A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Manchapter 1

James Joyce

Chapter One reviewed….

Stephen fetus-like…

Explores the world of the senses

Auditory------------------- Irish nursery rhymes, songs, stories, and other

folklore Clapping Arguments Prayers Riddles Cheering Cricket bats Water (“suck”… …”pick, pack, pock,

puck: like drops of water in a fountain

falling softly in the brimming bowl.” Soft grey SILENCE

Visual---------------------- Moocow Soft grey air / “grey light…” Colors… grey, maroon, red, white, yellow…. Yellow candles, yellow curtains… Scarlet with shame… Flowers (roses) Flight (birds) “Like rats in a sewer” Scrimmage… “boots” and “legs” “She had put her hands into his pockets...” “Darkly lit” castle “The fellows seemed to him to have grown smaller…” “The fire rose and fell on the wall” Someone had drawn a fetus on the desk…

Tactile---------------------

Dirty ditches… Smugging in the square Kissing his

mother

Hot and cold… “cold and damp…”,

the “hot, weak tea…” Wet and dry Cold and slimy water… “cold slime” “The sky was pale and cold…”

Olfactory------------------smell His father… His mother The fields Wetting the bed (“that had a queer smell”) “Cold night smell”, “holy smell”, “smell of the old peasants”…

“Smell was a sin too…. The smell of the wine”

Ch.1: Worthy of contemplation & discussion… Joyce’s Contrasts / Opposing images/ideas… Innocence --- Knowledge ….. Others? Trembling… “Blinded by fear…” (ignorance to knowledge?

Allegory of the Cave?) Fire = water = voices, therefore voices = fire He develops a sense of the world around him. “But he could not go…It was impossible… he could

not…” Epiphany about people and self….. Chapter ends on an equilibrium. STASIS. Silence. Stephen’s conception of boyhood ends when he has

to face the rector.

SINS?....

Smell of the wine… “smell was a sin too…”

“Lazy little schemer” (SLOTH) “He was happy and free: but he would not be anyway

proud with Father Dolan. He would be very quiet and obedient: and he wished that he could do something kind for him to show him that he was not proud.”

(HUBRIS)

Where is this leading for Chapter Two?