In the comment box below, explicate a passage from the first section of Portrait of the Artist. Take a look at the link to New Critical theory on the blog tab, and check out this description of the art of explication by some guy named "Mr. Cook":
"A friend, Mr. Ryan Gallagher at Malden (MA) High School, writes, "A passage explication is
an essay that takes apart the pieces of a prose passage to demonstrate
how it creates meaning [on its own and in relation to the rest of the
work]. Its main question can be reduced to the simple idea of 'What does
the passage mean? What is its purpose? How does it create that meaning
and achieve its purpose? How does it fit in with the rest of the text
(if available)?'"
A further note on the etymology of explication: in Latin explicare means
"to unfold," so it might be useful to imagine Joyce's text as
compressed (or folded) into a particularly dense and layered package of
potential meaning.
Your job as an explicator is to unfold the densely layered mass,
to report on what you discover as you unfold, and to speculate upon the
significance of what you discover.
Another friend, Mr. John Brassil, an AP Language teacher in Maine who is active with the College Board, talks about "close reading"
as walking through the landscape of a text. What do you notice? (What
is odd? What is interesting? What's similar? What's different? What
stands out? What blends in?) And then, what might be significant about
what you've noticed in relation to the text as a whole (or, to extend
the metaphor, the landscape as an ecosystem)? We recommend that you walk
through the passage from beginning to end, commenting as you go about
what you notice and how it might be significant."
Let me add here that you should explore your passage with an eye toward the development of Stephen's artistic consciousness. Based on the evidence you have in the passage, what do you Stephen's artistic temperament or aesthetic theory will be like?
"The cheers died away in the soft grey air. He was alone. 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." page 51.
ReplyDeleteObedience is a key aspect in the life of Jesuits. Stephen attends a very rigorous and strict school, and has been made to idolize its staff. To him, it seems as if they can do no wrong. If it wasn't for his peers, Stephen may have very well blamed himself for the glasses incident rather than believing in the faults of Father Dolan.
When analyzed closely, this passage reveals a lot about Stephen Dedalaus. Initially, it introduces us to the idea that Stephen is ultimately happy. His emotions have never been as clear-cut as they are in this passage. Joyce refuses to simply state any of Stephen' soother feelings or moods throughout section 1, which makes this passage significant. It also announces the question: is Stephen happy and free? Or is Stephen happy once he is free from punishment? Stephen is free from Father Dolan's fury, and absolved from all blame, but yet he is still not free from Father Dolan's skeptical eye. I predict that in the near future, Stephen will once again bear the brunt of Father Dolan's punishment due to his act of tattling to the prefect.
This passage also reveals to the reader a very unusual characteristic belonging to Stephen: his self conscientiousness. Stephen is very fearful of creating a negative image in Father Dolan's eye. It appears to me that he can not bear anyone to not like him, probably due to a lack of self-like. He especially does not want Father Dolan to think he is now smug, or "proud". The passage makes it clear that Stephen is very passive, and rarely wants to be involved in confrontation. Stephen can not handle Dolan's animosity.
It is evident that Stephen does not like fighting, but his remark that, "wished that he could do something kind for him to show him that he was not proud", proves him to be weak. Rather than accept his victory, he would rather apologize and let Father Dolan get away with his wrongdoing as long as to prevent a fight. His action of confessing Father Dolan's wrongdoing illustrates tot he reader that Stephen is building a moral conscience, but this wishful apology also shows that he'd still rather not stand up for what he believes in. Stephen still has a lot of growing to do, as seen in this passage.
“Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo. . . . His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a glass: he had a hairy face. He was a baby tuckoo. The moocow came down the road where Betty Byrne lived: she sold lemon platt.
ReplyDeleteO, the wild rose blossoms On the little green place.
He sang that song. That was his song.
O, the green wothe botheth.
When you wet the bed first it is warm then it gets cold. His mother put on the oilsheet. That had the queer smell.” (Joyce 1+2)
This quote begins the book. Here, it seems that Joyce wanted to establish Stephen’s childish attitude right away to show the readers how his main character matures throughout the progression of the book. We see his insecurities, his naivety, and his immaturity in the story in which his father tells him. Just like the baby tuckoo in his father’s story, Stephen has the potential to soar, but is too young to try for now. In addition, it seems that the concept of soaring or flying appears multiple times in the story. Joyce even makes several references to the Greek myth of Daedulus and Icarus. Here, Joyce may be trying to foreshadow Stephen’s hidden greatness and soon he will be able to soar among the other great artists in his time. However, Stephen also has the potential to fall and fail if he remains too innocent or becomes too wild, just like Icarus.
