A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man free essay sample

What can be said of the menacing literary masterpiece that is A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is that the gender issues Joyce so surreptitiously weaves into Stephan Dedalus’s character create sizable obstacles for the reader to overcome. Joyce expertly composes a feminine backdrop in which he can mold Stephan to inexplicably become innately homosexual. As Laurie Teal points out â€Å"†¦ Joyce plays with gender inversion as a uniquely powerful tool of characterization. (63) Stephan’s constant conflict with himself and what he wants generate a need for validation that he tries to simulate through day dreams and fantasies but is ultimately unable to resolve. Through exploring the tones of characterization and the character development of Stephan himself, I will argue that Stephan Dedalus rejects his heterosexuality in favor of homosexuality so that he may eventually find himself. Dedalus’s character must inherently be homosexual in able for his story t o progress believably. Joyce conceives his character, a hero in fact, in a moment of genius. A hero must have a fatal flaw. I wish to clarify Joyce’s work and explain how homosexuality IS present in Portrait and does work in creating a hero. Stephan rejects possible companion after companion yet ceaselessly alludes to his constant social isolation. On Stephan’s definition of normal, Garry Leonard has this to say, â€Å"Although Stephan strives for such a system, he also seeks relief from it, declaring all responses illegitimate except for a state he calls ‘esthetic stasis. ’†(Leonard, 81) Joyce’s decision to create â€Å"such a system† within Stephan demonstrates Joyce’s choice to make Stephan unable to delineate from what is normal and was is not. Stephan is confused with himself and with his surroundings. Here, we are able to see that if there was even a chance for Stephan to understand himself at some point, it is now gone. In his creation of a system, Stephan actually makes it harder for himself. He cannot now arbitrarily choose whether something is normal or not, he must run it through his skewed system. Stephan’s sexual relations with the women in the novel are examples of him following this system, in regards to women in a sexual manner and using them as the base sustenance his body needs. He decides that it is normal to experience sex, to view it as a bodily need rather than an intimate connection. However Stephan’s psychological relations with the women he encounters are three hundred and sixty degree turns from the sexual. He regards each female as an example in which to measure himself against. â€Å"He is moved partially by what he perceives as the messy, degrading aspects of womanhood to write his Villanelle: a tender compassion filled his heart as he remembered her frail pallor and her eyes, humbled and saddened by the dark shame of womanhood (P 222). The muck of menstruation humbles her in Stephens imagination. † (Scott, 173) Bonnie Kime Scott illustrates here that Stephan takes this womanly bodily function, that men do not, and usually wish not to understand and uses it to define an opinion. Stephan even creates with this idea. He takes menstruation and uses it as an inspiration and a subject for his writing; writing that is possibly may be the most viable example of Stephan’s true self we are offered. Stephan is not heterosexual here. He definitively offers the reader a genuine glimpse of his character, a glimpse that can only be construed as homosexual. I believe that Stephan’s homosexuality is extremely deeply rooted in his development at Clongowes. Stephan’s experiences with Father Dolan created contempt of masculinity. Here, Stephan connects masculinity with Dolan’s indifference to his explanation of his broken glasses and the subsequent beating Father Dolan gives him: â€Å"And his white-grey face and the no-coloured eyes behind the steel-rimmed spectacles were cruel looking because he had steadied the hand first with his firm soft fingers and that was to hit it better and louder. (Joyce, 44) Stephan says that the prefect of studies appears cruel because â€Å"he had steadied the hand first with his â€Å"firm soft fingers. † A firm, soft finger may be an allusion to a penis. This phallic image becomes distorted by the pain experienced by Stephan and in so wrongly, subconsciously interpreted as sexual cruelty. Stephan’s continued isolation and inability to recognize normal is initiated at thi s time. Stephan regards the beating not as a normal party of Irish schooling, but as a personal attack on his being. The adjectives of firm and soft are employed by Joyce to â€Å"mood† the setting and produce sexual connotation instead of disciplinary connotation. This confused sexuality is the whole purpose of the passage. We need it only to see that in Stephan’s development, he has created an inversion in his thought process. Suddenly, masculinity is violence, arrogance even. Stephan admittedly