The Beauty King

2022 April 19

"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", by James Joyce illustrates the concept of the rebel with a cause by creating and accepting challenges. Stephen, the main character of the story sees himself as the hero of the story regardless of how everyone interprets his character. He is often depicted as the outlier in his society since he can apply artistic perception to most things that he comes across, but his father cannot. Due to Stephen's religion disillusionment of trying to appeal to the traditional way of living his society he separates himself from religion, friends, and his family. Nationality, language, and religion are considered cages to Stephen. These systems limit his scope of what can be interpreted and can be inferred from subjects that are rooted in the past. The focal points being his father's idea of religion, aestheticism being clouded by utilitarianism, and the clash between modernity and the past.

Stephen's father, Simon Dedalus forced perspective of religion advocates for confession and inviolability to the church warping Stephen's personal sense of freedom. To illustrate this point, Stephen talks about how God is conceived in church and how he can be considered the same god regardless of the church he goes to, "But though there were different names for God in all different languages in the world […] God remained always the same God and God's real name was God" (Joyce, 449). Stephen does not understand the dogmatic approach to authorial divinity since it restricts followers from focusing on the aestheticism and embraces personal repression. Stephen envisioned religion as a place of melancholy due to the church of having a fix perspective of being beneficial for the masses, but deplorable for the individual. For Simon, however, his egotism is rooted in religion since his conventions lie within nostalgia and hypocrisy. To explain this statement further, Simon's obligation to serving the past translates to his failure in the present and how he is unable to preserve what is changed, "There's a crack of the whip left in me yet, Stephen, old chap, said Mr. Dedalus, poking the fire with fierce energy. We're not dead yet; sonny. No. by the lord Jesus (God forgive me) nor half dead" (Joyce, 482). Simon favors the past because he finds reassurance in the status quo and how his mistakes can be repeated because they were not a big deal then. Avoiding change ensures that he cannot face the failures he has made in the present, ultimately blaming the adoption of aestheticism that Stephen is engrossed by. Simon is also pessimistic about the future that he is willing to take down his family with him to prove that God has a natural inclination to give back what has been given to him. Stephen's dichotomy is heightened since he wants to challenge the authority that chastises him, or revel in the shadow of his father's self-centeredness.

Stephen also deals with having the burden of being sensitive to artistic expression knowing that when gets older he will have to repress such feelings. The symbolism spreads out to Stephen being jaded by his father's irrationality of utilitarianism and being pulled away by the soul of artistic expression. This statement is best illustrated when Stephen breaks his glasses and is punished by Father Dolan for not doing his lessons, it shows the dichotomy of his father's beliefs being deflected by his finite vivid consciousness, "The prefect of studies was a priest but that was cruel and unfair. And his whitegrey face and the nocoloured eyes behind the steelrimmed spectacles were cruel looking because he had steadied the hand first soft fingers and that was to hit it better and louder" (473). Stephen is punished for telling the truth about his need to wear glasses, but Father Dolan, who is supposed to be a man of kindness and divinity, sees it as a more sinister deed, which directly conflicts with his Simon's belief of being faithful in the presence of religion to receive God's promise. He creates imagery as a way of finding his own justification against the language of priesthood, yet he runs into dead ends due to religion's narrow-mindedness. It is when he decides to challenge authority and speak to the principle for it to get solve showing that his terrible experience can be conquered by other means. Another example of Simon's religious viewpoint contorting with Stephen's is how his senses should be ignored to improve his connection to God and conformity of life in the past. Emma, Stephen's love interest, is seen as a temptress in his eyes since she represents everything beauty and what an evolution of beauty can be like, "Her fair hair had streamed out behind her like gold in the sun. Tower of Ivory. House of Gold. By thinking about things you could understand them" (Joyce, 467). Simon's beliefs instilled in him wants Stephen to forego these feelings he has for Emma due to how alienated she is compared to the rest of society. Stephen has never seen a person like her before and his sense for aesthetics prove that they can be universal when describing her appearance rather than being limited by his principals in priesthood.

Stephen deals with the internalized struggle of accepting and rejecting an ordered world like Simon since it's the battle between natural response and learned behavior. This brings up the hypocritical nature of the clerical system in which they seem capable of doing no wrong but have performed deeds that may question their faith. Stephen brings this hypocrisy to the table when he questions if Father Arnall were to suddenly loose control of his emotions would they confess or not, "Was that a sin for Father Arnall to be in a wax or was he allowed to get into a wax when the boys were idle because that made them study better or was, he only letting on to be in a wax? It was because he was allowed because a priest would know what a sin was and would not do it" (471). This statement brings into further question if sins are universally agreed upon or conjecture made up by the church to get people to follow their duty to God. It confuses Stephen since there are no arguments to be made about religion since the rules are universally agreed upon, yet people succumb to disobeying it to uphold power. Additionally, Simon and Stephen's world collide is with the lost of innocence and the adoption of maturity. Stephen's experience with priesthood relegates to multiple bouts of isolation and loneliness since he is disillusioned to forego his individuality to be accepted by the people around him. This statement comes to full circle towards the ending of the story when Stephen says "Old father, old artificer, stand by me now and ever good in stead" (602). Proving that although religion challenges him to think outside the box by the obstacles it presents and how it clouds his judgement on the external world.  

In summary, conquering of inner conflict and spiritual well-being are the key factors of aestheticism and the key to Stephen's cage. Simon will go to his absolute limits to cope with past successes and achievements, but it robs him a genuine connection to modern society and his son. As Stephen's artistic expression grows, his confidence of providing a universal solution to things around him increases, making his reliance on authority shrink in comparison. Stephen's rebellious nature are made to be silly in the eyes of religion but as he matures the gap of personal fulfillment and obligation becomes much wider. Yet his Simon's becomes more jaded and falls into the realm of abnormality and contempt. Nationality, language, and religion are cages for Stephen due to Simon's influence of nostalgia and upholding tradition, artistic expression being clouded by repressive forces of culture and obligation, and the clash between self-freedom and order.

Works Cited

Greenblatt, Stephen and Catherine Robinson. "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Volume F, The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. New York, W.W. Norton, 2018. Pgs 440-602.