“He read the verse backwards but then they were not poetry. Then he read the flyleaf from the bottom to the top till he came to his own name... and God understood what all the people who prayed said in their different languages still God remained always the same God and God’s real name was God.” (Joyce 13)
ReplyDeleteStephen is pondering a deep question of existence, but is worried about the answer. He cannot fathom the idea that something may exist beyond the universe, and in his fear he resorts to faith to explain that which he cannot. He diverts the responsibility for understanding “everything and everywhere” away from himself, deeming God the only being capable of knowing. After lifting the burden of such heavy thoughts off of his own shoulders, Stephen is able to distract himself. He shrinks away from the massive question of the universe by naming God as capable of answering it, and then almost hides behind an internal review of God’s name. He offers support for his idea that God can understand “everything” by suggesting that God can understand all people and the languages in which they may be speaking when they pray to him. He describes God as a universal being so as to explain God’s ability to comprehend the universe.
Perhaps Stephen is dwelling on a conflict or process by which an artist creates his or her work or learns to understand it. An artist can know and understand every minute and major facet of their work, and may well know how to transcend language as God does. No matter what language is used to refer to him, God is God, as Stephen asserts. Perhaps Stephen will grow into an artist whose work can communicate across or more effectively than languages can.
The first part to Joyce's "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" is chopped up and fragmented with little to no explainable connections between scenes. The tone, while it can be peaceful, always has an underlying feeling of stress or anxiety. Observations of the environment are constantly being made- particularly that of colors and temperature. These can all be reflections of the main character's mind- that he is still childish and still trying to understand the world around him. He is taking in many small, individualized things at once, so everything appears fragmented and separate from each other. While trying to understand the world around him he is also trying to figure how it works, its rules and its morals. A misunderstanding or ignorant belief can cause mass anxiety or confusion, such as the fragment mentioning Stephen's nightly panic to be in bed before the gas is turned off because he believes that if he is not he will be sent to hell when he dies. Meanwhile the rules of politics and that nothing is fair come to him through the dinner scene and being unjustly flogged for "idleness" because he accidentally broke his glasses. In the second part, when Stephen is much older but still not quite yet a fully-matured adult, the sections are still rather fragmented, but the flow into each other a little more easily. This may be because Stephen has a large grasp of the world around him then he did when he was younger, but not enough to completely understand and accept the world. It can also be a reflection of Stephen's maturity in his thoughts and mindset that is growing little by little. Names can also be reflections to their bearers or an allusion to something else. Stephen's last name, Daedulus, for example, is a reference to the Icarus legend in Greek mythology, perhaps an allusion or some form of foreshadowing that he will be like Icarus and soar to great lengths before his fall. Or that he will be like Daedulus and fly away from his prison (intellectual, mental, or emotional) but in the process will lose something that has an immense value to him. Or Heron in part two, which is both a reference to his birdlike appearance and his harassing behavior.
ReplyDelete“He had to undress and then kneel and say his own prayers and be in bed before the gas was lowered so that he might not go to hell when he died. He rolled his stockings off and put on his nightshirt quickly and knelt trembling at his bedside and repeated his prayers quickly quickly, fearing that the gas would go down. He felt his shoulders shaking as he murmured:
ReplyDeleteGod bless my father and mother and spare them to me!
God bless my little brothers and sisters and spare them to me!
God bless Dante and uncle Charles and spare them to me!” (Joyce 18)
In this scene, Stephen is experiencing extreme fear at the thought of going to hell. In his still childish mind, he thinks that going to bed after the lights are turned off will somehow condemn him. Although there is no definite age given to him in the book, it is easy to see here that he is still rather young. He is having similar fears as other young children have. He is afraid to break what he thinks is an important rule and also displays fear of the dark.
Religion is an important theme throughout the book, and an example of it is given again as he is rushing through his bedtime prayers. It is evident that Stephen comes from a religious family and goes to a school where religion is highly valued. However, I got the sense while reading this passage that Stephen does not value it as seriously. It may simply be because he is still younger and might not fully understand it, or it could also be that he has simply been brought up around prayer and God so long that he feels saying prayers to be more of a task that has to get done then something that should be done. He has also clearly been taught to fear Hell and death, and as a result is afraid to go to bed even a few seconds too late. Perhaps Joyce is foreshadowing that Stephen will never take his religion as seriously as his family, and think of it more as a task to be done to avoid going to Hell. On the other hand, he could just be emphasizing on the youth of Stephen and how much growing he has left to do, as it is evident here that he is still young based on his fear.
“Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo. . . . His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a glass: he had a hairy face. He was a baby tuckoo. The moocow came down the road where Betty Byrne lived: she sold lemon platt. O, the wild rose blossoms On the little green place.
ReplyDeleteHe sang that song. That was his song.
O, the green wothe botheth.
When you wet the bed first it is warm then it gets cold. His mother put on the oilsheet. That had the queer smell.” (Joyce 1)
This quote is selected from the beginning of the book in Section 1. Joyce is using a strategy in which he introduces a story within a book and uses that story to relate or compare the characters and outlines his book. It can be decided that Joyce refers to Stephen as the boy named baby tuckooo. Here Joyce introduces Stephen to be young and ignorant of the world, as the boy named baby tuckoo is. He structures the book so that the heart of the book is briefly mentioned in the beginning and it sort of gives an idea to the reader how to think of the book when first reading it, and the story will unfold. As I've said before, we can relate this quote to the quote introduced in the beginning of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. When Ellison placed that quote in the beginning of the novel it wasn't thought to be of any importance but it jus two happens that throughout Invisible Man the invisible man basically lived his life by that quote that his grandfather gave before he died and it was often referred to throughout the book. It would be best to approach The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with this story in mind, even though it may not be clear as to what message Joyce may be trying to convey.
Pg.37 “Stephen looked….pairing them.”
ReplyDeleteThis passage is describing the moment when one of the students at Stephen’s school is telling a story of five students that ran away. Stephen is with a group of kids asking the questions but does not understand the answer the answers. He is completely lost as to what happened even though he hears the explanation the words do not mean anything to him. The only reason this event is used is to highlight the immaturity of Stephen and separation that Stephen is experiencing from his classmates. After the explanation Stephen is left with many questions of his own. Joyce says that Stephen is looking around at all the faces wanting to ask but instead says the questions in his head, not finding the answers. This demonstrates the overwhelming amount of thoughts in Stephen’s head. The confusion of this event provides an example of the immature racing mindset that Stephen still possesses. Stephen begins to connect other events that may be related but do not help answer the questions and begins a random thought process that a child has. He thinks of the empty football field which is similar to the loneliness that he feels by being separated from his classmates. Joyce has created a situation in which he is able to show the irrational thinking of Stephen and show the separation that Stephen experiences while at school.
In the first section of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man we are witness to multiple stories of Stephen’s childhood, each one fairly telling of the kind of damaged and traumatizing life that he appeared to live under. The particular part I wanted to examine was the entire series of Stephen getting punished by the prefect because the prefect accused him of purposefully destroying his own glasses to get out of doing work that day. The teacher of the class even explains and supports Stephen but the prefect is on a power trip and does what he sees fit. He hits Stephen on the hand repeatedly causing some lasting damage to the boy’s hand. During this episode we get insight into Stephen’s thoughts and the pain he feels. But it is very important to notice the kind of thoughts he starts to have after the punishment has been delivered. In his mind, Stephen repeatedly thinks of the prefect and his beating as cruel and unfair. This is important to see because this is the first time that Stephen actually realizes he is being wrongly treated. Earlier, when he was made fun of first for saying he kisses his mom and then directly after when he says he doesn’t kiss his mom, he only thinks that there must have been a right answer, and not that his antagonist was simply being mean for the sake of trying to embarrass Stephen in front of a crowd. But here he feels that he has been wronged. He knows that the punishment was unjust, but does not know how to act upon these thoughts. It takes the support and instruction of his classmates to get Stephen to report the story to the rector. The improvement is that Stephen finally has a bit more of a self-esteem, one that realizes that the person in power may not always be right.
ReplyDeleteThis part of the book seems slightly isolated; but then again, so is the rest of the book. The plot skips from place to place intentionally, and to me, it sounds like this first part of the story is memory. We aren’t witnessing the events as they unfold in linear order; we are viewing them from the memory of an older Stephen whose mind is not focused. But this part does come after the other problems he has had to deal with, and this one he sticks up for himself.