wants to feel acceptance, a harmony with his environment. Harmony is the opposite of violence. Here, Stephan finds a feminine niche in which to live: harmony without masculine violence. Soon there after, Stephan’s triumph after speaking with the rector creates a joy that he has not experienced before. The act of telling the rector that he was mistreated by the prefect of studies initiates a weakness within Stephan that he can no longer deny. This confusing turn of events leaves Stephan’s subconscious in shambles and exposes him in the most crucial stages of development. By rejecting the masculine urge to suck it up, he forfeits his right to the male gender. The pairing of the two incidences forms a â€Å"queer† confusion in which Stephan disillusions himself from the male gender and becomes part of the female gender. From here on out, Stephan searches for masculine force to latch onto, creating the first homosexual tendencies seen in Portrait. His feminine niche is only invaded if he wishes it so. Stephan’s new homosexual identity prevents this niche even to be viewed by the other characters and most readers because there is an innate fear with his difference since all Stephan wants from life is to be accepted, loved. This is why homosexuality is never publicly claimed by Stephan. In fact, there is no mention of his preference in a companion anywhere. Stephan idealizes women but never actually gives the reader a description of what or who would satisfy him completely. Though Stephan may now officially be deemed homosexual, any acknowledgement of this by Stephan himself is never seen as I expressed earlier. The experiences Dedalus has during his stay at Clongowes make sure of that. Joyce employs a setting of all boys in which Stephan develops an unconscious hatred of himself. We see that through out his school years, a number of boys are ridiculed after being accused of homosexual behavior. This number of boys could easier be omitted by Joyce if there was no meaning behind them. Joyce’s mention of smugging and Lady Boyle and how these situations and people are treated influence Stephan’s mind and body. Stephan, after hearing of these things, becomes almost homophobic, joining in on the taunts of Lady Boyle and ponderously thinking on the boys caught smugging. He rejects himself before he knows who he is. Stephan also develops into himself in the same moment he rejects his being. Clongowes is the place where Stephan emphatically decided to be feminine as illustrated by his meeting with the rector. Joyce deliberately incorporates all so that the reader may comprehend Stephan and his relations with his surroundings. The femininity of Ireland as noted by Joyce’s repeated naming of the country as a her and the stark masculine harshness of Clongowes force Stephan into a corner where he must uncover his true individualism within himself. This individualism shaped primarily by these two modes happens to be homosexuality hidden beneath a strong sense of sensuality and just insecurity. Stephan is also not guided by men as he matures but by the women he desires as he lets his body place claim on his mind and create fowl fantasies that are never kept in check. For example, when Stephan feels â€Å"the slight change in his house; and those changes in what he had deemed unchangeable were so many shocks to his boyish conception of the world,† he does not turn to his father to seek guidance but retreats into himself to Mercedes. In his reverie, Stephan recognizes that there will come an instant where he will become â€Å"transfigured. Joyce purposefully does not give Stephan the opportunity to mature in this instant, but chooses to give him the opportunity to rid himself of â€Å"weakness and timidity. † The passage as a whole displays the image of a gender inversion: â€Å"He returned to Mercedes and, as he brooded upon her image, a strange unrest crept into his blood. Sometimes a fever gathered within him and led him to rove alone in the evening along t he quiet avenue. †¦.. They would be alone, surrounded by darkness and silence: and in that moment of supreme tenderness he would be transfigured. He would fade into something impalpable under her eyes and then in a moment he would be transfigured. Weakness and timidity and inexperience would fall from him in that magic moment. † (Joyce, 56) Here, Stephan recognizes that a woman will change his life but not because she completes him or fulfills his life but because he will become what would normally be gender-identified as male. He wishes to shed any femininity â€Å"in that supreme moment of tenderness† and evolve. This gender inversion is from female to male, not what is to be expected from a biological male. At this point, Stephan is plainly admitting that weakness, tenderness and timidity rule him, and that he is feminine, but also admits that he desires to fulfill his biological role. Joyce presents the reader with Mercedes and asks them to see that Stephan needs some mode of escape from what he