A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce)

James Joyce shows a gross development in his main character Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Joyce states, “He would pass by them calmly waiting for a sudden movement of his own will or a sudden call to his sinloving soul from their soft perfumed flesh” (109). Stephen has a continuous desire to sin against his religion and deliberately turn his back on the morals of the church. Joyce portrays Stephen to begin to doubt his religious beliefs that he has grown up on for so long. By being raised by such a devout Catholic family, Stephen follows this lead blindly without really understanding the foundation of the religion. Joyce is representing Irish politics through Stephen’s urge to sin against the church and doubt the foundations of his beliefs. The Irish people start out by blindly picking a leader and following that leader no matter what. Once they get a taste of the opposing side, some latch on to that and cannot return to their origin of beliefs. Joyce uses Stephen to represent the Irish people choosing a leader and following that leader blindly and loyally until their eyes are opened to a new possibility. In Stephen’s case, the new option is sinning repetitively which drives his thoughts away from the values he has lived by all his life. Irish politics are complicated and corrupt, exactly like Stephen’s thought processes.
Joyce shows Stephen as a common Irishman falling victim to the stereotype of social hierarchy. Joyce says, “So he had sunk to the state of a beast that licks his chaps after meat. This was the end; and a faint glimmer of fear began to pierce the fog of his mind” (119). Joyce uses Stephen to show the difference in classes among the Irish. In this scene, Stephen is comparing himself to a beast, which represents the lower class of Ireland, not only because he licks his lips after eating, but mainly because of his continuous sinning against the morals of his church. Joyce is trashing the social stratification in Ireland and is comparing the lower classes to sinners and people that potentially belong in Hell. Joyce shows that because of Stephens constant sinning even when he knows he is at fault, he begins to feel like he belongs to the lower class of Ireland and can do nothing to change it. Even though Stephen and his family do not truly belong to the lower class, Joyce shows how the even feeling like the lower class can bring an Irishman’s spirits down and make him feel bad about himself.
James Joyce explains that by getting things off of his chest and clearing his conscious, Stephen becomes a whole new person on the inside. Joyce exclaims, “Could it be? He knelt there sinless and timid: and he would hold upon his tongue the host and God would enter his purified body” (158). Before going to confessional and telling the priest about his sins, Stephen spent all of his time dwelling on what he had done. By accepting what he has done and realizing that God is forgiving, Stephen becomes a whole new person by the way he thinks. Joyce is showing that when people realize what they have done and work hard not to do it again, they are happier. This also represents Irish politics because of the corruption. The politics in Ireland are unique and when people realize what has happened in the past, they can decide what they want to do about the future. Learning from one’s mistakes like Stephen does, benefits the Irish from a political standpoint in the long run.