“Stephen knelt down quickly pressing his beaten hands to his sides. To think of them beaten and swollen with pain all in a moment made him feel so sorry for them as if they were not his own but someone else's that he felt sorry for. And as he knelt, calming the last sobs in his throat and feeling the burning tingling pain pressed in to his sides, he thought of the hands which he had held out in the air with the palms up and of the firm touch of the prefect of studies when he had steadied the shaking fingers and of the beaten swollen reddened mass of palm and fingers that shook helplessly in the air.” (Page 51)
ReplyDeleteThis passage is a good representation of the various things in Stephens’s life that he finds fear in. His reaction to these circumstances was very brave and this may be a characteristic of him that continues to develop and become heightened as the novel moves forward. This display was very different from his usual mannerism of being reserved and holding back. The instance of dealing with this kind pain is something that may reappear in the book in a similar way at some point. The physical parts of the story described are some of the most impactful and memorable. The action Stephen takes after this instance puts him into an entirely different light. Once he is convinced to tell the rector about what has been unjustly done to him and after the rector says that he will speak to Father Dolan, it is believed by the other students that they have also been represented by Stephen doing this. He comes to be considered a hero to them. Stephen certainly had not been portrayed like this prior to this point in the novel. This heroic side is one that may or may not reappear in the remainder of the book. Even after this heroic deed, Stephen still does not feel as if he fits in with the other students or that he is completely accepted by them. He still feels alone and this isolation is another thing that is questionable as to whether he will ever achieve overcoming it.
Page 11, Paragraph 9
ReplyDelete“They all laughed again. Stephen tried to laugh with them. He felt his whole body hot and confused in a moment. What was the right answer to the question? He had given two and still Wells laughed. But Wells must know the right answer for he was in the third of grammar. He tried to think of Wells’s mother but he did not dare to raise his eyes to Wells’s face. It was Wells who had shouldered him into the square ditch the day before because he would not swop the little snuffbox for Wells’s seasoned hacking chestnut, the conqueror of forty. It was a mean thing to do; all the fellows said it was. And how cold and slimy the water had been! And a fellow had once seen a big rat jump plump into the scum.”
In this excerpt, Stephen expresses the confusion he feels at being teased for kissing his mother goodnight every night. At first he is teased for saying that he does, but is still teased when he says he doesn’t. Everyone laughs, but he doesn’t know why. He doesn't know how to answer the question; should he say he does or doesn’t kiss his mother goodnight? At this stage in the novel Stephen has not yet developed good reasoning skills. His view of the world is limited to a very simple set of conditions that should, according to his young mind, be able to make sense of everything. This is why Stephen becomes confused when he is teased for answering the question both ways; there is no right answer. He cannot seem to grasp the fact that he is being teased. Since Wells is in a higher level of grammar than Stephen, he must have an answer that makes sense. Stephen still assumes that everyone in a position of power is to be trusted and that they would never take advantage of him. He does not yet know that anything other than earnestness exists. The way the passage is written, all chopped up and fragmented into simple sentences which are strung together by an extremely naive, primitive sense of judgement, hints at Stephens confusion. Here, as in other parts of the novel, Stephen struggles to make sense of the world. He does not know how to react and cannot join in on the joke. He feels like an outsider, a problem that occurs over an over throughout the story, lending to Stephen a feeling that he does not belong. He does not understand the discourse of his peers on some levels and is thus separated from them.
"It was nice and warm to see the lights in the castle. It was like something in a book. Perhaps Leicester Abbey was like that. And there were nice sentences in Doctor Cornwell's Spelling Book. They were like poetry but they were only sentences to learn the spelling from.
ReplyDeleteWolsey died in Leicester Abbey
Where the abbots buried him.
Canker is a disease of plants,
Cancer one of animals.
It would be nice to lie on the hearthrug before the fire, leaning his head upon his hands, and think on those sentences" (Joyce 10).
This scene follows Stephen's train of thought through one of his first encounters with literature in Joyce's book. The passage demonstrates his somewhat simple understanding of literature however he seems to have great appreciation of the sentences and potential. Stephen values the work and his interest in art is clearly evident. The passage begins with a routine introduction of literature from a child's point of view. It is simply spelling practice, however as the passage continues Stepen's interest increases greatly. He would like nothing more but to continue reading. I wonder if his self consciousness will affect his new found interest? The conflict behind the other boys teasing him about kissing his mother may influence his approach. Stephen has also been taught to be extremely obedient. Will his growing interest be seen as rebellion or will it be an encouraged behavior? The passage seems to foreshadow a growing passion for literature and art; a passion that has potential be expressed or contained. I believe that the context of Joyce's work predicts that Stephen will embrace art and grow through it himself. His interest as a young boy demonstrates the potential to be great. As I read the passage I sensed that Stephen has some confusion about art as he does in his life. His confusion is normal for his age however he seems to be growing and while doing so demonstrates great value of the world around him.
“Then he went away from the door and Wells came over to Stephen and said:
ReplyDelete—Tell us, Dedalus, do you kiss your mother before you go to bed?
Stephen answered:
—I do.
