CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS

1
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS

• David Kirkman
• Nancy Chavez
• Adam Lievers
• Gimmy Kim
• Jimmy Piraino
• Cole Ducey

2
Summary

• Stephen creates a new system of religious rituals
  that change his daily life considerate ably. He
  prays every morning before a holy icon, yet his
  sense of contentment is distinguished as he
  thinks about his past sins, and wonders whether
  the changed he is making now will be able to
  erase his past mistakes. He divides his daily
  schedule into parts that correspond to particular
  spiritual philosophies. Stephen keeps a rosary in
  his pockets so he can touch them as his day
  progresses, and he divides each rosary into three
  parts devoted to the three theological virtues.
• Stephen eventually comes to accept that God loves
  him, and he begins to look at the world as an
  expression of Gods divine love. He avoids
  getting cocky over his spiritual endeavors and
  tries to remain humble. Stephen avoids eye
  contact with women, and mortifies his sense of
  smell by smelling fishy aromas. He refuses to
  ever consciously change positions in his bed.

3
Summary continued

• With his Vacation over, Stephen has returned to
  his Jesuit school, where he has been summoned to
  a meeting with the director. Stephen feels
  awkward at the meeting. Stephen thinks about why
  the director makes mention of skirts, and he
  decides that the director must be testing to see
  Stephens reaction to women. The director asks
  Stephen whether he has ever felt he has a
  vocation, and suggests that he consider a life in
  the church. The director says that the priesthood
  is the greatest honor bestowed on a man.
• When Stephen sees his disorderly house, he knows
  that his fate is to learn wisdom not in the
  protection of the church, but among the ordinary
  people of the world. He finds out that his
  parents are looking for another house because
  they are being thrown out of their current home.
  Stephen thinks about how weary his siblings seem
  to be, even before they have started on their own
  lives.

4
Summary continued

• Stephen impatiently waits for his father and
  tutor to return with news about the possibility
  of his admission into university. He considers
  greeting them, but concludes that it is
  impossible to imagine them being interested in
  him.
• Stephen thinks about his similarities with the
  Great Artificer. At that moment, he sees a
  beautiful girl wading in the water, her skirts
  hiked up high. He and the girl make eye contact
  for a moment. Stephen thinks that she is an angel
  of youth and beauty. In the evening, he climbs a
  hill and watches the moon.

5
Stephens Self Mortification and Imprisonment

• He offered up each of his three daily chaplets
  that his soul might grow strong in each of the
  three theological virtues, in faith in the Father
  Who had created him, in hope in the Son Who had
  redeemed him, and in love of the Holy Ghost Who
  had sanctified him and this thrice triple prayer
  he offered to the Three Persons through Mary in
  the name of her joyful and sorrowful and glorious
  mysteries (p.106).

• This shows us how Stephen has directed his
  prayers, to be part of his daily routine for
  which he is trying to gain strength by means of
  punishment. He forces himself to these prayers
  and carries rosaries around in his pockets, as a
  constant reminder.

6

• Each of his senses was brought under a rigorous
  discipline. In order to mortify the sense of
  sight he made it his rule to walk in the street
  with downcast eyes, glancing neither to right nor
  left and never behind him. His eyes shunned every
  encounter with the eyes of women. From time to
  time also he balked them by a sudden effort of
  the will, as by lifting them suddenly in the
  middle of an unfinished sentence and closing the
  book (p.107).

• To mortify his hearing he exerted no control
  over his voice which was then breaking, neither
  sang nor whistled and made no attempt to flee
  from noise which caused him painful nervous
  irritation such as the sharpening of knives on
  the knifeboard, the gathering of cinders on the
  fireshovel and the twigging of carpet (p.107).

7

• To mortify his smell was more difficult as he
  found himself no instinctive repugnance to bad
  odours, whether they were the odours of the
  outdoor world such as those of dung or tar or the
  odours of his own person among which he had many
  curious comparisons and experiments. He found in
  the end that the only odour against which his
  sense of smell revolted was a certain stale sichy
  stink like that of longstanding urine and
  whenever it was possible he subjected himself to
  this unpleasant odour (p.108).

• To mortify the taste he practised strict habits
  at the table, observed to the letter all the
  fasts of the church and sought by distraction to
  divert his mind from the savours of different
  foods (p.108).

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• Through his limitations on his senses, he is able
  to constantly continue the self punishment he
  desires, as well as demonstrate his strong will.

• He never consciously changed his position in
  bed, sat in the most uncomfortable positions,
  suffered patiently every itch and pain, kept away
  from the fire, remained on his knees all through
  the mass except at the gospels, left parts of his
  neck and face undried so that air might sting
  them and, whenever he was not saying his beads,
  carried his arms stiffly at his sides like a
  runner and never in his pockets or clasped behind
  him (p.108)

9

• He had no temptations to sin mortally. It
  surprised him, however, to find that at the end
  of his course of intricate piety and
  selfrestraint he was so easily at the mercy of
  childish and unworthy imperfections (p.108).

