us understand our present world better. To read a piece of literature through a feminist lens, one must look at the use of gender, power, and inequality in the work and how that reflects on the female characters. Since Joyce roughly illustrates an accurate representation of society, readers study the role of women in the novel to understand the oppression they faced in history and how that reflects how women are treated today. Feminist critics like Suzette Henke and Julienne Empric critically examine Joyce’s works through a feminist lens to expose the misogyny and sexism embedded in his novels.
Henke is one of the most influential feminist critics of Joyce studies. She states in this article that females are the psychological “other” that frighten Stephen and remind him that they represent “sex, generation and death” (Henke 82, “Stephen Dedalus and Women”). Henke believes that Stephen’s youthful narcissism is what causes his misogyny; he believes women corrupt all (“Stephen Dedalus and Women” 101-102). Henke also writes that Joyce himself often made fun of the “new women” – the nineteenth and early twentieth century woman who wanted to be “socially and economically independent” (“James Joyce and Women” 117).
However, she reflects that by the end of Joyce’s work, specifically in Ulysses, Joyce had come to terms with his original thoughts about women and their corruption due to the influence of his wife Nora Barnacle, who served as an artistic muse and fulfilled his sexual desires (Henke, “James Joyce and Women” 128-129).
Julienne Empric states that Stephen views every female character, except the “bird girl,” as negative impacts on his life. She explains that the female characters “symbolize not only Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church, but also the magnetic force of sensual creativity” that Stephen must accept and reject in order to accomplish true art (Empric 11). Then she states that the women at the beginning of the novel, specifically his mother and Dante, provide ethical and cultural regulation of exposure of Stephen’s environment (Empric 13). Adolescent Stephen shuns these women because of his arrogance towards them, however, Empric argues that the women characters give the understanding of what stories really mean to Stephen (Empric 15). They are the ones who introduced him to the passion of his life – creating art. She explains that Dante is the first one to share with Stephen the complexities of Home Rule and religion, while his mother is the first to expose Stephen to Catholicism, starting the journey he will take to become an artist (Empric 13-14). Overall, Empric argues that Stephen diminishes the impact of women in his life, even though they are the ones who gave him the first push towards his destiny.
Analysis:The Home Rule Movement, Irish Catholicism, and The Life of James Joyce
In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man the Irish Home Rule movement is often discussed by Stephen’s family members and his friends. Coinciding is the influence of Catholicism on Irish families’ everyday lives. In 1800, Ireland and Great Britain established an Act of Union, meaning that Ireland was now unified under the British Parliament; the United Kingdom now contained England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (Kelly 30). Issac Butts established the Home Rule movement in the early 1870s; he and others advocated for a separation of the Irish Parliament from the British Parliament, but the United Kingdom could still protect Ireland in military affairs (Kelly 32). Great Britain believed that losing Ireland as a “colony” would degrade Britain of its Imperial power (Kelly 33). Furthermore, there was religious tension. Many English loyalists were Protestants who predominantly lived in Northern Ireland. They were afraid that the Catholics, located in other areas of Ireland, would dominate Ireland calling “Rome Rule” (Kelly 33). After World War I, Northern Ireland stayed within the United Kingdom, and the rest of Ireland became the new Irish Free State (Kelly 35).
Prior to the end of the Home Rule, the late 1870s experienced major changes within the leadership of the movement. In 1879, the movement came under the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell, who is mentioned throughout The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. However, Great Britain planned to remove Parnell from leadership by accusing him of criminal activities in Ireland. Although Parnell was a Protestant, he worked closely with impoverished Catholics, which made him a contradiction in his field because he was favored by Catholics and Protestants. Near the end of his political leadership, an Irish soldier and member of Parliament filed for divorce against Katherine O’Shea, claiming she was having an affair with Parnell. Parnell lost political support and was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland (Hayden, “Charles Stewart Parnell”).
Catholicism is an important identity to Ireland and to Stephen’s family. The history of Catholicism in Ireland is extensive and convoluted. [5] Despite the English break from the Catholic Church in the 1530s, Catholicism still was a part of the Irish culture. In the 1600s, Irish Catholics were persecuted by the English and Protestants, contributing to the Catholic and Protestant tensions within Ireland that still exist today (Jordan 111-112). However, Catholicism has continued to thrive, establishing educational institutes and influencing the morality of the Irish culture (Jordan 113). Irish Catholics have a strong sense of faith and nationalism, within their identity, evident through Joyce’s depiction of Mary Dedalus in his novel. Stephen’s conflict of faith illustrates the importance of Catholicism in Ireland.
