In the first section of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, we are introduced to the many characters that influence and shape the main protagonist, Stephen Dedalus. Although we are only given Stephen’s home and family environment in this section, ideas of mine are beginning to form on how these dynamics will shape Stephen’s personality later on in life.
In the first section of the book, which only amounts to a little over a page, we get a glimpse of how Stephen was as a infant and his family environment that helped shape him as he gets older. As a child, Stephen’s father used to tell him fictional stories that Stephen could enjoy and relate too. With these stories, we can see how strong the father son dynamic is, for Mr. Dedalus was able to connect with Stephen at a young age by strengthening both of their imaginations in the tales that he told. As for Stephen’s mother, in the first section we get how she “had a nicer smell than his father” (page 3). Given this information, we can infer that Stephen’s incipient stages brought about many warm and pleasant feelings towards both his father and mother, and that they were prominent figures in his life. (But it may also have caused him to become a little timid as he grows up because he is so attached to this nice, perfect, and fictional world that his father has created for him, and we see examples of this when we read how Stephen deals with “the fellows”).
The next significant character in Stephen’s life would be Dante. She is Stephen’s nanny and seems to be very opinionated when it comes to religion. (We experience more of this when reading section three of chapter one at the christmas dinner table during the fight between her, Mr. Dedalus, and Mr. Casey). But in the first section, we see how Dante teaches Stephen to associate the religious figures Michael Davitt with maroon and Parnell with green. We also see that when Stephen has gone or said something wrong that offends Dante, his mother tells her that he will apologize, and Dante adds that “ if not, the eagles will come and pull out his eyes” (page 4). With these words, Stephen escapes into his own mind and begins to make a rhyming phrase out of them.
Pull out his eyes,
Apologise,
Apologise,
Pull out his eyes.
Apologise,
Pull out his eyes,
Pull out his eyes,
Apologise.
(page 4).
Although this rhyming scheme may be seen as insignificant at the time, it shows a significant development where Stephan has begun playing with words (of which we know will ultimately lead to him becoming a full blown artist in the end).
We also get a short glimpse of Uncle Charles. But all we read is that he is older than Stephen’s mom, his dad, and Dante. And finally, we are introduced to Eileen Vance, whom Stephen decides he will marry when they grow up. Although the significance of this is not seen yet, throughout chapter one, we do see Stephen sporadically mention Eileen and how nice her ivory hands are.
Although this section is only just over a page, we already have a glimpse of how each character is forming and how they all play a part in Stephen’s life. We can also see how Stephen’s home environment and family dynamics will shape his personality later on in the book.
PS: I wrote this before we finished chapter one. Since we are already at the beginning of chapter four, I now know how each of these characters I mention in this post (of which I implied to be significant influences throughout Stephen’s life), will soon drop off out of Stephen’s life...My bad.
Maybe the characters that you talk about do fade out to some extent the impact that they have on Stephen resonates throughout the book. As a young child Stephen was instilled with a deep sense of religion by his parents and Dante and that continues to be prevalent throughout. Even when Stephen is going through his sinful phase he still recognizes that God is exists, but just choses to do bad and even feels prideful that he is doing it without people around him noticing. The Christmas dinner scene also has an impact on Stephen throughout the novel. It is the first time that he kind of accepts that maybe it is alright to challenge authority since his father has said it and also gives Stephen a sort of understating that everything is not good or bad. He realizes that there are somethings that might be in between the two extremes. Also as the novel progresses Stephen's father is seemingly portrayed in a worse and worse light and that seems to reflect to financial state of the family.
ReplyDeleteI think these characters still have significance even if they dropped out soon. I agree with you that his family dynamics shape him. I think his behavior as a kid was largely based off of his family, and his behavior as a teenager was largely based off of his behavior as a kid. So technically, his family influenced his behavior as a teenager. You can see their influence in his religious beliefs, his fears, and what he likes.
ReplyDeleteWhile these characters rarely appear later on in the novel, they were a huge part of his childhood, which plays an enormous role in growing up and coming of age. They were the ones who taught him how to think and act. If it wasn't for his childhood being rich with religion, I doubt Stephen would have even consider being a priest later on yet this decision between priesthood and becoming an artist was extremely significant.
ReplyDeleteRobert is right: although the circumstances of Stephen's life change, and the people in it do as well, this opening section sets out certain themes and ideas that Stephen will have to negotiate as he matures. So Dante and her brushes introduces the idea that religious and political affiliation will be taken very seriously in this culture. And her terrifying little song about eagles pulling out eyes introduces the idea of religion as coercive and built around the threat of corporal punishment.
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