10
Stephens Analysis of Religion

• Stephen attempts to intellectualize religion by
  making it fact in his mind. The problem is that
  religion cannot be proven as a fact, and this
  undercuts Stephens faith.
• Stephen attempts to benefit his beliefs in
  religion by making them concrete. He fully
  commits himself to religion. He becomes a living
  saint. But he realizes he is not perfect nor was
  he meant to be.
• He is too independent of a person to give himself
  away to a religion that nobody is entirely
  committed too. Even the priest, who is so high
  and holy makes jokes about female underwear.

11
Textual Evidence

• Stephen smiled again in answer to the smile he
  could not see on the priests shadowed face
  brought to mind a delicate and sinful perfume
  (pg 111)
• He crossed a bridge over the stream of the
  Tolka, and turned his eyes coldly for an instant
  towards the faded blue shrine of the Virgin (pg
  116)

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Stephen Meets the DirectorAn analysis of the
Directors tone and Stephens perceptions of
their meeting

• The director begins speaking to Stephen in such a
  way as to try and make him feel at ease, talking
  about indifferent themes, the vacation which had
  just ended, the colleges of the order abroad, the
  transference of masters, and changing the
  capuchin dresses to their convenience, all the
  while slowly dangling and looping the cord of
  the other blind p. 159.
• Stephen knows that the idle talk was a prelude
  and his mind waited for the sequel. p. 159
• Stephen is nervous, does not know what to expect
  from the priest, making a dubitative movement
  with his lips p. 160 when the director gives
  him an indulgent smile. p. 160
• The priests face remained hidden in the shadows,
  its image or spectre only passing rapidly across
  Stephens mind p. 160, as though to hide a
  purpose from Stephen until he chooses to or in
  order to analyze Stephen without him realizing
  it.
• Stephens mind drifts towards women and the
  thought of temptation at the mention of articles
  of dress worn by women or of certain soft and
  delicate stuffs used in their making p. 161

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SMtD continued

• The phrase had been spoken lightly with design
  and he felt that his face was being searched by
  the eyes in the shadow. p. 161
• The priest changes his tone of voice when
  approaching the offering of priesthood to
  Stephen, as indicated when he let the blindcord
  fall to one side and, uniting his hands, leaned
  his chin gravely upon them, communing with
  himself. p. 163
• By comparing the powers of a priest with that of
  kings, emperors, angels, archangels, and even the
  Blessed Virgin Mary, the Director is tempting
  Stephen with the illusion of unlimited, supreme
  power being within his reach. (p. 163) Stephen
  seems to take the bait and feverishly reflects
  upon his desires to be unique, hold such power
  and knowledge, play the part of the priest
  through the religious routines, and be clean of
  all sins while hearing the shameful deeds of
  others. Stephen seems to initially be ecstatic at
  the thought of taking on the very occupation he
  had deemed so highly and sacredly through his
  childhood
• His entrance to priesthood seems as similar to
  that to a cult of some sort Once a priest
  always a priest, remember. p. 164 He held
  open the heavy hall door and gave his hand as if
  already to a companion in the spiritual life.
  p. 164

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SMtD continued

• Meanwhile, the Director is keeping his serious
  expression, carrying a mirthless reflection of
  the sunken day p. 165
• Some instinct, waking at these memories,
  stronger than education or piety, quickened
  within him at every near approach to that life,
  an instinct subtle and hostile, and armed him
  with acquiescence. The chill and order of the
  life repelled him. He saw himself rising in the
  cold of the morning and filing down with the
  others to early mass and trying vainly to
  struggle with his prayers against the fainting
  sickness of his stomach. pg. 166
• The wisdom of the priests appeal did not touch
  him to the quick. He was destined to learn his
  own wisdom apart from others or to learn the
  wisdom of others himself wandering among the
  snares of the world. p. 167

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Religious Imagery

• During his meeting with the Director, we see a
  lot of religious references and imagery. Below
  are some examples.
• The director had begun to speak of the Dominican
  and Franciscan orders, and of the friendship
  between Saint Thomas and Saint Bonaventure
  (page 110).
• This is a reference to the Catholic Saints, both
  of which were alive in the 1200s near the height
  of Catholic power in Europe. Both Saints were
  extremely well versed theologians and
  philosophers, as well as being named Doctor of
  the Church.
• To receive that call, Stephen, - said the
  priest, - is the greatest honor that the
  Almightly God can bestow upon a man. No king or
  emperor on this earth has the power of the priest
  of God. (page 113).
• This is a reference to the commonly accepted idea
  that the Catholic Church is just as much a
  political machine, as it is a religious
  institution. Here the director tries to entrance
  Stephen with the ability to be more powerful than
  the rulers of nations, something, that
  unfortunately for the director, is something that
  Stephen is not particularly interested in
  becoming.