Since Portrait is considered a semi-biographical novel, it is crucial to have some knowledge of James Joyce’s life. Joyce was born February 2nd, 1882, in Dublin, Ireland, to Mary and John Joyce (Werner, “James Joyce”). His father John gave Joyce the gift of storytelling but also an inability to manage financial difficulties. Joyce’s mother, Mary was a devote Catholic and provided a consistent source of love. Joyce grew up during the Home Rule Movement, when Parnell was denounced, therefore, political tension was a part of Joyce’s home, over disagreements about Irish self-rule. Joyce was educated by Jesuits at Clongowes Wood College, Belvedere College, and University College Dublin, all of which appear in Portrait. Joyce was interested in William Butler Yeats, George Moore, and other older writers. In 1902, he found it impossible to be an artist within Ireland (Werner, “James Joyce”).
Therefore, in 1904, Joyce exiled himself to the European continent, rarely returning to Ireland. Before he left Ireland, he met Nora Barnacle and had a passionate relationship with her (Atherton, “James Joyce”). They had two children together, Georgio (born 1905) and Lucia (born 1907), although they did not marry until 1931. Interestingly, Joyce and Barnacle said they were husband and wife before their official marriage, even though he refused to go through a marriage ceremony for many years (Atherton, “James Joyce”). Joyce met Ezra Pound, who financially and intellectually helped Joyce’s career as an artist. [6] Pound’s influence on Joyce’s work can be seen in Joyce’s experimental use of language, especially in Ulyssess (Werner, “James Joyce”). Joyce died on January 13th, 1941, in Zurich, Switzerland, after aiding several Jews in fleeing Paris from the Nazi invasion of Paris (Werner, “James Joyce”).
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man includes many of Joyce’s early life events. Simon Dedalus struggles with the family’s finances; Mary Dedalus remains a devout Catholic; and Joyce’s inspiration for art is showcased through Stephen’s defense of Lord Byron, which is important to its significance. Having knowledge of Joyce’s early life allows the reader to notice where Joyce adds his personal influence into the novel. Joyce’s life formed his artistry, just as Stephen’s world shapes him.
Part 1: Stephen’s Childhood Innocence and Perceptions of Women
During Stephen’s childhood, he views women very innocently and disregards the moral effects and implications women may have on his religious identity. He views women with the least amount of judgment during his childhood and adolescence. As a child, Stephen idealizes a friend, Eileen. Eileen Vance is one of Stephen’s neighbors, and she comes from a Protestant family. Stephen tells his very Catholic and opinionated governess, Dante, that “When they [Stephen and Eileen] were grown up he was going to marry Eileen” (Joyce 6). Stephen expresses to Dante a child-like infatuation for Eileen. He does not understand the complexities between Catholicism and Protestantism during the 1880s in Ireland, nor does he understand the complexities of marriage. Empric touches on the irony of this passage because it takes a Protestant girl named Eileen (commonly Catholic Irish first name) Vance (common Protestant last name) to clarify the complexities and division of religion in Ireland (Empric 14). Therefore, Stephen does not have the ability to understand complex social situations like marriage.
Additionally, Eileen is used in the novel as a way to understand Catholicism and the Virgin Mary, but she also foreshadows how Stephen views women as objects of desire. Dante tries to explain to Stephen that she does not like how he plays with protestant kids, because “they make fun of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin” (Joyce 30). Young Stephen then questions how a woman could be a “Tower of Ivory and a House of Gold” (Joyce 30). [7] Stephen answers this question by relating it back to Eileen’s physical appearance. He states, “Eileen had long white hands. One evening when playing tig she had put her hands over his eyes: long and white and thin and cold and soft. That was ivory: a cold white thing. That was the meaning of Tower of Ivory” (Joyce 31). Although innocent with his intentions, Stephen uses Eileen’s physical appearance comparing her hands to ivory (a sensual description) to understand a figure of speech that is used to describe the holiness and purity of the Virgin Mary. Although he is not truly objectifying Eileen, Stephen shows he has the potential to. This foreshadows how Stephen’s objectifies women and compares them to the Virgin Mary. Additionally, this instance shows how innocent Stephen is. He misinterprets the meaning of the phrase and uses it to describe a childhood friend he finds beautiful. Thus, he views Eileen with innocent eyes as Joyce’s illustrates the thought process of his protagonist. Stephen’s intellectual understanding of his world starts at an innocent and inexperienced baseline. Furthermore, Eileen foreshadowing Stephen’s objectification of women.
