Transnational Research Associates


THE RECURRENCE OF EPICUREAN SEQUENCES

IN JAMES JOYCE'S

"PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN"

by A.F. Madsen, M.Ed.


It is apparent that James Joyce, in penning what was initially considered to be an autobiographical description of his boyhood in Ireland, foresaw the dramatic impact and usefulness of including several major philosophical shifts throughout his novel, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", in the character of his protagonist, Stephen Dedalus. Young Stephen swings perceptibly from a deeply religious mind-set in the novel's first chapter to virtual debauchery in the next, only to experience remorse and newfound faith in the third. He lapses once again into something barely short of apostasy in the last sections of the novel.

This report intends to concentrate on Stephen's alternating periods of doubt, detachment and introspection as he turns away from a God who, during these phases of the novel, has seemingly forsaken mankind in the Epicurean sense. Stephen's thoughts, richly and deeply presented to the reader in Joyce's inimitable style, will provide fertile ground for analysis of his Epicurean orientation which occurs, by fits and by starts, throughout this highly acclaimed novel depicting Ireland at the turn of the Century.

Because Joyce is prolific in his use of symbolism and metaphorical devices, his images lend themselves to a rewarding exploration of the Epicurean phases of Stephen's youthful experiences. Yet, prior to delving into the thoughts and feelings of this sensitive young protagonist, it may be fitting to consider several of the major tenets of Epicureanism, derived from Ancient Greece and conveyed to us, centuries later at the time of World War I, in unspoken but unmistakable terms, by Joyce. Indeed, the author often fell victim to mood swings, detachment from spiritual values and attitudinal drifting throughout his life, leading, ultimately, to banning of his works and exile abroad.

Joyce's novel appeared at the outbreak of World War I, a time when pleasurable and sensual preoccupations were not foremost in the minds of his readers. Yet, there was a certain tendency toward escapism and day-dreaming in those years, as people's personal lives were touched by the ravages of war. For this reason Joyce's novel met with acceptance in some circles, but scorn in others. Its Epicurean values were not readily matched to the events of the day, except for those who detached themselves intellectually from the horror of trench warfare and the use of poison gas on the battlefields of Europe.

Set against the backdrop of World War I, Joyce's episodes recounting Stephen's initiatory experiences in Ireland years earlier might have seemed out of place. However, the universal values of the Epicurean Ideal, forged in Ancient Greece and handed down through the ages, had not changed. Epicurus would have recognized Joyce's portrayal of Stephen, since his thoughts, expressed some 2200 years ago, reflected the same types of philosophical priorities as Joyce's main character during his infatuation with the girl at the seashore. The Greek sage recognized quite readily that,

"Love goes dancing round and round the inhabited earth,
veritably shouting to us all to awake to the blessedness of
the happy life."
-- Epicurus (S.V. 52, cited in De Witt, 1967:101)

Most critics agree that Epicureanism, as expressed in Joyce, revolves around a primary belief that God has, if not abandoned man, at least diverted His attention from human events. Stephen's drift from God, in Chapter Two, and again in Chapter Four, bears out the concept that there were specific times when Stephen felt abandoned by God and turned toward earthly preoccupations. The fairly graphic brothel scene at the conclusion of Chapter Two is not the only indication of Stephen's Epicurean lapses, but his profound attachment to words, intellectual pursuits and material concerns also reveals a distancing from God and from his intensely religious childhood. Indeed, a Joycian Epicure is a sensitive, and even virtuous person with tastes that transcend God, sometimes moving towards hedonism, and sometimes toward intellectual interests.

Those who observed Joyce, first-hand, when he was in his early and mid-twenties, felt that Stephen Dedalus mirrored many of the behavioral and character traits of the author who plunged into periods of Epicurean detachment. These phases of both Joyce's and, by extension, Stephen's lives were not always simple denial of God in the atheistic sense. In fact, there is mounting evidence that God remained a subliminal part of Joyce's life, and hence of Stephen's, if the reader subscribes to the "autobiographical link" hypothesis.

Indeed, God seemed to hover in the background, lacking in relevancy and dominance, while, presumably, the author and his created protagonist shifted their values toward earthly priorities, such as "The Lady of the Apple Tree, Kind Wisdom", i.e. the young girl wading at the seashore (Litz, 1966: 61). Not only, in this example, is her contrived name vaguely reminiscent of Our Lady, the Catholic Virgin Mother of Christ, but Joyce also uses the image of water in a subdued, almost baptismal sense, even though he is entering a plainly Epicurean state of mind. This would seem to be a transitional period, exemplified by the poetic and aquatic imagery of faith dissolving into sensual longing.

As Stephen moves from the hell-fire of Chapter Three toward a gradual rejection of the priesthood early in Chapter Four, he undergoes a transformation, similar to the transition above, toward Art and the Aesthetic. Typical of Epicureanism is a period of detachment, as Stephen adopts an elusive, but objectified state of mind which the Greeks called "ataraxy", representing for them the "highest good." This concept embodies many of the features of Epicurean thought, particularly the distancing from God, and the intellectualism commonly associated with this "state-of-mind." Such a move from God, of course, permitted Joyce and his creation, Stephen, to justify their actions which were judged contemptible by Irish Catholic standards of the time.