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Symbols.

• There are a huge number of symbols used
  throughout chapter 4. Below are my examples for
  symbols involving water, bridges, disorder, bird
  imagery, and Daedalus and Icarus.
• To merge his life in the common tide of other
  lives, was harder for him than any fasting or
  prayer (page 108).
• This excerpt, although not about a literal
  bridge, still has the idea of joining, or meeting
  something, which when you get down to the basics,
  is exactly what I bridge does, helps us meet, or
  join up by giving us safe travel across an
  expanse of water or other obstacles. This shows
  us Stephens own personal problems with being
  able to connect himself to other people, and I
  think that this may be able to explain Stephens
  unhealthy preoccupation with theological
  thoughts.
• His soul traversed a period of desolation in
  which the sacraments themselves seemed to have
  turned into dried up sources. (page 108).
• Here, the feelings of isolation, loss, and
  confusion that Stephen experiences are compared
  to the absence of the life-giving water. Without
  firm knowledge of where he stands in the greater
  scheme of things, Stephens life is becoming a
  symbolic desert.

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More Symbols.

• When he had eluded the flood of temptation many
  times this way he grew troubled and wondered
  (page 109).
• Here water, in abundance, or a flood, is
  associated with sinning. Stephen is proud that he
  has managed to avert possible sinful
  catastrophes, though he does begin to wonder if
  it is right to repress what he feels comes as
  naturally as water.
• The snares of the world were its ways of sin. He
  would fall. He had not yet fallen, but he would
  fall silently, in an instant. Not to fall was too
  hard, too hard and he felt the silent lapse of
  his soul, as it would be at some instant to come,
  falling, falling, but not yet fallen, still
  unfallen, but about to fall. (page 116).
• Here Stephen compares his religious situation as
  though he is Icarus, but unlike Icarus, Stephens
  not thrilled by being so pious (or by flying in
  the case of Icarus), as he knows that he is going
  to fall, and be damned forever, while Icarus
  never new he was falling until he hot the water.

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More Symbols.

• He passed from the trembling bridge onto firm
  land again. (page 119).
• In this excerpt, the bridge symbolizes Stephens
  anxiety at being judged by his pious peers
  (Christian Brothers), as he feel that he has no
  chance of living up to the standards that he
  thinks that they set for themselves.
• Now as never before, his strange name seemed to
  him a prophecy. So timeless seemed the grey warm
  air, so fluid and impersonal his own mood, that
  all ages were as one to him. A moment before the
  ancient ghost of the kingdom of the Danes had
  looked forth through the vesture of the
  hazewrapped city. Now, at the name of the
  fabulous artificer, he seemed to hear the noise
  of dim waves and slowly climbing the air. What
  did it mean? Was it a quaint device opening a
  page of some medieval book of prophecies and
  symbols, a hawklike man flying sunward above the
  sea, a prophecy of the end he had been born to
  serve and had been following through the mists of
  childhood and boyhood, a symbol of the artist
  forging anew in his workshop out of the sluggish
  matter of the earth a new soaring impalpable
  imperishable being? (page 121)
• In this excerpt, Stephen is related directly
  Daedalus, the Great Artificer. This is Stephens
  time of understanding as he realizes more about
  himself by seeing his life as a prophecy
  fulfilled.

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Stephen Then NowReferences to Stephens
maturation from child to adult

• An immediate indication of Stephens maturation
  is the change in the writing it has matured and
  become more eloquent and self-seeking than the
  previous chapters where he focused more on
  dialogue, memories, and less complex sentence
  structures and thoughts.
• Since he was a child, he never once doubted the
  priests openly. However, there are now moments
  where their words would at times seem childish,
  or silly, to his ears. This refers to his
  disillusionment accompanied with his growth and
  maturation, his self-revelations and realizations
  he gains through experience and age.
• Then he wondered at the vagueness of his wonder,
  at the remoteness of his soul from what he had
  hitherto imagined her sanctuary, at the frail
  hold which so many years of order and obedience
  had of him when once a definite and irrevocable
  act of his threatened to end for ever, in time
  and in eternity, his freedom. p. 167

• So he had passed beyond the challenge of the
  sentries who had stood as guardians of his
  boyhood and sought to keep him among them that he
  might be subject to them and serve their ends.
  p. 170
• He smiled to think that it was this disorder,
  the misrule and confusion of his fathers house
  and the stagnation of vegetable life, which was
  to win the day in his soul. p. 167

