Never throughout the book does Stephen seem to fit in with his peers. He is always a little apart, usually brooding to himself about something that makes him feel superior to them. But he did not always feel superior to his peers. At the beginning of the book, he felt apart form his peers, but not superior. Things they did confused him, they made fun of him, and he often felt as if they were socially superior to him. However, by the end of Chapter 1, he starts to feel like he might fit in with his classmates when they lift him up for getting justice for his unfair punishment. But evemn then, we see his apart from the group as they play cricket and he stands on a hill brooding, which sets a precedent for the following chapters.
In Chapter 2, Stephen doesn't really interact with his peers much at all. He has a few interactions with Heron and his friends, but he seems distant even in those. As we discussed in class, the hot word of Chapter 2 is "brooding." Stephen seems to spend the entire chapter brooding about something or another.
In Chapter 3, we start to see Stephen's feeling of superiority. In this section, he sees himself as intellectually higher than his peers. He acknowledges his place as the top in the class and relishes that feeling. when he contemplates his soul, he thinks of his sinfulness as skipping the level priests and challenging God himself. "A certain pride, a certain
awe, withheld him from offering to God even one prayer at
night, though he knew it was in God’s power to take away
his life while he slept and hurl his soul hellward ere he could
beg for mercy." Stephen uses similar words as in Paradise Lost when Satan is "hurld headlong flaming" out of Heaven.
In Chapter 4, Stephen's superiority takes the form of religiosity. He seems to separate himself from his peers in order to figure out how to comprehend and accept God's love, a task which he is ultimately unsuccessful at.
In Chapter 5, there is a character change in Stephen. He begins to spend time with peers in friends and have good discussions with them. In the end, however, he still sacrifices friendship for his artistic vision.
Stephen's lack of consistent and quality relationships with his peers is reflective of his individualist nature and of the fact that he cannot wrap his mind around the concept of love.
I agree with you, Maggie. It's really interesting to see how he behaves and interacts with other people so differently throughout the book. He starts off as a seemingly awkward boy who doesn't really fit in well to someone who has the choice not to have friends. It would make sense that Stephen would be willing to give up his friendship with others to pursue his artistic ambitions knowing that Stephen is still not capable of understanding love.
ReplyDeleteI thought you brought up a lot of really good ideas here. He certainly is quite different from his peers in many ways. I don't understand though how him not understanding love is one of the two reasons you give for lack of quality relationships, I mean in chapter 5 he still doesn't understand love, yet he still is able to have a group of friends, including at least one close one in Cranly. I think that does affect his lack of friends, I just think it could be explained a lot more.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good chapter-by-chapter breakdown of what exactly happens regarding Stephen and his relationships with his classmates (and even family later on). When examined this way, it seems like, in order to be an artist, Stephen had to experience ostracization from his peers to truly be comfortable going on out his own and giving up worldly pleasures and wealthy to follow his vocation.
ReplyDeleteChapter 5 does seem like an exception to this general picture, though. The choice to "sacrifice" his friendships is different from failing or neglecting to achieve them in the first place, and Cranly in particular comes across as at least potentially a really good friend (he seems to see himself as such, at least). Stephen's whole demeanor around his peers is distinct in chapter 5 from the cool detachment we see earlier (compare his response to the swimming boys in the moments leading up to the epiphany)--he treats his own self-conscious posturing with some degree of self-aware irony, and he seems to enjoy these little debates about nationalism and political activism, as giving him a chance to articulate his ideals. It's true that he believes he needs to set himself apart from such friendships in order to create art, but this is a choice he makes--as Cranly astutely points out.
ReplyDeleteI thought you brought up a lot of really good ideas here. He certainly is quite different from his peers in many ways. I don't understand though how him not understanding love is one of the two reasons you give for lack of quality relationships, I mean in chapter 5 he still doesn't understand love,
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing...
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