As a young teenager, Stephen continues to view women immaturely and objectively. This is expressed through his thoughts on seeing a prostitute in the second chapter of the novel. By then, Stephen is older and is starting to understand his world more. He notices that he feels different from his friends, that he has a complicated relationship with his father and his family, and he notices that he has new sexual feelings that have started to appear due to him entering his adolescence. Sexual feelings are awakened by a girl he refers to in a poem. Stephen writes, --“To E.--- C.---” (Joyce 61) -- and it is his first experience of using a woman as a muse.
However, he does not understand what to do with his sexual awakening, and Joyce indirectly states that Stephen has been seeing a prostitute as a reaction to new feelings of arousal. After the Blessed Virgin” (Bizot, “For the Hillmother”). This poem has been turned into a prayer that has been used in the Roman Catholic Church since the sixteenth century (Bizot, “For the Hillmother”). quickly spending reward money from an essay contest on a day with his family, Stephen starts to think about the unhappiness and changes that have been happening in his life. The narrator states that Stephen has had sexual longing: “He cared little that he was in mortal sin, that his life had grown to be a tissue of subterfuges and falsehood...He bore cynically with the shameful details of his secret riots in which he exulted to defile with patience whatever image had attracted his eyes” (Joyce 86). The prostitute is used to fulfill a sexual desire: “Such moments passed and the wasting fires of lust sprang up again” (Joyce 87). Stephen does not care about the moral implications that premarital sex might have on his conscience or in the eyes of God. Stephen displays an immature way of thinking because he acts on sexual desire with every image that comes to his mind. Henke addresses the prostitute commenting, “His vision of the female has remained essentially unchanged. The traditional dichotomy between virgin and whore…breaks down in the young man’s imagination. For him, all women encompass both roles (Henke, 90-91, “Young Misogynist). Henke illustrates that this moment reinforced the idea in Stephen’s mind that females fulfill one of two roles: they are either virgins or whores. He objectifies and degrades women, displaying the first seeds of his misogynistic thoughts.
Stephen describes the intensity of the experience with the prostitute: “He closed his eyes, surrendering himself to her, body and mind, conscious of nothing in the world but the dark pressure of her softly parting lips” (Joyce 88-89). He thinks of nothing else while with her, which illustrates Stephen’s immature thinking because of how engrossed and obsessed he is in the moment with this woman. He does not see her as another human being and lacks maturity. He knows that seeing a prostitute is unacceptable in the eyes of the Catholic Church, but Stephen “surrenders” himself fully to her. He is no longer the innocent child who loved Eileen Vance, but the adolescent who lacks responsibility. These two instances serve as a reminder to the reader that Stephen is developing not only in age but also in his intellect and religion. It illustrates how Stephen living near the red-light district has shaped him into thinking it is okay to use women to fulfill personal desires.
Part 2: Stephen’s Extreme Catholicism and Its Influence on His Perceptions of Women
The next period of Stephen Dedalus’ life is marked by religious reform. In the third chapter of the novel, Stephen is roughly fifteen or sixteen years old. After listening to an intense sermon, he realizes he must confess the sin of seeing a prostitute, and he grows in his devotion to the Virgin Mary. Stephen’s religious reform marks intellectual and spiritual growth and shows a shifting opinion of women. Although Stephen fears God, he is young and does not fully comprehend the complexities of God and religion. His fear of God guides his religious growth even as he grows older rather than a desire to grow close to God. [8] When Stephen was younger, he had an innocent fear of God. The male authority of God and his omniscient control frighten him the most (Brivic 207). Once Stephen is older, he has the ability to think multidimensionally and starts forming his own beliefs and opinions. As a sixteen-year-old, Stephen understands and admits that his sins with the prostitutes are morally wrong, yet is indifferent to it: “He had sinned morally not once but many times, and he knew that, while he stood in danger of eternal damnation for the first sin alone, by every succeeding sin he multiplied his guilt and his punishment” (Joyce 90). It is not until Fr. Arnall’s sermon about hell that Stephen accepts that his actions as wrong in the eyes of God. Moreover, Stephen is impacted more by the experience of hell than being in a state of sin. Throughout the novel, Stephen is keenly aware of patterns, sounds, and his senses. Fr. Arnall’s sermon touches upon the senses that could alter Stephen.
