Chapter 26--Is He Serious? And Other Ironies
Discuss an example of irony from the novel. Do not use an example that has already been discussed on this thread. In your post, be sure to include specific quotes from the text, with page numbers, to support your conclusions.
In James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen’s conflicts are ironic because of his upbringing through the Catholic Church. Stephen seems to always come into conflict with morals and which the church is supposed to teach and reflect itself on via its psalms and homily. The dilemmas he encounters leave him struggling to make the proper decision. His confrontation with his first prostitute leaves him sinning as the chapter concludes but as the next chapter begins, Stephen no longer thinks of these interactions with the prostitutes as extraordinary but normal. His sinning leads to his repent and full compliance with the church and their ways of living. The church is meant to be a sanctuary for Christian beliefs but with Stephen the church creates conflicts. Morally and spiritually Stephen makes his mistakes and sins but eventually finds a middle road between sinner and follower of God.
ReplyDeleteA large irony that was present in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was when Cranely, Macann, and Stephen are having the debate about their social beliefs. Macann speaks of “the Czar’s rescript, of Stead, of general disarmament, arbitration in cases of humanity, and the new gospel of life.”(172) The he fallows up by saying “three cheers for brotherhood.”(173) The first ironic fact is that though William T. Stead, was a “world peace advocate, an advocate of women's rights, a defender of civil liberties, and a fighter for the deprived and oppressed,” he died on one of the greatest marine time tragedies of the 20th century, the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The Titanic was a prime case of the social divisions of the era, as the deprived and oppressed were locked inside her hull as she plunged under the waves. The irony of the statement came a couple of years after the novel was published in which the Czar of Russia faced and lost a revolution against the socialist in Russia. Though in this novel the Czar is in such liberal views, a few years later he is the main cause for the falling of the Imperial Russian Empire and the formation of the USSR. Thus there are many ironies within the novel, though some only became so after the work was published.
ReplyDeleteSources:
Joseph O. Baylen, ‘Stead, William Thomas (1849–1912)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.
Joyce, James, John Paul. Riquelme, Hans Walter Gabler, and Walter Hettche. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. Print.
Chapter 26- Is He Serious? And Other Ironies
ReplyDeleteAccording to traditional Christian belief, (and more specifically that of Catholicism) Baptism is an important and joyful time in the life of a Christian. Baptism, recognized as one of the seven sacraments by the Catholic Church, traditionally symbolizes rebirth from a sinner to a child of God. It generally involves submersion in liquid, usually water. In James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the concept of baptism is used ironically because it deviates from its general association. Stephen Dedalus is a young, timid student who tries to live a holy life and to stay out of trouble. One day however, he is “shouldered… into the square ditch,” a cesspool with “cold and slimy” water (Joyce 12). This event acts as a baptism of a sort. However, instead of improving his morals as a baptism should have, after emerging from the water Stephen slowly grows into a more confident, but lustful young man. He begins to sleep with prostitutes regularly and his sins also lead him to worse transgressions. He realizes he has committed the sins of wrath, sloth and gluttony. (It says this in the novel, I just cannot find the quote) James Joyce takes an anti-Catholic stance in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, therefore by reversing one of the sacraments, it demonstrates that the church is an antagonist in the novel. This stresses the importance that Stephen separates himself from its influence.
James Joyce’s novel “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” intertwines strict Catholic religions. For the older Stephen, irony comes in the form of women. In the Catholic religion, women are viewed differently depending on their status. Woman who are prostitutes are a shame and sinners while the Virgin Mary is a divinity. Both being women and anatomically identical, they are on opposite sides of the scale. Stephen, post his family’s financial degradation, finds himself obsesses with both. As he delves deeper into the sin of engaging with prostitution, he constantly remembers the Virgin Mary, her “glories…h[olding] his soul captive.” (Joyce 91) While the earthly set of women he deals with commit him to sin, and to his later knowledge the horrors of hell with the Lucifer, Mary acts as his savior. She stands as the sanctity of purity and other women like Emma. The irony lies in the fact that both Stephen’s death and salvation lies in the form of a woman. As the prostitutes drag him below, the Virgin Mary acts as the godsend vessel that reminds him of purity and his Catholic beliefs. After Father Arnoll’s preach on heaven and hell, Stephen, with the fear of committing sin once again, shies himself from women period, not daring to look at them.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most blatantly obvious examples of irony in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is in chapter three when Stephen, while still appearing to uphold the values and ethics of the Catholic Church with which he was raised, begins experimenting in mortal sin. Seemingly on a whim, Stephen impulsively finds himself in the bedroom of a prostitute, "conscious of the nothing in the world" save for that very moment of sin (Joyce 88-89). From that point on, Stephen begins a regular routine that leads him to "the squalid quarter of the brothels. He would follow a devious course up and down the streets, circling always nearer and nearer in a tremor of fear and joy, until his feet led him suddenly round a dark corner" where he would have his choice for the night (Joyce 89). All the while, while he is out on these gallivants every night, he is still closely involved with the church: "On the wall of his bedroom hung an illuminated scroll, the certificate of his prefecture in the college of the sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (Joyce 91). At this point in the plot, "the falsehood of his position did not pain him," and Stephen has no problem worshiping the virgin Mary during the day while lying with a different prostitute every night (Joyce 91). He considers himself to have "stooped to the evil of hypocrisy with others" involved in his community and church (Joyce 91). The irony in this situation clearly highlights Joyce's negative opinion on the supposed piety of the Catholic Church and pushes the plot forward as Stephen experiences more of the corrupt world.
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