Wells turned to the other fellows and said:
—O, I say, here's a fellow says he kisses his mother every night before he goes to bed.
The other fellows stopped their game and turned round, laughing. Stephen blushed under their eyes and said:
—I do not.
Wells said:
—O, I say, here's a fellow says he doesn't kiss his mother before he goes to bed.
They all laughed again. Stephen tried to laugh with them. He felt his whole body hot and confused in a moment. What was the right answer to the question? He had given two and still Wells laughed. But Wells must know the right answer for he was in third of grammar.”
Here the reader can clearly see Stephen being tormented by fellow classmates. Interestingly enough though, Stephen doesn't appear to understand completely that that's the case. Instead he's focused on the question, “what is the right answer?” Because of what is happening in this scene, we know that no matter what Stephen had said, he would have been cruel and mocked because of it. Wells and his friends only wanted to make a fool out of him because they considered themselves better than him. At the same time however, the question “what is the right answer?” seems to be a reoccurring one for Stephen. He's constantly searching for what is right. An example of this would be what drove him to talk to the rector about his unfair punishment for not having glasses when he had a legitimate excuse not to have them. Knowing it was wrong, and knowing that going to the rector was the right answer was what pushed him to do so in the first place, and it's the first time in the novel that we see he ends up sure of himself.
As far as the development of Stephens’s artistic consciousness goes, I think a lot of the time it's this uncertainty of the right answer that eventually pushes us to make more bold statements and draw conclusions that aren't necessarily what one thinks of as the 'safe' choice. If you don't have the right answer, you're forced to at least find one that works for you. I believe this will eventually happen to Stephen as he's confronted more and more by his desire to know what's right.
p. 42
ReplyDeleteStephen's world is entirely egocentric on the first pages where his incipient consciousness is recorded. After Stephen is sent to school and is living amoung so many peers, he is exposed so many different people who undeniably have mind and egocentric worlds of their own. Stephen's first observations on this matter are that his classmates also have mothers and fathers with different homes and names and jobs. He learns what shame is, and learns what other people are like.
this passage is an exemplary sample of stephen's developing consciousness of others because it is still entirely childish. the paragraph begins by trying to rationalize disparity between the principles and the reality of catholic practice. children naturally are simple creature who need absolute truths in order to begin to form opinions about the world. catholicism is stephen's absolute. his dogmatic belief has already been displayed ate the dinner scene earlier, where stephen could neither condemn nor understand his father's claims, but where stephen had to reassure himself that dante was right. here, Stephen asks, "was that a sin for father arnall to be in a wax, or was he allowed to get into a wax when the boys were idle because that made them study better, or was he only letting on to be in a wax? It was because he was allowed because a priest would know what a sin was and would not do it." Stephen searches for some reason in the priests rule breaking that will exempt the priest from guilt, because then it will allow him to keep his absolute truth. This is how children think. I remember thinking this way when I was his age. But immediately Stephen thinks of his father, whose opinion he naturally holds as absolute truth so long as he can make sense of it. Stephen gets off topic, speculating on his fathers words, but he displays, by wandering, the state of development of his psyche. He wonders what father Arnall would be if not a jesuit, but again, he is bounded by childish purview, which is just beginning to see people as being who have independent thoughts and whole lives apart from his. He cannot imagine father Arnall without his habit. Something so silly displays his development as an artist.
pg. 35
ReplyDeleteAfter the first part of the debate at Christmas dinner, Stephen’s thoughts are revealed. He speaks of how he appreciates Mr. Casey but questions why he was against the priests. While it may seem to him that Dante is the one who’s right, Stephen remembers his father describing her as a “spoiled nun.” This transitions into thinking about how she doesn’t like him to play with Eileen because she is a protestant and her saying that when she was a child others would play with Protestants who would make fun of the Virgin Mary being the “Tower of Ivory” and “House of Gold.” Stephen doesn’t understand how the Virgin Mary could be either of these things and so he wonders who is actually right. Later in this passage, he provides his interpretation. He describes Eileen’s hands as cold and white and says that is the meaning of Tower of Ivory. Later in the book he says that the House of Gold is her hair, which he remembers as being like gold in the sun.
This passage is one of Stephen’s attempts at making sense of these religious conflicts. It appears that Catholic rules will loom over him constantly and that he will try to decipher aspects of religion throughout the novel. Perhaps the need to comprehend these ideas will be an artistic influence. He says that “by thinking of things you can understand them” and it seems like he gains a clearer understanding by connecting things to other things (like Eileen and the Tower of Ivory and House of Gold.)