A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Chapter 2Bianca Balsamo, Colby Wang, Alex Wallace, Elizabeth Farrenkopf, Rianna Sundstedt, Paige Altshuler, Micah Schnadig, Emily Barnhill, Henry Wright

1. Chapter SummaryBianca Balsamo

Chapter Summary

● Now it’s summer and Stephen is spending a lot of time with Uncle Charles in a place called BlackRock. They often go to church together and Stephen has clearly lost the unquestioning faith he had as a boy.

● Stephen is inexplicably in a physical training program with his father’s friend Mike Flynn, spends many of his days with a friend named Aubrey Mills, and still doesn’t understand the politics that the adults speak of. He can feel adulthood moving closer, but doesn’t know where he fits in the world.

● Due to serious financial decline, Stephen quits school at Clongowes and the Dedalus family moves to Dublin. Unsure of how to deal with this, Stephen dreams of finding love, like he has read about in The Count of Monte Cristo.

Chapter Summary

● Stephen is often alone and wanders the city, but also visits relatives with his mother occasionally, which he feels doesn’t really serve him.

● At a birthday party, Stephen develops feelings for a girl (E.C.) and wants to write a poem to her. This is his first experience as a writer!

● Mr. Dedalus has a run-in with the Clongowes rector who reveals that he never scolded Father Dolan like he promised, and only laughed with him about Stephen’s complaint over dinner.

● Stephen and his younger brother Maurice now attend a school called Belvedere. At a school event, where Stephen is starring in a play, he is picked on by two boys named Heron and Wallis.

Chapter Summary

● This reminds Stephen of an intellectual argument he had two years ago with these boys. He recalls how, at that time, he was pushing himself academically. Now, Stephen is more of a “sensitive soul” and is frustrated by the ugly and meaningless existence he sees in Dublin.

● Now an alcoholic, Mr. Dedalus takes Stephen to visit his hometown, Cork, and his alma mater, Queen’s College. They spend time with some of Mr. Dedalus’s former friends, making Stephen feel isolated.

● Stephen’s romantic thoughts have been increasing, but they make him feel guilty and further separated from the world. One day, while wandering around the city, Stephen is picked up by a hooker, and the chapter ends with him feeling helpless in her bedroom.

2. Themes, Motifs, and

SymbolsColby Wang, Alex Wallace, and

Elizabeth Farrenkopf

Themes, Motifs, and SymbolsSensory Experiences

● Just as in Chapter 1, Stephen is constantly observing through his senses

“But when he had sung his song and withdrawn into a snug corner of the room he began to taste the joy of his loneliness.” (71)

● Stephen describes the world around him in terms of senses and in a way that we can feel, hear, or taste what he hears, feels, and tastes.

Betrayal of Catholicism & Perceived Hypocrisy

”Father Dolan and I, when I told them all at the dinner about it [the glasses situation], Father Dolan and I had a great laugh over it” (Joyce 63)

-feels betrayed that his own father would against him

-religion is supposed to be a concept that unites people together

-instead attacked by his own people

Good/Bad and Light/Dark● Light and Dark play relatively the same role as good and bad. The light

represents warmth and, well, light, while the dark is scary and cold.

“The light spread upwards from the glass roof making the theatre seem a festive ark.”

“Under the sudden glow of a lantern he could recognize the smiling face of a priest" (76).

● The light is used whenever Stephen sees or notices something he perceives as good for the time being.

Good/Bad and Light/Dark

● Conversely, the dark is intimidating.

“The latter was a stranger to him but in the darkness…”(79)

● Stephen is portrayed as afraid of the dark, in this instance, as he cannot tell what lies within it.

Portrayal of Adults as Role Models & loss of innocence for Stephen” Stephen watched three glasses being raised from the counter as his father and his two cronies drink to the memory of their past. His mind seemed older theirs”(Joyce 84)

-Stephen is embarrassed by his father and begins to realize that he will have to grow up more isolated

-realizes he has no father figure

“...Uncle Charles, an image which had been fading out of memory” (Joyce 76)

-even other once good relationships are deteriorating

Beauty

“-Give me a kiss, she said. His lips would not bend to kiss her. He wanted to be held firmly in her arms…. In her arms he felt that he had suddenly become strong and fearless. But his lips would not bend to kiss her.”(Joyce 89)

-Stephen loses confidence

-Loses the built of character towards the end, but becomes mentally stronger.