The intention of the sermon was for the boys at the religious retreat to gain a greater understanding of “…death, judgement, hell and heaven” (Joyce 96). In one instance of the sermon, Fr. Arnall describes hell, touching upon almost all of the senses:
They lie in exterior darkness. For, remember, the fire of hell gives forth no light. As, at the command of God, the fire of the Babylonian furnace lost its heat but not its light so, at the command of God, the fire of hell, while retaining the intensity of its heat, burns eternally in darkness. It is a neverending storm of darkness, dark flames and dark smoke of burning brimstone, amid which the bodies are heaped one upon another without even a glimpse of air. (Joyce 105)
This sermon affects Stephen because it poetically describes hell, touching upon Stephen’s inner instincts as an artist, and ultimately scaring him of the horrors of hell. Additionly, Fr. Arnall’s sermon, as Maria Margaroni points out, Stephen’s schooling is through Catholic Jesuits, so he is impressionable to their teachings, and he finds himself changing (234).
Additionally, Fr. Anall discusses how some of the “frightful monsters” in hell were once “beautiful angels” that “have become as hideous and ugly as they once were beautiful” (Joyce 108). Furthermore, he then asks rhetorical questions such as, “Why do you turn aside from your pious practices and good works? ...Why did you not give up that lewd habit, that impure habit” (Joyce 108). Although the sermon does not specifically call out women as the cause of these “lewd habits,” Stephen’s impure habits are from seeing a prostitute. Therefore, the once beautiful now fallen angels in his mind would be the prostitutes Stephen has been repeatedly seeing. This marks a shift in Stephen’s mind about women and prostitutes. After the sermon, hell now looks like these women who cause Stephen to habitually sin. This causes Stephen to takes his religion seriously and impacts how he views females.
When Stephen decides to confess his sins to the priest, he is overwhelmed and anxious. He knows that he cannot be forgiven merely by praying to God; he must go to reconciliation. Stephen hesitantly tells the priest that he has committed “sins of impurity” with himself and with other women (Joyce 126). The priest responds with “Give it up, my child, for God’s sake. It is dishonorable and unmanly... Pray to our blessed lady when that sin comes to mind” (Joyce 126). This response influences Stephen’s views on women, and he is no longer scared that he is going to hell. In return, Stephen blames women for the sins in the world. He believes that women are the causes of sin, not necessarily the free choice of his will, as Augustine of Hippo would argue in On the Free Choice of the Will. This is a sexist view of gender. He is blaming women for the sins in his life instead of taking ownership of his actions. Although Stephen has learned to accept his sin, he has not learned to accept the responsibility of his own actions. Henke explains that Stephen “is moved simultaneously to renounce Satan, the female, and his own genitalia” (Henke, 92, “Stephen Dedalus and Women”). Therefore, Stephen decides it is better for him not even to look or interact with women so he can stay “pure” and stay away from any sexual desire: “In order to modify his sense of sight he made it his rule to walk in the street with downcast eyes, glancing neither to the right nor left and never behind him. His eyes shunned every encounter with the eyes of women” (Joyce 131). Instead of Stephen practicing self-control, he blames women for the impure actions, not his own will for wanting to commit them. Although this shows development in Stephen’s spiritual and intellectual growth, it also shows the development of his negative views of women. He is starting to further develop sexist thoughts and displays them in his everyday life. But Stephen still has a lot to learn. He views women simply as temptations and something to fulfill sexual desires rather than accepting that he is the one who is at fault for his own actions in the eyes of God.
Stephen’s views on women in his everyday life contrast with how he views the Virgin Mary. His devotion to the Virgin Mary is profound. He has a poster of Mary in his bedroom because he believes she views him differently than God does (Joyce 91). Additionly Stephen remarks, “The glories of Mary held his soul captive…” (Joyce 91). Stephen explains that the Virgin Mary soothed the pride within his soul alluding to the pridefulness that will take over Stephen in the final chapter of the novel (Joyce 91). But Stephen’s pride takes over even in his Catholicism. He feels that “From the evil seed of lust all other deadly sins had sprung forth: pride in himself and contempt of others…” (Joyce 93). Stephen’s pride takes over eventually but can be seen just within his reverence of the Virgin Mary. He is prideful because he believes himself to be so devoted that nothing can reach him. He puts himself in the same place as the Virgin Mary, so highly regarded in devotion to God. He even thinks, “It was strange too that he found an arid pleasure in following up to the end the rigid lines of the doctrines of the church and penetrating into obscure silences only to hear and feel the more deeply his own condemnation” (Joyce 93). Stephen almost likes knowing that he is at fault for his sins; he finds pleasure knowing that he can create a façade to hide behind the fact that he continues to sin without showing remorse. He is extremely prideful in his phony religion. Although the Virgin Mary can be considered a positive figure in Stephen’s eyes, she negatively impacts him in becoming more prideful and increasing his inauthentic religion. His pride links directly to his misogynistic beliefs because Stephen elevates himself above others, putting everyone, including women below him.
