I was raised Southern Baptist, primarily in the Okie tradition of rural churches. As such I held the opinion that the Baptists had cornered the market on fire and brimstone, damnation, hell and guilt. I experienced all of these as real threats much too far into my adult life. James Joyce reminded me unflinchingly that Catholics have been marketing these commodities long before the Baptists came along. As to who does the dance of eternal damnation better it is a toss-up in my mind.
I did not know anything about this book before I read it. I had read Dubliners and enjoyed it very much. I had read Ulysses which left me scratching my head a bit. What I was not expecting was such a religious work. I suppose Joyce wanted the reader to know the journey he had undertaken to get to where he was. If you read any biographical articles about James Joyce you will find that his relationship with the Catholic religion is described as “complex”.
This book had several precursors before finally be published as a short novel. It is essentially autobiographical. Joyce’s protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, attended Clongowes Wood College and Belvedere College as did Joyce. Joyce went to the University College in Dublin. I do not think the university that Dedalus attended is mentioned by name, but it was in Dublin. In researching it came out that the dysfunctional family Christmas dinner at the beginning of the book was from Joyce’s life as was the character’s first encounter with a prostitute.
The book begins with the aforementioned Christmas dinner where family members argue over Irish home rule versus continued rule by England. They also argue over religion. Besides the coming of age aspect of the novel, these are the main tensions/themes of the book, religion and Irish self-rule.
Dedalus initially attends Clongowes, a well-respected boarding school run by the Jesuits. Most of the scenes are typical boarding school fare. One in particular stands out though. A boy on a bicycle ran into Dedalus and caused him to fall resulting in his breaking his glasses. Being very much in need of his glasses he could not do his school work until a new pair arrived from home. The school prefect, aka school disciplinarian, had a different opinion. The Jesuit priest considered it a trick by Dedalus to get out of doing his school work.
“—Lazy idle little loafer! cried the prefect of studies. Broke my glasses! An old schoolboy trick! Out with your hand this moment!
Stephen closed his eyes and held out in the air his trembling hand with the palm upwards. He felt the prefect of studies touch it for a moment at the fingers to straighten it and then the swish of the sleeve of the soutane as the pandybat was lifted to strike. A hot burning stinging tingling blow like the loud crack of a broken stick made his trembling hand crumple together like a leaf in the fire: and at the sound and the pain scalding tears were driven into his eyes. His whole body was shaking with fright, his arm was shaking and his crumpled burning livid hand shook like a loose leaf in the air. A cry sprang to his lips, a prayer to be let off. But though the tears scalded his eyes and his limbs quivered with pain and fright he held back the hot tears and the cry that scalded his throat.
—Other hand! shouted the prefect of studies.”
Due to financial setbacks partially as the result of the father’s drinking the family had to move to Dublin. They could no longer afford to send Dedalus to Clongowes. He ends up attending another Jesuit school, Belvedere College (in this part of the world, at that time, college was the equivalent of secondary school in the USA).
Dedalus rocks along having internal conflicts about life in general and religion in particular. At 16 he begins frequenting prostitutes. The first encounter is provocative.
“—Give me a kiss, she said.
His lips would not bend to kiss her. He wanted to be held firmly in her arms, to be caressed slowly, slowly, slowly. In her arms he felt that he had suddenly become strong and fearless and sure of himself. But his lips would not bend to kiss her.
With a sudden movement she bowed his head and joined her lips to his and he read the meaning of her movements in her frank uplifted eyes. It was too much for him. 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. They pressed upon his brain as upon his lips as though they were the vehicle of a vague speech; and between them he felt an unknown and timid pressure, darker than the swoon of sin, softer than sound or odour.”
While he had been struggling with guilt over his actions it all comes to a head when the school goes on a three day retreat in order for the students to get in touch with their spiritual self. While there Dedalus hears several sermons on sin and damnation. Joyce gives over many pages to these Jesuit admonishments. The sermons are worthy of any tent evangelical, and would certainly have resulted in a full altar call there. This crisis results in Dedalus confessing in a church where he is not known. The priest absolves him of sin and cautions him to give up his activities. He does a 180, and becomes the most pious Catholic he can muster up. At one point I expected him to be putting on a hair shirt.
All his piety and scholarship results in the head of the school soliciting Dedalus to join the Jesuit order. He declines. There is a scene after this where he wanders around Dublin. He sees school mates swimming. He encounters a beautiful, young woman also who is strolling the shore like him.
“A girl stood before him in midstream, alone and still, gazing out to sea. She seemed like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful seabird. Her long slender bare legs were delicate as a crane’s and pure save where an emerald trail of seaweed had fashioned itself as a sign upon the flesh. Her thighs, fuller and soft-hued as ivory, were bared almost to the hips, where the white fringes of her drawers were like feathering of soft white down. Her slate-blue skirts were kilted boldly about her waist and dovetailed behind her. Her bosom was as a bird’s, soft and slight, slight and soft as the breast of some dark-plumaged dove. But her long fair hair was girlish: and girlish, and touched with the wonder of mortal beauty, her face.
She was alone and still, gazing out to sea; and when she felt his presence and the worship of his eyes her eyes turned to him in quiet sufferance of his gaze, without shame or wantonness. Long, long she suffered his gaze and then quietly withdrew her eyes from his and bent them towards the stream, gently stirring the water with her foot hither and thither. The first faint noise of gently moving water broke the silence, low and faint and whispering, faint as the bells of sleep; hither and thither, hither and thither; and a faint flame trembled on her cheek.
—Heavenly God! cried Stephen’s soul, in an outburst of profane joy.
He turned away from her suddenly and set off across the strand. His cheeks were aflame; his body was aglow; his limbs were trembling. On and on and on and on he strode, far out over the sands, singing wildly to the sea, crying to greet the advent of the life that had cried to him.”
All this results in his becoming very comfortable in not accepting the Jesuit’s offer.
“The wisdom of the priest’s appeal did not touch him to the quick. He was destined to learn his own wisdom apart from others or to learn the wisdom of others himself wandering among the snares of the world.”
The next portion of the book deals with Dedalus’s university career. It seemed in some ways, to me, an afterthought. It felt like the book should have ended with his epiphany that he was destined to follow his own path and not that of a priest.
The same themes of questioning religion and Irish nationalism reoccur. Dedalus refuses to participate in a church activity because he no longer believes. His mother presses him. There follows a long scene whereby Dedalus discusses the implications and reasons with his friend, Cranly. Cranly believes he should go through the motions to please his mother, Dedalus does not. Again this conflict with the mother is a parallel with Joyce’s life. His mother desperately wanted him to follow the Catholic Church and its rituals. After leaving Belvedere, Joyce was not compliant with her desires.
The book more or less ends abruptly with Dedalus announcing that he is going away. Again this parallels Joyce’s life who left the University for the Continent to only return to Ireland for brief intervals.
There are many reasons to read Joyce. For me, however, the primary ones are his beautiful language and imagery. Add in interesting characters and a vaguely defined plot and you have an interesting book.
This book is in the public domain and can be downloaded for free.
Audio book from LibriVox.org A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
e-Book from Gutenberg.org: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Other sources:
At Wikipedia: James Joyce
Surprisingly there is even a 1977 movie: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man