I will analyze a passage from the end of Stephen's epiphany on the strand, page 150-1, lines 854-902, beginning with the phrase “a girl stood before him in midstream...” This passage chronicles Stephen's final thoughts about his decision to reject the Jesuits offer to him to join their order. It depicts an important stage in the victory in his soul of creativity over faith. In the course of his walk on the seashore he has begun to hear “the call of life to his soul” replacing and overcoming the “inhuman voice that had called him to the pale service of the altar” but it is not until this moment that his faith really dies (Joyce 148). Joyce makes clear that this is the moment of the final death of his religion and the birth of his artistry in several ways. He does it by providing him with a new Virgin to worship, by filling the moment with bird imagery and by foreshadowing the poem he will soon write that uses religious imagery to serve his profane sensuality. The girl on the seashore wears Mary's co lors of white and blue. Stephen looks at her with a “worshipful gaze” and decides that she is a “wild angel” that has come to “throw open before him...the gates of all the ways of error and glory,” explicitly religious phrases that reveal his conversion from the worship of God to the worship of life and creativity (Joyce 150). The description of the girl compares her to a bird six times in eleven lines. Father Arnall employs bird imagery in his illustration of the eternity the condemned will spend in hell, but Joyce repurposes it to represent Stephen's escape from religion, an association made obvious by Stephen's preoccupation with birds after refusing his mother's request that he take Easter communion (Joyce 115, 197-8). Stephen calling the girl as a “wild angel” is no accident either. This word choice connects the scene to the writing of the only poem of Stephen's that we get to read, which is inspired by a vision of “seraphic life,” and which contains the line “lure of the fallen seraphim,” and portrays the girl he likes as a sultry temptress (Joyce 191). Thus Stephen's bird-girl represents his return to sensuality and creativity and his departure from the cold arms of religiosity.
Very nice blog, Ike E. I totally agree with you, and think not only does the bird-girl point back to his earlier religiosity, but forward to his new religion of art. Joyce starts to use religious language to talk about art, which does make him a bit profane in the eyes of others, but it does show how religion and art are more connected than we might think.
ReplyDeleteFrom my friend Elizabeth Raggi Killorin, a h.s. teacher in Boston & a really smart person:
ReplyDelete" Along the same lines, do you think we can view this iconic scene in light of Annunciation iconography (the white/blue, the birds) in which the girl is both Mary and Gabriel bringing the "Good News" to Stephen? He accepts all she symbolically offers like Mary's "Let it be done," but rejects the offer of the Jesuits."
We talked in class about just this thing--but not as succinctly as you put it. Yes--he turns the hierarchy down. He won't be part of an order, but he is willing to participate in an annunciation. What's really interesting about your comment is that is the bird girl is both Mary & angel, then what is Stephen? Part Mary, part some kind of voyeur--there are no witnesses present at the annunciation, are there? (Though, because of all the paintings, in particular, I think we all feel that we are witnesses.)
ReplyDeleteBeth Killorin replies:
ReplyDeleteNo there are no witnesses at the Annunciation, though we are the implied witnesses. All are made witnesses not only through Luke's account but through the plethora of Annunciation images. Yes, Stephen is certainly a witness and I see him as Mary. Many early Church writings equate other persons/things to Mary in her role of acceptance. (Exs. John the Baptist at the Visitation, "The Dream of the Rood"- the Cross is like Mary). Ultimately we were asked to be like Mary and to accept our roles in Christ's mission which is the reason for his Incarnation. Stephen is accepting a religious role of a different sort and rejecting the obvious. So I also see Stephen as Gabriel (in his artistic role) spreading the gospel of art to us (yes, that's awfully corny).
Thanks, Anne. I've got it working now!
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