Even so, Stephen tries to turn towards the Virgin Mary for his sins. Stephen believes that “His sin, which had covered him from the sight of God, had led him nearer to the refuge of sinners. Her eyes seemed to regard him with mild pity; her holiness, a strange light glowing faintly upon her frail flesh, did not humiliate the sinner who approached her” (Joyce 92). Mary’s earnestness and compassion appeals to Stephen, and he looks to her for guidance through his sins. Even before he confesses his mortal sins, he begs Mary to intercede for him after he hears about the horrors of hell: “There was still time. O Mary, refuge of sinners, intercede for him! O Virgin Undefiled, save him from the gulf of death!” (Joyce 110). The Virgin Mary is the only woman Stephen believes he can look at because he honors her so devotedly. Stephen’s connection with the Virgin Mary is growth in his spiritual life but also as a negatively impacts the way views women. Stephen elevates one woman in his life while looking down on all others. He puts the Virgin Mary on a pedestal and expects all other women to achieve her status as the purest women, or he will shun them from his life. He shows his immature Catholicism. He now holds only one woman in sacred regard labeling all others as profane. He has not grown away from his thoughts of objecting women to certain standards; he has just developed more in his spiritual and intellectual life and now views all women as profane expect the Virgin Mary. To understand the novel from a feminist perspective, it is important to understand why Stephen rejects the female and it is because of the religious institutes he has grown up in (Margaroni 234). Institutes reemphasize the crudeness of the body, especially in Fr. Arnall’s sermon when he connects it to rotten food and offensive smells (Margaroni 235). Therefore, Stephen learns to fear the female body, accuse them of the reason for sin, and idealizing the Virgin Mary suggesting that this is how every woman should act.
The idealization of the Virgin Mary and the view of all women being crude directly correlates with the Virgin/Whore dichotomy that Henke and Margaroni emphasize in their scholarship. Stephen falls into believing this dichotomy is true; he is strongly devoted to the Virgin while placing every other woman in the whore role. Henke writes, “The traditional dichotomy between virgin and whore, Madonna and temptress, breaks down in the young man’s imagination. For him, all women encompass both roles” (Henke, “Stephen Dedalus and Women,” 91). This means that Stephen has viewed every woman in his life in one of these two roles. The Virgin Mary allows Stephen to be infantilized (Henke, “Stephen Dedalus and Women,” 92). However, He is constantly plagued with sexual desire, which Stephen interrupts as women attacking him causing him to sin. Therefore, Stephen puts women in this dichotomy. It allows him to interrupt his world but, it also forces him to over sexualize women because he believes women only do wrong.
Part 3: Stephen as The Early Artist
Eventually, Stephen accepts his destiny: to become an artist. By the end of the novel, he has not even reached the full capacity of the artist who could create a book like Portrait. As he develops into the “artist,” he abruptly moves away from religion and grows prideful. He still objectifies women, but now he sees them as his muse for art instead of as profane and immoral. Stephen decides to step away from the Catholic faith after a priest at his school asks him if he has a vocation (Joyce 137). Stephen gets caught up in the “power” he would wield if he was a priest. He thinks about all the things he could know and all the sins he would hear in confession and smiles at the fact that no one would know those things. However, as he thinks more about life in priesthood, he starts to turn away from the idea. Stephen believes the priesthood would not fit his life: “It was a grave and ordered and passionless life that awaited him, a life without material cares... At once from every part of his being unrest began to irradiate” (Joyce 104).
