Of Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man. Essay, Research Paper

Woman as a Symbol in Chapter 2

Woman is used many times in Joyce & # 8217 ; s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Stephen Dedalus, the chief character of the work, is fascinated by adult female. This captivation is played upon in many fortunes.

First and foremost is the relationship he has with Dante, his aunt. While this relationship is largely discussed in the first chapter, it & # 8217 ; s branchings can be seen in the 2nd. Stephen is frequently reminded of his aunt, and the green and ruddy coppices she ever had. he draws many decisions ( nevertheless badly informed they are ) from the cognition of his aunt. He views adult females, as did most male childs in his civilization, as something foreigner ; something that he would understand & # 8216 ; when he grew up & # 8217 ; .

Womans are presented as cryptic, as when Stephen is looking at & # 8220 ; The Beautiful Mabel Hunter & # 8221 ; in the evening paper. He stares at the image with awe and non a small confusion- what should he experience?

Stephen is possessing a self-consciousness that is so melancholic as to be called morbid. He has, like most immature work forces, atrocious uncertainties about himself. Women farther perplex his temperament. For illustration, when he says adieu to Eileen at the ropeway ; he knows he should snog her, but he is mortally afraid to make so.

Again, like most boys his age, he thought understanding of adult females would go on in an blink of an eye:

Weakness and timidness and

rawness would fall from

him in that charming minute ( 65 ) .

This stems from the Irish Catholic civilization that has surrounded him his whole life.

Besides, sex before matrimony was a sin- and anything that could take to sex ( a buss ) was to be avoided, as that excessively could take to transgress. Stephen has such low self-pride at this point, he is scared of doing any move towards any miss.

Another illustration of the usage of adult female is his being teased by Heron and his chaps before the drama. Stephen & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; governess & # 8221 ; enters the wendy house, waiting to watch Stephen perform. Heron catches air current of that, and begins to badger him pitilessly, about driving Stephen to cryings. Womans have been a changeless, unfastened

lesion with Stephen ; and, like a lesion that doesn’t heal, the topic of ‘women’ causes him trouble every clip it comes up. Simply put, Dedalus is non a ‘ladies’ man’ , like his male parent. Stephen is invariably reminded of his male parent being a coquette and dashingly fine-looking, told by his male parent himself, and his buddies at the tap house. Stephen is horrified at the thought of his male parent being so adored by the women- that is, in his head, a wickedness. Joyce portrays Stephen as a male child seeking non to be like his male parent. To that terminal, Stephen disdains ( or at least Acts of the Apostless like he does ) womanly company.

While pouring over a transcript of the Count of Monte Cristo, Stephen besides picks up some political orientations on how to cover with adult females, as can be summed up in this one line: & # 8220 ; Madame, I ne’er eat muscadel grapes. & # 8221 ;

This sentence has a wealth of intending concealed therein. This shows a sad, proud contempt for passionate adult females. Stephen takes this quotation mark to bosom, populating his immature life in a pathetic province of chastity- a province which backfires viscously at the terminal of the chapter when he attains the services of a cocotte. Stephen thinks that because he has no fortune with adult females, it & # 8217 ; s their mistake. Traveling inward, he finds that it is much easier to deny himself the pleasance of loving a adult female, than to seek to love one and go rejected.

At the terminal of the 2nd chapter, Stephen finds his impulses to much to command, and he visits a cocotte. This symbolizes the interrupting down of all the walls he has put up since his attending at Clongowes- his fright of adult female, and his fright of God. Stephen is now interested in the demands of the flesh, non the spirit. He want & # 8217 ; s to populate in the minute, and non for the hereafter. This is a really of import portion of his life- Stephen learns to arise.

Womans have been a changeless beginning of agitation for Stephen since the first chapter. This episode dissolves many of these issues he has. Later on, he will experience enormous guilt over what he has done. Merely when he confesses to the priest does he experience better- but that is yet another measure in his journey. Sexual activity, as portrayed in Catholic Ireland, was non healthy to speak about. Stephen rebels against this thought, and takes his first measure to going a adult male.

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