cannot emotionally deal with (his father’s failure), and simultaneously allows Stephan to reach an epiphany in which he realizes that at some point he will have to face reality. Joyce gives the reader two choices in this passage: the reader is either forced to choose to believe Stephan and his desires or reject them and this daydream. I believe that Joyce allows Stephan to access this subconscious desire in a daydream so that he may have another chance to present the reader with Stephan’s hidden identity, hidden desire to become heroic. This instance is similar to the villanelle written by Stephan that which I previously mentioned. Joyce is clearly toying with the reader’s image of Stephan and characterizing him as weak. The reader now has access to the true Stephan through an unguarded moment presented as a whimsical, almost sexual fantasy. The reader now understands the internal conflict within Dedalus. I propose that this is the epiphanic moment where Stephan actually regards himself as homosexual. Here, Stephan understands himself clearly and his able to delineate from what he is and what he longs to be, normal from abnormal It becomes visibly clear that Stephan rejects his biological sex from childhood and only now tries to reclaim it. Joyce is clarifying Stephan’s flaw. Stephan acknowledges his weakness, and deals with it simply. He is wary, yet not enough to act upon it. Joyce is showing the reader that they must sympathize with his character and must understand him completely if any meaning is to be attained from the novel. Though Stephan may recognize his desire to undergo a mental sex change of sorts, I feel that he never truly reverts back to male, never reaches his moment of supreme clarity. He is unable to reclaim his sexuality because Stephan never wholeheartedly works at it. While fantasizing about the Virgin Mary, Stephan refers to himself as a sinner and offers us a hint of his inability to commit to working towards his dream: â€Å"Her eyes seemed to regard him with mild pity; her holiness, a strange light glowing faintly upon her frail flesh, did not humiliate the sinner who approached her. If ever he was impelled to cast sin from him and to repent the impulse that moved him was the wish to be her knight. If ever his soul, re-entering her dwelling shyly after the frenzy of his bodys lust had spent itself, was turned towards her whose emblem is the morning star, BRIGHT AND MUSICAL, TELLING OF HEAVEN AND INFUSING PEACE, it was when her names were murmured softly by lips whereon there still lingered foul and shameful words, the savour itself of a lewd kiss. † (Joyce, 92-3) This passage can be viewed as a very strong example of homosexuality. Stephan seems to have sex with his imagined Mary as he validates himself. The Virgin does not reject Stephan in his daydream and he is internally consoled. Because she does not reproach him, he feels accepted on some level and his brief moment of longing to become male is forgotten in the beauty of his vision. Stephan justifies his actions by creating unreal situations in which he is happy, in which he can live without his fear of being different. He is not sexually stimulated by Mary herself but of the validation of his mind, body and soul. Stephan is sexually aroused by himself in the form of the Virgin Mary. Joshua Jacobs analyzes the same passage and notes that â€Å"†¦Joyce frames this ostensible purification as a regression to Stephan’s soul and desire, Stephan imagines a vaguely sexual union in which he is utterly impalpable, surrounded by darkness and silence. † At any time during his musing could Stephan stop and remember his previous desire but he does not. Instead, Stephan creates an unreal instance in which he may feel comfortable at in his own shoes. Because of the social conditioning Stephan receives at Clongowes, he is unable to cope with his own sexuality. Stephan’s experimental relations with Emma additionally add homosexual tones to his character. Stephan uses Emma to test himself and clarify his understanding of his true soul. Every instance in which Emma appears, Stephan remains confused and unsure because he is too often ruled by his body. Sexual attraction may be the initial reason for Stephan’s interest by I suggest that the real reason Emma is so unattainable to him is because he subconsciously views her as a maternal figure in which he yearns to attract. Once again, Stephan’s desire to become more masculine emerges and presents itself here. He is attracted to her because of her outer-lying appearance but senses that he wants to be her. After putting himself in the female position and searching for a masculine counterpart, Stephan is hit with a gender-disorienting bomb named Emma. His masculine side wants to claim her but his feminine side wishes to be her. In an article by Brian Hogue he mentions Eugene A. Waith’s ideas: â€Å"He thinks of EC, like Davins temptress, as a bat like soul waking to the consciousness of itself and surmises that her soul had begun to