Stephen admits that pride and desire for power almost led him astray from any other passions he might have. While trying to find himself after deciding to step away from Catholicism, Stephen goes on a walk. He feels his soul being called by the “old artificer” (Joyce 148) - - referencing Greek Mythology’s story of Daedalus - - to be an inventor of new art. [9] However, it was not until Stephen saw a woman, or commonly known as the “bird girl,” that he decides to fully accept his destiny as an artist. According to Henke, Stephen’s reaction to the bird girl is “static, purged of desire or loathing. Aesthetic fantasy quenches any impulse to approach the girl” (Henke, “Stephen Dedalus and Women,” 95). This girl is the first person to make Stephen realize he must remove himself from society to be able to capture true beauty. He has longing and desire for the bird girl, but his vocation to art has called him to keep her at a distance. Henke also explains the misogynistic inner thoughts of Stephen. Since Stephen sees the bird girl in water, seemingly fluid, Henke believes that Stephen must want to freeze time to pursue his flight as an artist (Henke, “Stephen Dedalus and Women,” 95). Stephen would want to stop this woman’s freedom, in order to be ale to use her for his own desires and art. Furthermore, the bird girl can be seen as a contrast to the Virgin Mary. Henke writes, “The bird-girl has served as Stephen’s profane virgin, a Beatrice who ushers him into the circle of heavenly experience. The Dantesque underworld may, in fact, symbolize the artistic unconscious” (Henke, “Stephen Dedalus and Women,” 95). [10] This means that the bird-girl is Stephen’s Beatrice, guiding him into sin, in order to see true beauty. This is unlike the Virgin Mary, who was only supposed to guide Stephen towards heaven, never into sin.
Nonetheless, the bird-girl is still important to Stephen’s development into an art. When he sees her, he feels an awakening. He is reborn, through feelings of sexual desire and freedom, caused by the beauty of the bird girl:
Her image had passed into his soul for ever and no word had broken the holt silence of his ecstasy. Her eyes had called him and his soul had leaped at the call. To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, recreate life out of life! A wild angel had appeared to him, the angel of mortal youth and beauty, an envoy from the fair courts of life, to throw open before him in an instant of ecstasy the gates of all the ways of error and glory. On and on and on and on! (Joyce 150)
In this moment, Stephen realizes his true calling. He needs freedom and beautiful things to create pieces of beauty. She serves as an epiphany to Stephen about his true calling to be an artist. This girl is sexual yet also pure in her influence over him to become an artist. She only serves as an object of his growth. Here, however, the “bird girl” symbolizes unity and flight within Stephen, and he views her as the angel who puts him on the path to becoming an artist:
[T]he bird-girl represents the solution to the difficult relation with women. She is a symbol, she might even be Stephen himself; more likely she is the perfect image of the woman aspiring to the same ideals as the protagonist. In fact in a way she invites him to fly away from the beach, to cross the sea and find another life. (Luppi 94)
Luppi is suggesting that the bird-girl would resolve Stephen’s sexist views on women because she causes him to turn away from society. She changes Stephen to turn away from God and look towards creating art and inspires him to one day leave Ireland . She is officially his first muse, and because of this moment, he starts to view women as muses for his art. Like the Virgin Mary, Stephen also holds this woman to the highest standard. She is the aesthetic muse, that Stephen objectifies as an image of beauty and desire that allows him to realize his destiny. According to Henke, “Stephen must distance and ‘depersonalize’ the tempting figure by making her into a species of aesthetic prey” (Henke, “Stephen Dedalus and Women,” 95). Stephen is now making women into “aesthetic prey,” and therefore only used for his art, and nothing more.
Similar to the “bird-girl,” Emma Clery is one of the most significant women Stephen starts to see as a muse. Although she is mentioned earlier in the novel, Stephen does not understand her effect on him until he has the epiphany with the bird girl. Stephen believes that Emma and other women are what inspire great art because of the emotions they evoke. After a conversation with friends about Aesthetic Theory, Cranly tells Stephen that his “beloved is here” (Joyce 190). Although the name of the girl is not explicitly mentioned, readers can infer that this is Emma. When Stephen sees her, “His mind, emptied of theory and courage, lapsed back into a listless peace” (Joyce 190). Her presence calms his mind, and he is overtaken by her beauty. He then watches her talking with other girls and questions whether they would be so beautiful “if he had judged her so harshly” (Joyce 191). Stephen believes that if he gets to know the women he uses as his muses, then they might not have as much beauty as them. This shows that Stephen uses women simply for his art and nothing more. Every time he has these moments of ecstasy and lust, it serves as inspiration for art. If he gets to know different women in his life, then he might not have these reactions anymore.
Even the double-meaning sentence spoken by Father Moran about the Irish Nationalist Movement is also influenced by the thoughts of Emma Clery Father Moran says, “Yes, yes, the ladies are coming round to us. I can see it every day. The ladies are with us. The best helpers of the language” (Joyce 194). Although Father Moran is discussing the Home Rule Movement, “the best helpers of the language” implies that women also influence art, literature, and beauty. Stephen knows this. Fr. Moran speaks about women as a representation of Ireland and that one must keep their distance from women; Stephen may interpret needing to keep his distance from Ireland in general, just like he interprets the image of the “bird-girl.” Stephen really has no positive female figure in his life. The Irish women in his life represent the stereotypical peasant women who plays a negative role in Stephen’s world view (Luppi 89). Therefore, not only must Stephen keep his distance so he can use women as muses, but he also interprets women as a reason for keeping a distance from Ireland , his home.
