Epiphany
In Joyce’s Portrait of
the Artist as a Young Man, there is a trend of epiphany as Stephen
discovers something new that he finds profound and that changes the course of
his life. This happens at the end of each chapter, and we have talked in class
about how Stephen’s epiphanies seem very important at the time, but then fade
into the background of his new life as he moves on. I have also noticed that as
Stephen grows older, women influence many of his epiphanies. Either a singular
woman, or the idea or influence of a woman brings Stephen to epiphany.
The first time this happens is the tram scene, where Stephen
is a young teen. He sees Emma at the children’s party and immediately becomes
obsessed with the idea that she is different from everyone else, just like him.
He thinks that she notices him too, and that something could happen between
them. At the tram, he thinks if he caught hold of her and kissed her, she would
reciprocate. This seems like the beginning of Stephen’s sexual/romantic
awakening, and the first time he really pays attention to the fact that girls
exist.
The second epiphany that happens because of a woman is when
he “wanders” into the brothel district of Dublin and has a “mysterious
encounter” with a woman working there. His obsession with the romantic hero and
the idea of a mysterious woman to love drives him to pursue experiences beyond
his years, and he simultaneously idolizes the female form by dreaming of
Mercedes while having superficial encounters with women (prostitutes) that he
doesn’t care about.
The next epiphany is his revelation that he doesn’t want to
be a sinner anymore, and he confesses and repents to Mary. This contrast is
striking, of him rejecting the degraded women he searched out to fulfill him in
order to give himself entirely to Mary, the holy and exalted virgin. This shows
how Stephen’s ideas of woman as he grows up don’t leave room for the
possibility of a woman’s own humanity. She must be one or the other, high or
low, not an equal.
The most recent epiphany has been Stephen’s strange
encounter with the girl on the beach at the end of chapter 4. I don’t really
understand what happens here, whether he’s imagining it or if he really sees a
girl there, but either way, it’s his observance of her that makes him realize
once again that he can’t be a priest or live sin-free. He uses her body as a
catalyst for this important decision without really realizing it.
I really like this post. I've been thinking a lot about the epiphanies in the book but mostly focusing on the ones at the very end of the chapters. Women seem to be a pretty big part of Stephen's coming-of-age process. I think he needs to learn how to respect women and not treat them like property. I like your point about Stephen not leaving room for the possibility of a woman's own humanity. I hope that as Stephen continues to mature he will learn to respect women.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, it seems that there is a real girl wading in the water with her skirt drawn up around her waist (apparently making her resemble a bird?). But you're right that the *actual* girl really doesn't appear in the narrative at all--it's all what Stephen *makes of* her. She quickly becomes a symbol (critics love to read the patch of seaweed on her thigh as a representation of Ireland), and we *see Stephen make her into a symbol*--a quite literal exercise of his newly embraced artistic sensibility. But as with these other female figures, it's not at all clear that she's sharing in this experience in any way--I love to imagine what Stephen looks like from her point of view, staring at her, then crying "Heavenly God!" and running off across the sand. She presumably has no notion that she's conveniently been enlisted in his epiphany, and this is maybe reflective of Stephen's artistic treatment of female figures up to this point in the novel. A lot of projection going on, and not a lot of two-way communication.
ReplyDeleteI think that the three epiphanies that Stephen has following his romantic awakening on the tram are simply extensions of what he associates with love. His interactions with prostitutes are him acting purely on lust, which, as a teenage boy, is the first aspect of love. The obsession towards Mary that he feels in chapter 4 is a result of his profound relgious ecstasy and love for God. I'm not really sure what's going on with the girl at the beach either, but I think that we can tie these themes back to the first chapter. In that chapter, the woman he is obsessed with is his mother. I don't view his thoughts in the chapter as an Oedipus complex, but rather the very first type of affection that a person learns: familial love.
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