A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Religion as Repression Like his protagonist, James Joyce was an Irish Catholic. He was also sent to Clongowes Wood College to board and study as a young boy. In effect the story is in part an autobiography of Joyce's own life up to the age of twenty or so (Kershner 6). In his essay A Portrait as Rebellion Norman Holland states: Because of Portrait's peculiar combination of novel and autobiography, I feel called upon to see Joyce's schoolfellows in two ways at once. They are characters in a novel, bigger than life, and they are real people like me and my school and college pals. (280) The Catholic religion is a significant and recurring theme in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Though brought up in the church, several major events lead Stephen to defy the lessons of his Catholic school education and choose a life of his own, the life of an artist.
Private Stephen Wallace and others of Princess Pat...
Stephen Fry - Rehearsals at NorCaT
Stephen Marley @ Catalyst (Feb 19, 2009)Through his experiences with religion, Stephen Dedalus both matures and gradually discovers an identity of his own.
As a young boy, religion is crucial to Stephen's life. Stephen was reared in a strict Catholic family. The demand for compliance placed on Stephen shapes his life early at Clongowes, a preparatory school run by the Jesuit order. Even as he is adhering to the principles of his Catholic school upbringing, he becomes increasingly disillusioned. Even though Joyce spoke warmly of his own experiences at Clongowes he portrays a different, almost opposite experience for Stephen (Kershner 4). Formerly above reproach or distrust, the priests become symbols of narrow-mindedness and repression in Stephen's mind. Father Dolan, in particular, whose abusive and humiliating statements along with the frequent floggings, personifies the sort of demeanor...