After the epiphany with the bird-girl, Stephen decides to go to university. Stephen knows that higher education will help him achieve his goals of gaining wisdom and becoming a great artist. Stephen’s one-dimensional views of women also extend to his mother. Originally Stephen viewed his mother as a warm and positive figure in his life. He comments on her nice smell and says she is a “nice mother” in the first chapter (Joyce 5-7). Stephen has a conversation with boys at school who ask him if he still kisses his mother (Joyce 11). Stephen says he does, but then the boys make fun of him for it. Stephen “Blushed under his eyes and said: I do not” (Joyce 12). Stephen is embarrassed because the boys take his innocent affection for his mother and turn it sexual. This bothers Stephen and starts his degradation of how he views his mother. After this moment, he talks about his mother less and his sexist views reflect onto her.
Stephen looks at his mother condescendingly, because of her caring nature for him. Because of this, he starts to reject her. When Stephen tells his mother that he wants to go to university, she does not agree. She is already upset that he is turning away from the church because she genuinely believes in Jesus Christ, and she simply does not want him to go to university because she fears he will change. Stephen is hurt, and anger fuels his desire to push his family away:
Yes, his mother was hostile to the idea as he read from her listless silence. Yet her mistrust pricked him more keenly than his father’s pride and he thought coldly how he had watched the faith which was fading down in his soul aging and strengthening in her eyes. A dim antagonism gathered force within him and darkened his mind as a cloud against her disloyalty... (Joyce 144).
As Stephen continues to deny his Catholic faith, his mother grows angry. This angry causes Stephen to view her with “disloyalty” or push her away, because he most likely feels like she is not supporting him. Moreover, Stephen feels powerful knowing that his mother is relying on his faith to guide him; even though he is intentionally pushing faith away. Now that he has had his “artist epiphany,” he grows more prideful and thinks he is better, smarter, and more reasonable than his mother. We see his condescending nature towards his mother continue when he lets his mother wash him, simply because it pleases her (Joyce 152). Additionally, Stephen also fights with his mother because he refuses to go to Easter Mass. Cranly tells Stephen to put aside his beliefs, but Stephen says he does “not wish to overcome it” (Joyce 211). Stephen, in the final stage of the novel, is full of pride and condescending, because Stephen ends the novel with “No really positive female presence exists in Stephen’s life” (Luppi 95).
Conclusion
Stephen’s beliefs and ideas are shaped by his environment. These environments cause Stephen to judge and view females harshly. He objectifies women and then idealizes them to fulfill his needs, while keeping women at a distant so he can use them for his art. His blatant sexism and misogyny are apparent in almost every scene Stephen has with a female character. Stephen’s ultimate form of objectification is when he sees the “bird girl.” He uses her image as a justification for his need for freedom and exile from Ireland and from humanity in order to create true art. His idealization of her perfection highlights his growing misogyny by showcasing her as a distant and symbolic muse.
He is assured after seeing her that he never needs to engage in humanity again for the sake of creating art. This journey to adulthood and to becoming an artist shows the complexities of how every detail in our environments shapes how we view the world. This is true for Stephen as his political, religious, and family unit shaped him into a misogynist. Stephen’s journey reveals a problem with the “Modern Artist,” which Joyce seems to argue is the most supreme at creating true beauty. To become a “Modern Artist,” Stephen must commit a moral sacrifice which allows him to objectify and use humans, mainly women, to convey what he believes is the truth. Joyce is capturing the dark reality of what it means to be an artist, which leads one to see the irony of the novel – Stephen’s genuineness cannot save him from falling victim to sexism, misogyny, and using people for their personal gain. One must question if “true beauty” even exists if it takes such emotional and moral exile to secure artistic freedom. Stephen achieves artistic freedom by the end of the novel, but the cost is detachment from society, lack of empathy, and personal damnation through a rejection of God. How then can an artist capture the truth in human art, if they need to be removed from the very things that make us human? Since Stephen removes himself from society, he cannot capture human truth. His dismissal of woman, religion, and his home, will always sway his opinion to depict religion, Ireland, and gender negatively. Rather than push away the things that create meaning in our lives, the artist should embrace them, in order to create timeless art about the people and things they love – the essence of human life.
