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7/12/2025, 3:30:50 AM
IV
Stephen lives a somewhat pious life, for a time, and it would seem that the Jesuit adults (the managers) take notice. Their programming seems to have worked with this one, maybe we can get him fully on board. He trains himself to endure various minor torments in order to avoid the major torment of hell. He is also given the idea that he should simply endure discomfort in various ways (mortification), or remain uncomfortable: not consciously adjusting one's position in bed, enduring annoying noises, and so on. Eventually, a priest asks him whether he feels that he might have a vocation. Because he's been thorougly socialized into the Jesuit boarding school culture, Stephen honestly notes that it's crossed his mind. But once he thinks seriously about it, the imprisonment of it, his humanity naturally and correctly rebels. "Non Serviam". Since our Stephen has a literary bent, the image of the written phrase "The Reverend Stephen Dedalus, S.J." directly before his mind is a good indication of what he does not want. He has a certain respect for them (noting that he was wrongfully beaten on ONLY(!) two occasions, adding one more-notice how he wrongfully sticks up for and identifies with his abusers here, like a woman), which is not entirely unfounded (they are intelligent and educated, I am sure) but he has enough good sense not to want to be one of them.
Stephen goes home, and we have a concrete picture of his several siblings (Every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great) who are a bit cooped up. And yet, as far as he can tell, they don't resent him as the eldest child (primogeniture). The existence of other siblings has scarcely been acknowledged up to this point, and suddenly there's a cramped room full of them. There's nice lines about how young children are already tired of life, which gives some indication of poverty, or not living quite right. A younger sister uses a pig latin to suggest that the landlord is about to boot them all out. There is also a nice image of the children spontaneously singing together, a good entertainment (music is one of the few departments of life that Joyce doesn't treat with contempt, "pretty airs" and the like are mentioned regularly). And yet somehow, Stephen is shipped off to college.
A short time later, Stephen realizes that he will go to university, and this is very freeing. He senses, incompletely, which is natural for a teenager, that a whole world of possibility is opening up. The final extended image is a solo-ish walk along the beach, interacting briefly with others, observing the sky and the ocean. The scene is simple, and compares with his having escaped both the Jesuit order and also his own home. The scene UNDERLINES the psychological state in a hokey way "walks along the beach" that is still easy to understand: freedom, openness, future. (the early beach-walk scene in Ulysses has a much more blah feel).
Stephen lives a somewhat pious life, for a time, and it would seem that the Jesuit adults (the managers) take notice. Their programming seems to have worked with this one, maybe we can get him fully on board. He trains himself to endure various minor torments in order to avoid the major torment of hell. He is also given the idea that he should simply endure discomfort in various ways (mortification), or remain uncomfortable: not consciously adjusting one's position in bed, enduring annoying noises, and so on. Eventually, a priest asks him whether he feels that he might have a vocation. Because he's been thorougly socialized into the Jesuit boarding school culture, Stephen honestly notes that it's crossed his mind. But once he thinks seriously about it, the imprisonment of it, his humanity naturally and correctly rebels. "Non Serviam". Since our Stephen has a literary bent, the image of the written phrase "The Reverend Stephen Dedalus, S.J." directly before his mind is a good indication of what he does not want. He has a certain respect for them (noting that he was wrongfully beaten on ONLY(!) two occasions, adding one more-notice how he wrongfully sticks up for and identifies with his abusers here, like a woman), which is not entirely unfounded (they are intelligent and educated, I am sure) but he has enough good sense not to want to be one of them.
Stephen goes home, and we have a concrete picture of his several siblings (Every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great) who are a bit cooped up. And yet, as far as he can tell, they don't resent him as the eldest child (primogeniture). The existence of other siblings has scarcely been acknowledged up to this point, and suddenly there's a cramped room full of them. There's nice lines about how young children are already tired of life, which gives some indication of poverty, or not living quite right. A younger sister uses a pig latin to suggest that the landlord is about to boot them all out. There is also a nice image of the children spontaneously singing together, a good entertainment (music is one of the few departments of life that Joyce doesn't treat with contempt, "pretty airs" and the like are mentioned regularly). And yet somehow, Stephen is shipped off to college.
A short time later, Stephen realizes that he will go to university, and this is very freeing. He senses, incompletely, which is natural for a teenager, that a whole world of possibility is opening up. The final extended image is a solo-ish walk along the beach, interacting briefly with others, observing the sky and the ocean. The scene is simple, and compares with his having escaped both the Jesuit order and also his own home. The scene UNDERLINES the psychological state in a hokey way "walks along the beach" that is still easy to understand: freedom, openness, future. (the early beach-walk scene in Ulysses has a much more blah feel).
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