Establishment of Identity“He often wondered what his grandfather prayed for so seriously...words which he did not understand which he said over and over to himself”(Joyce 53-57)

-losing faith in religion

-disconnected because he was often turned away from his religion many different times (ie. being mocked by schoolmates & laughed at by priests)

Isolation/Differentness

“He ran across the road and began to walk at breakneck speed down the hill. He hardly knew where he was walking…. They streamed upwards before his anguished eyes in dense and maddening fumes.”(Joyce 76)

-Stephen is in play and feels embarrassed by his lines(hallucination)

-After play started running on away

Birds & Water

Bird = Fear

“Stephen shook his head and smiled in his rival;s flushed and mobile face, beaked like a bird’s”(Joyce 66)

Water = Mixture of feelings or loss

“He strode down the hill amid the tumult of suddenrisen vapours of wounded pride and fallen hope of baffled desire.”(Joyce 75)

3. Religion, Desire to Escape,

Literature, Family, & LoveRianna Sundstedt and Paige

Altshuler

Faith and Doubt in Religion● When Stephen prays with his uncle, he respects, “though he [does] not share, his

piety” (33)● is accused of heresy by his teacher because he wrote an essay “about the creator

and the soul” (43) and said that there was no “possibility of ever approaching nearer” (43) to God

● Stands up to his peers when they call his favorite poet, Lord Byron, a heretic, saying “‘I don’t care what he was’” (44)

● His father’s advice to “be a good catholic above all things (45) no longer resonated with him and the words had “come to be hollow-sounding”( 45)

Stephen’s Desire to Escape

● Stephen uses literature as a means of escape, and because “his evenings were his own” (33), unlike the rest of the day, that is the time when he can read and escape from reality

● Wants to isolate himself from others and escape his family’s financial troubles

References to Literature● The Count of Monte Cristo (33) is referenced as Stephen’s

means of escape● He begins to imagine himself as the Count of Monte Cristo, who

became a bitter and vengeful character after he was wrongfully accused of a crime

● Reference to Lord Byron (37), who inspired him when writing his love poem to E.C.

● The Confiteor(82 Penguin classic), Stephen recites the Confiteor when prompted to confess his love for the girl he met at the birthday party(E.C.).

Stephen’s Relationship with Family/Community

● so ashamed of his father and the family’s financial situation that “any allusion made to his father by a fellow or by a master put his calm to rout” (41)

● feels very separate from and superior to the other members of his community● Stephen thinks of his classmates as “Boland was the dunce and Nash the

idler” (43) showing his perceived intellectual superiority ● annoyed and embarrassed by his father’s drinking and tries to “cover the

shameful sign of his father’s drinking bout of the night before” (50) when they are at breakfast

Stephen’s Perception of Love and Sex

● At a birthday party, Stephen is attracted to a girl, E.C. but does not kiss her or make any other attempt to be with her, even when he has an opportunity; he thought, “I could hold her and kiss her” (37), but he doesn’t.

● Later, he writes a poem that emphasizes “some undefined sorrow… hidden in the hearts of the protagonists as they stood in silence” (38), symbolizing repression

● Stephen idealizes his pursuit for love by imagining himself as the Count of Monte Cristo and his future love interest as Mercedes; he wants the idea of a woman more than any specific woman

● He also wants to reject a woman who wants him, as the Count does when he says “I never eat muscatel grapes”

4. The Count of Monte Cristo, Cardinal

Newman, Lord Byron, Alfred Lord Tennyson,

and The ConfiteorMicah Schnadig, Emily Barnhill,

and Henry Wright

Reference to Literature The Count of Monte Cristo a nineteenth-century novel about a handsome hero, Edmond Dantes, who is about to be married to his beautiful and beloved Mercedes when he is falsely accused of treason and imprisoned for fourteen years. He arranges a highly unlikely but melodramatically thrilling escape; then he unearths a treasure which finances several ingenious schemes of revenge on the men responsible for his imprisonment. The multiple allusions to Mercedes, Marseilles, sunny trellises, and moonlit gardens all refer to this novel.

Mercedes is Edmond Dantes wife to be, however he’s sent to prison before the two can tie the knot. As Edmond rots in a French prison cell, the thought of his lover’s face pervades him in his darkest moments, inspiring him to fight to find freedom.

Marseilles is a port city in southern France. Château d'If is an old island prison off the coast of Marseille where Edmond Dantes was imprisoned.