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Stephen TN continued

• All through his boyhood he had mused upon that
  which he had so often thought to be his destiny
  and when the moment had come for him to obey the
  call he had turned aside, obeying a wayward
  instinct. p. 170
• When looking out at the beach, Stephen recalls
  memories of his playing with his friends. He
  stood still in deference to their calls and
  parried their banter with easy words. How
  characterless they looked Shuley without his
  deep unbuttoned collar, Ennis without his scarlet
  belt with the snaky clasp, and Connolly without
  his Norfolk coat with the flapless sidepockets!
  It was a pain to see them and a swordlike pain to
  see the signs of adolescence that made repellent
  their pitiable nakedness. p. 173
• He sees an image of himself as Icarus, slowly
  climbing the air p. 173 a prophecy of
  the end he had been born to serve and had been
  following through the mists of childhood and
  boyhood, a symbol of the artist forging anew in
  his workshop out of the sluggish matter of the
  earth a new soaring impalpable imperishable
  being? p. 174

21
Stephen TN continued

• After his wild flight, his soul had arisen
  from the grave of boyhood, spurning her
  graveclothes. He would create proudly out of
  the freedom and power of his soul, as the great
  artificer whose name he bore, a living thing, new
  and soaring and beautiful, impalpable,
  imperishable. p. 174
• There was a lust of wandering in his feet that
  burned to set out for the ends of the earth. p.
  175
• Stephens conclusion He was alone. He was
  unheeded, happy and near to the wild heart of
  life. He was alone and young and wilful and
  wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and
  brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and
  tangle and veiled grey sunlight and gayclad
  lightclad figures, of children and girls and
  voices childish and girlish in the air. p.
  175-176

22
Descriptions and Implications Of Stephens Vision
of The Girl

• Throughout the entire chapter, there is always a
  mention of skirts, jupe.
• Meeting with director
• Stephens own thoughts
• The Girl in the Water
• Skirts symbolize temptations of the opposite sex
  for Stephen, and possibly the fact that something
  may have come between Stephen and the church,
  which in the end may lead to separation.
• The implications of the girl in the water shows
  Stephens decision to turn away from the church,
  as he feels cold peering upon a statue of the
  Virgin Mary, and instead turns to a possible
  different representation of the Virgin Mary, in
  the form of a bathing girl.

23
Mirror Images In Chapters I II

• ..." Look here, Cranly, he said. You have asked
  me what I would do and what I would not do. I
  will tell you what I will do and what I will not
  do. I will not serve that in which I no longer
  believe whether it call itself my home, my
  fatherland or my church and I will try to
  express myself in some mode of life or art as
  freely as I can, and as wholly as I can.
• James Joyce incorporated many examples of mirror
  images when writing this novel to strengthen
  Stephens character by adding autobiographical
  information from his own life.
• The mirror images are also known as chiasmic
  symmetry. Authors use this technique to add
  visual structure to a novel and its characters.

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Chapter IV Quiz

• What is one ritual that Stephen has acquired as a
  result of his new religious practices?
• Where is the Director standing when he first
  talks to Stephen during the meeting? (Hint Is he
  standing under the light? Or not?)
• What word that the Director mentions in their
  conversation, triggers memories and thoughts of
  women for Stephen?
• What is the French word for skirt?
• What does the Director of Belvedere suggest
  Stephen do with his life?
• Why does Stephen decide not to become a priest?
  (a noun, rhymes with precinct)
• Whom does Stephen see himself as when he is at
  the beach? (Hint he imagines himself being in
  the air there are two pictures of him in this
  presentation)
• How does Stephen react to the girl that he sees
  wading in the water?
• What does the Girl in the Water symbolize to
  Stephen?
• If this book was a movie, would you pay 9
  dollars to see it?

25
Chapter IV Quiz ANSWERS

• What is one ritual that Stephen has acquired as a
  result of his new religious practices? He prays
  every morning before a holy icon, divides his
  daily schedule into parts that correspond to
  particular spiritual philosophies, keeps a rosary
  in his pockets so he can touch them as his day
  progresses, and he divides each rosary into three
  parts devoted to the three theological virtues.
• Where is the Director standing when he first
  talks to Stephen during the meeting? (Hint Is he
  standing under the light? Or not?) In the shadows
• What word that the Director mentions in their
  conversation, triggers memories and thoughts of
  women for Stephen? Jupe(s)/skirt
• What is the French word for skirt? Jupe
• What does the Director of Belvedere suggest
  Stephen do with his life? Become a priest
• Why does Stephen decide not to become a priest?
  his instinct
• Whom does Stephen see himself as when he is at
  the beach? (Hint he imagines himself being in
  the air there are two pictures of him in this
  presentation) Icarus
• How does Stephen react to the girl that he sees
  wading in the water? calls her an angel, pure
  beauty
• What does the Girl in the Water symbolize to
  Stephen? Virgin Mary, separation from church
• If this book was a movie, would you pay 9
  dollars to see it? Answers may vary.