Joyce's Juxtaposition of Catholicism and Aesthetics

Joyce's Juxtaposition of Catholicism and Aesthetics

James Joyce was a prolific Irish writer who wrote about Ireland and the troubles the people of Ireland faced. According to the Volume Library Encyclopedia, with Ireland being about 94 % Roman Catholic, religion is a motif brought forth prominently in Joyce's works. In Dubliners, his book of short stories as well as his supposed autobiography, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce shows religious turmoil and indecision through his characters. Stephen Dedalus, the main character in the journal-like story of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, goes through an internal turmoil of his own throughout the entire book on how he would view religion. He shows certain extremities of religious views during his life from being brought up as a Catholic. He finds that none of these are right for him and the only way he can truly live life to the fullest is to pursue a life of beauty and arts. In Dubliners, Joyce manifests members of the clergy and certain religious orders, who in some ways can be viewed as flawed and through this we can acquire an attempt by Joyce to show his possible distaste for religion of his time. Joyce shows the flaws of the Catholic religion through Stephen Dedalus in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and through the stories of Irish life in Dubliners despite the omnipresent and dominant Catholic presence in Ireland at the time.

James Joyce is one of the most famous Irish writers of his time and his book Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is considered to be his auto-biography. Joyce, like Stephen, the main

character of the book, was born and raised in Ireland and went to a Jesuit school. During his schooling and his youth he remained a Catholic until he renounced his faith and the Catholic Church and moved out of Ireland to pursue his writing(Stewart F.i.m). Knowing Joyce's past and his views on the Catholic church make it easier to see the ways that he tries to delineate his scrutiny of Catholicism through his works, especially through his alter ego Stephen Dedalus. Constant poverty and squalor may have led to his abandonment of his faith as he grew up in a family of constant financial problems, like Stephen's family in Portrait

In Portrait, Joyce uses his infamous stream of consciousness technique to intricately display Stephen Dedalus' thought process and display his view towards religion. Stephen has his first sexual experience when he moves to Dublin with a young prostitute.

"He closed his eyes, surrendering himself to her, body and mind, conscious of nothing in the world but the dark pressure of her softly parting lips. They pressed upon his brain as upon his lips as though they were the vehicle of vague speech; and between them he felt an unknown and timid pressure, darker than the swoon of sin, softer than sound or odour." (Portrait 108)

This act is considered abominable by the Catholic Church and displays Stephens his insolence to his faith. After he does this he is at first remorseful but that doesn't stop him from doing it again. He continues to wander the streets of Dublin late at night waiting for prostitutes to accost him so that he can satiate his proclivities for sex. Such acts for a supposed Catholic seem to show Joyce's opinions on Catholicism and religion. Stephen realizes after these habitual prostitute meetings that lust and sex aren't the only sins that he is guilty of. These sins had, unbeknownst to him, led to gluttony and greed as well as other things. "It was his own soul going forth to experience, unfolding itself sin by sin...." (Portrait 110) He had abandoned his want to learn and was constantly thinking of other things while in school. These flaws that Stephen possesses show how a religious person can commit a sin of pleasure, thinking he can just repent and be completely ignorant of the other sins it would lead to. In his greed for artificial satisfaction of his pleasures, he began to feel empty and sinful inside. "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."(Portrait 102) The more and more that Stephen thought about his actions he hated himself for doing so but it was not until he went on a religious retreat that he thinks he had a religious epiphany and thinks he can solve his sinful habits.

On this retreat he hears sermons about sin, hell, and guilt among other things. Through hearing Father Arnall's sermon about hell he is scared and horrified recognizing hell as his imminent destiny. He takes a nap and has nightmares of creatures waiting for him in a field like in hell. He applied these to himself and began to hate the life he lived. "His soul sickened at the thought of a torpid snaky life feeding itself out of the tender marrow of his life and fattening upon the slime of lust"(Portrait 151) After a time period of chronic sin and negligence to his faith, Stephen tried fervently to regain his faith through repentance and reconciliation. In his repentance he tells the priest this, "His sins trickled from his lips, one by one, trickled in shameful drops from his soul festering and oozing like a sore, a squalid stream of vice. The last sins oozed forth, sluggish, filthy." (Portrait 159). He suddenly viewed life differently and it seemed that his old life of sin was abolished with his religious epiphany on his retreat. He viewed life in a new light. "Life became a divine gift for every moment and sensation of which, were it even the sight of a single leaf hanging on the twig of a tree, his soul should praise and thank the Giver."(Portrait 162) This religious revival can be considered as a display of the power of Catholicism but to the extent which he later shows his faith, his newly acquired religious empowerment seems obnoxious and excessive. Also his eventual denial of religion makes this view of life as a gift seem superficial.

After this Stephen institutes a strict regiment of religious discipline upon his life. In this new life he lives day by day scheduling his entire day into sections of spirituality and virtue, praying constantly.

"Stephen throws himself into schemes for spiritual regeneration which are heroic in their aspiration. Joyce is openly ironic as he looks back on his young self and describes some of the absurd disciplines he practiced. At the same time he knows very well that the mysteries of religion and its rituals are akin to those of art" (Drew 66)

Stephen finally feels that he has received God's love back despite his sins and he feels full with grace. Through strict self-discipline he tries to make himself unaffected by the value of "flesh". He