The Count of Monte Cristo “"His evenings were his own; and he pored over a ragged translation of The Count of Monte Cristo. The figure of that dark avenger stood forth in his mind for whatever he had heard or divined in childhood of the strange and terrible. At night he built up on the parlour table an image of the wonderful island cave out of transfers and paper flowers and coloured tissue paper and strips of the silver and golden paper in while chocolate was wrapped. When he had broken up this scenergy, weary of it's tinsel, there would come to is mind the bright picture of Marseilles, of sunny trellises and of Mercedes."(pg. 74)

“Outside Blackrock, on the road that led to the mountains, stood a small whitewashed house in the garden of which grew many rosebushes: and in this house, he told himself, another Mercedes lived.” (74)

“He returned to Mercedes and, as he brooded upon her image, a strange unrest crept into his blood.”(76)

“The vastness and strangeness of the life suggested to him by the bales of merchandise stocked along the walls or swung aloft out of the holds of steamers wakened again in him the unrest which had sent him wandering in the evening from garden to garden in search of Mercedes.”(79)

“Only at times, in the pauses of his desire, when the luxury that was wasting him gave room to a softer languor, the image of Mercedes traversed the background of his memory.”(121)

Cardinal Newman Stephen remembers his first year at Belvedere; it was a time when he felt terribly insecure about his home life and his future. He had begun to take pride in the success of his essay writing when Mr. Tate, the English teacher, discussed one of Stephen's essays, saying that it contained heresy. Strangely, Stephen felt a "vague . . . malignant joy" at being singled out by Mr. Tate. Afterward, Heron and two other troublesome classmates, apparently jealous of Stephen, confronted him and instigated a fight; during the incident, Stephen was forced to identify Cardinal Newman as his favorite prose writer and Byron as his favorite poet.

“—Fudge! said Heron. Ask Dedalus. Who is the greatest writer, Dedalus? Stephen noted the mockery in the question and said: —Of prose do you mean? —Yes. —Newman, I think. —Is it Cardinal Newman? asked Boland. —Yes, answered Stephen.” - Pg. 97

Cardinal Newman James Joyce had a lifelong admiration for Newman's writing, and once wrote in a letter, "nobody has ever written English prose that can be compared with that of a tiresome footling little Anglican parson who afterwards became a prince of the only true church".

Stephen also seems to have an indirect connection to the Cardinal. Newman founded Dublin’s university college in 1851 as a site for the practical application of the educational theories set out in his Idea of a University. Stephen Dedalus’s deep interest in the seemingly unnoticed things in life like the meaning of words also echoes the cardinal’s theories of the “inward world of thought.”

Lord Byron● “‘And who do you think is the greatest poet?’ asked Boland,

nudging his neighbor… ‘Byron, of course,’ answered Stephen… ‘Byron the greatest poet! He’s only a poet for uneducated people’ (85).”

● Stephen is discussing with this classmates who the greatest poet is, and he answers with Byron. This shocks the other students because Byron is a very controversial figure who was very critical of religion and was a strong opposer of the government.

● By mentioning Byron in a positive light, Stephen is supporting Byron’s radical ways, and shows how Stephen is starting to become his own person and question his beliefs, the same way Byron did.

Alfred Lord Tennyson● “‘And who is the greatest poet, Heron?’ asked Boland. ‘Lord

Tennyson, of course,’ said Nash… At this Stephen forgot the silent vows he had been making and burst out: ‘Tennyson a poet! Why, he’s only a rhymester!’ (85)”

● Alfred Lord Tennyson was a poet who had an optimistic viewpoint on religion, and many of his poems talked about death and what he thought of the afterlife.

● Tennyson’s views are opposite to Byron’s in Stephen’s mind.● By Stephen talking badly of Tennyson, he is supporting

Byron’s view again. He disagrees with Tennyson’s strong religious views and blind faith as he questions his religious viewpoints.

The ConfiteorWhile other get ready for the performance, Stephen takes a step outdoors where he sees his friends Heron and Wallis. They try to make Stephen confess his love for E.C, the girl he met at the birthday party. They say they saw her walking with Mr.Dedalus. When put on the spot, Stephen confesses his feelings by reciting the Confiteor, a confessional Catholic prayer.

“Stephen felt the skin tingle and glow slightly and almost painlessly; and bowing submissively, as if to meet his companion’s jesting mood, began to recite the Confiteor”(Joyce 82).

Stephen wrote heresy in his essay about “the creator and the soul” that caused Mr.Tate to “fold up the essay” and pass it to him. This created an uproar in the class which eventually lead to students, Heron included pressing Stephen into a corner forcing him to admit that “Byron was no good”

“While he was still repeating the Confiteor amid the indulgent laughter of his hearers and while scenes of malignant episode were still passing sharply and swiftly before his mind he wondered why he bore no malice now to those who had tormented him”(Joyce 87)

The Confiteor Background.

“The Confiteor.(so called from the first word, confiteor, I confess) is a general confession of sins; it is used in the Roman Rite at the beginning of Mass and on various other occasions as a preparation for the reception of some grace.”(Newadvent.org)

Stephen recites The Confiteor whenever he is forced into a situation in which he has to admit things he may be uncomfortable saying.In this case it is admitting his feeling for E.C. and having to admit Byron was no good. Going to a Catholic school, reciting a Catholic prayer makes sense when Stephen must admit to things.

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