The portrait, then, may not be a painting of “the artist” but of an image of an intellectual genius compromised by the moral cost of his own craft. So, why then is this novel considered a modern classic? If the novel rejects women, emphasizes sexist thinking, and supports the need to remove oneself from society to capture beauty, why then should people read it? A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man captures the essence of searching for one’s identity as an adolescent. Although Stephen develops into a sexist, the novel itself illustrates the beauty and grief of growing up and uniquely describes the role of an artist in society. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man should be read not to learn from Stephen, but to understand our own human nature; to gain greater knowledge of the importance of art in our culture; and learn how our life is shaped by the environments we are born into.
Notes
[1] I would like to thank all those who have helped me throughout my schooling and helped me write this paper. First, I thank Professor Ann Holbrook, who taught me about Portrait and graciously gave me her copy of the novel that I used to study for this paper. I also want to thank Professor Bindu Malieckal for guiding me through writing my Thesis and answering all my questions. I thank my parents, Vyto and Eileen Morkunas, for pushing me to do my best in my education and helping me through school. Lastly, thank you, my classmates, especially those in Senior Seminar. Studying literature with you all has been a gift, and I am grateful to you all.
[2] A künstlerroman is “A German word for a novel about an artist of any kind” (Baldick, “künstlerroman”). It usually shows the development of an artist, similar to a bildungsroman, which is the German word for “coming-of-age" novel. In both types of novels, the protagonist develops from innocence to experience and ends with the protagonist gaining new wisdom about the world. Another novel that may be considered a künstlerroman is Jack London’s Eden Martin or potentially Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
[3] The character Stephen Dedalus is a part of a variety of Joyce’s novels, including A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), and Stephen Hero (1944). Interestingly, Stephen Hero was published after Joyce had died and contains the original ideas of Portrait (Atherton).
[4] Luppi is referencing a play titled, Cathleen Ni Houlihan by the Irish author William Butler Yeats. It is a One Act play that serves as an allegory for the Irish struggle for independence. Cathleen is an old woman who represents struggling and impoverished Ireland (Staub, EBSCO “Overview”). The protagonist of the play, Michael Gillane, is captivated by Cathleen’s need for help to find her lost sheep and chooses to abandon his life to fight for her sheep , which represents his fight for Ireland’s freedom (Staub).
[5] Catholicism has been around in Ireland since the sixth or seventh century. Saint Columba, the patron saint of Ireland and Scotland, founded Catholicism in Ireland in the 500s (Jordan 107).
[6] Ezra Pound was born on October 30th, 1885, in Hailey Idaho and is known for his contributions to Modernist Literature. He spent most of his life in Europe surrounded by “the avant-garde literary scene” (Taylor). Pound led the “Imagist Movement” in 1912, which sought to remove all unnecessary embellishments in poetry and “vorticism,” an art style inspired by the end of World War I. Pound promoted the art of many modernist artists, including James Joyce, T.S Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, and Robert Frost (Taylor).
[7] The Litany of the Blessed Virgin is a prayer that is recited by Catholics to honor the devote Mother Mary. It uses phrases such as “Mother Most Pure” and “Mother Undefiled.” John Montague wrote a poem, “For the Hillmother”. Montague’s poem uses the phrases such as “Tower of Ivory” and “House of Gold.” The poem is often called the “Litany of Loreto” which is the same pray as “Litany of the Blessed Virgin.” This poem has been turned into a prayer that has been used in the Roman Catholic Church since the sixteenth century (Bizot).
[8] It is important to note that a fear of God does drive the Catholic religion, as cited in Psalm 111:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.” The fear described in this passage is a fear of awe, not one of terror. Stephen fears God because he is terrified of him, which is the wrong type of fear in Catholicism.
[9] In the classic Greek myth “Daedalus and Icarus” by Ovid, Daedalus and Icarus are captured by King Minos and looking for ways to escape. The King did not rule over the skies, so Daedalus invented wings so the father and son could fly away from their imprisonment. While attaching the wings to Icarus, the inventor or “artificer” warns Icarus not to fly to close to the sun or the ocean for it may melt the wax. Daedalus flew anxiously ahead of his son; however, Icarus, distracted by the heavens soared higher to the sky, which melted the wax on his wings, and he vanished into the ocean. Daedalus saw the feathers of the wings on top of the waves in the ocean and “cursed at his inventions” (Ovid).
[10] Henke is referencing Dante’s Inferno, in which Beatrice sends Virgil to guide Dante through hell and purgatory to reach Heaven. Henke is trying to show that both Beatrice and the bird-girl bring their protagonist into hell in order to reach heaven.
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