live as his soul had when he had first sinned. The composition of the final stanza is described as an imaginary act of sexual intercourse, in which EC is metamorphosed into the words of the poem while both are symbolized by flowing water. No passage in the book links temptation more unequivocally with artistic creativity, and none make clearer that the emphasis is not finally upon sin. † (122-123) EC was and remains throughout the entire novel unabl e to fulfill Stephan. Stephan quietly submits to him loneliness and inability to find true companionship: â€Å"He had known neither the pleasure of companionship with others nor the vigour of rude male health nor filial piety. Nothing stirred within his soul but a cold and cruel and loveless lust. His childhood was dead or lost and with it his soul capable of simple joys and he was drifting amid life like the barren shell of the moon. †(127) Even with a prostitute, Stephan is unable to connect: â€Å"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. (Joyce, 135)Stephan views the prostitute here as a surrogate mother. He wishes to feel strong in her arms instead of seek please from her lips. Again, Stephan blends his sexual needs with his instinctual need to become legitimate. Stephan’s refusal to deny these thoughts and to sit beside a prostitute and still look at her as a maternal figure illustrates his homosexuality. He does not want her to touch him sensually but to show him the primal pleasure o f sex. Stephan views the prostitute as a tool to release his sexual needs, not desires. Though the text in not explicit on the sexual orientation of its main character, I believe that Joyce’s intention was for Stephan to deny any implied fact given about his desires so that the story could have an alternate meaning underneath the actual text. Joyce creates a homosexual undertone to Stephan to comment on the social conditions of Ireland. It is extremely apparent that the novel has a strong undercurrent of social commentary. The deliberate femininity of Ireland in Joyce’s work parallels the deliberate femininity presented within Stephan himself. I previously have defined the connects Stephan has created with the females in the novel. I now wish to explore how Joyce had intended the novel to read. My understanding of the novel is that Stephan is a lost, unrecognized genius. His homosexuality only helps to exemplify this. Joyce understood that to create respect for such a weak, seemingly uninteresting character he would have to create a flaw, relevant to the setting and plot of the novel, that would take weakness and turn it into an understandable fear. What I aim to validate is the genius present within Joyce’s work. Homosexuality here is not a plot point, it is a fatal flaw that only a true hero could carry as his burden. Perhaps this explains Joyce’s addition of Parnell into the story line. It is safe to say Stephan was greatly influenced by his father, as every son is. Mr. Dedalus’s love of Parnell, love of this hero of Ireland is Stephan’s first encounter with the heroic. â€Å"He was for Ireland and Parnell and so was his father. † (Joyce, 32) As Stephan understands the magnitude of the love that a hero such as Parnell receives, he subconsciously registers that love with heroism. Joyce clearly understood this and had to find a way to demonstrate it discreetly. Parnell’s fatal flaw was his affair. Stephan’s fatal flaw is his homosexuality. This similarity is easily conceived when one understands Joyce’s motive. Stephan must be heroic for any reader to sympathize, even to care at all. Every instance in the novel where Stephan feels the need to connect with another human, he views as a transaction. Stephan takes his life and at each crossroads he asks himself whether what he is about to do is normal. His misgiving is his inability to realize that he is heroic and does not need validation from anyone. I think that Joyce’s goal in Portrait was not to tell a story, but to uniquely craft a situation in which the character of his story does not understand himself and searches for life’s meaning when in fact, the character is heroic, is able to feel acceptance without actually doing anything. Homosexuality here is marvelously employed as a literary device. I have explained how Joyce has created this homosexual being and how he left it veiled from the reader and the actual character himself but to understand the novel, we must understand why. Homosexuality as a literary device is used here to demonstrate Joyce’s true genius with words. Joyce skillfully shapes a situation in which his character cannot emerge as a hero so that he may pull them from their mundane pages and create brilliance without the character ever knowing. It is up to the reader to pull this meaning from the pages if they are able. I have explored homosexuality so that I may illuminate this reading of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man so that the true aptitude for literature that James Joyce instinctively has.