As Stephen strains to define his true belief system which had been distorted by a childhood of staunch Catholicism, he begins to concentrate on the wondrous glories of the Earth. Speaking of the young, delicate, and beautiful girl on the beach, doubtless Stephen's muse "E.C.", the narrator declares,

"Her eyes had called to him and his soul had
leaped to the call...
(Joyce, quoted in Litz, 1996: 66)

It is just this unorthodox mixture of religious imagery and sensual feeling that resulted in Joyce's book's being poorly accepted in its day in many conservatively oriented locations.

However, in decades to follow, it has been recognized that Joyce and his characters have universal appeal, precisely because they reflect authentic human emotions which often mix religious ecstasy with common pleasure.

In a last chapter conversation with Cranly that turns a bit unfriendly, Stephen recalls a nostalgic boyhood incident and is willing to forgive Cranly. The triggering memory which permits Stephen to forgive his friend reveals much about the lingering undercurrent of Epicurean qualities and values within Stephen, even at an early age. The incident which he resurrects from the past involves the young boy's praying deeply, arms uplifted, in a shadowy grove of trees. But when Stephen is surprised in the act of praying by two policemen, he breaks off his prayer and begins whistling nonchalantly. Inwardly, at an early age, and again much later in life, Stephen experienced, as is partially revealed in this incident, a surge in the direction of Epicurean ideals: a distancing from God, and yet an acknowledgment of His existence. Stephen's breaking-off of the prayer to shield his "devotion" from the eyes of others foreshadows, in a sense, the dichotomous nature of Stephen's shifting orientation.

Stephen is constantly searching for a new "authority" which will provide him with structure and meaning in his life, particularly after repeatedly abandoning the Church, God and spirituality. In elaborate descriptive passages, mirroring the values of Epicurean thought, Joyce, using sparkling water imagery, replete with duality and symbolism, alludes to the coming of a new controlling godless force in his, and Stephen's life. A calm, peaceful aquatic image at the end of Chapter Four, signaling a resurgence of purpose and direction, sets the desired mood and direction for the dénouement of the novel:

"...and the tide was flowing in fast to the land with
a low whisper of her waves, islanding a few last
figures in distant pools."
(Joyce, 1993: 187)

Joyce himself sought purpose in his life and has been viewed as personally preferring the Epicurean ideal of harmony, intellectualism, comradeship and distance from organized religion. In portraying the resurgence of these thoughts on a recurring basis within young Stephen, he subscribed to a longstanding tradition of novels centering on the growth and development of a young man, in the manner of Rousseau's Confessions, for example, or certain of Goethe's Romantic works. The added quality of moving from a strongly religious background to a break-away tradition reflecting Epicurean ideals dating from 300 B.C. is a feature which further enriched his own life, as it did his novels. What Joyce and Stephen have in common with young Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a thirst for uncontaminated truth, knowledge and insight into the absolutes and verities which transcend the constraining liturgy and ritual of Rome. Stephen, following in the Greek tradition of the mythological inventor of the labyrinth whose name he bears, is exploring the realms of expansive, classical thought, reflective, in a rotating, repetitive pattern throughout this novel, of the values espoused more than two millennia ago by Epicurus:

" Some make their way to the truth without help;
some need to be shown the way;
some need not only a guide but driver..."
(Epistulae Morales, 52, cited in Farrington, 1967:143)

This difficult search for truth, as can be seen, is often gloomy and characterized by doubt, hesitation and depression. As Stephen drifts continuously away from the religion of his childhood, in search of a more tangible reality, he seeks an anchorage from an ethical and moral point of view.

The yearnings of young Stephen in the direction of lust and sensuality are not the only manifestation, obvious as they are, of his desire to change his world-view. By reaching out to the earth, to nature and to experiences beyond his native soil, which he finds stifling and unpleasant, he comes closer to what philosophers often identify as Eternal Truths. He certainly moves much closer to these values than do his compatriots, arguing uselessly over Christmas Dinner in the narrow confines of the Irish Fatherland.

Because Stephen's thoughts, which leap before the reader's eyes in lavish prose, steeped in symbolism, misty allusions and rich detail, run counter to thinking in Ireland, Stephen (and Joyce) feel alienated by their own society. This alienation drives them even deeper into a search for truth, in the Epicurean sense of striving for the "highest good".

What has made Joyce a great writer is the texture of his prose, interwoven with recurring references to Epicurean values, written in a Catholic setting which finds these values threatening, disturbing and shattering. However, people read Joyce worldwide, and embrace his protagonists such as Stephen Dedalus in this novel, not because of Joyce's intrinsic courage in portraying these conflicting values, nor because of his recognized greatness, but because,

"What (Joyce) says happens simply to be true." (Costello, 1980: 113)

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ABSTRACT


This paper examines the frequently recurring appearance of Epicurean values in James Joyce's novel, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and focuses on the nature of transformation in young Stephen Dedalus whose boyhood was heavily influenced by Irish Catholicism, but who repeatedly turned, later in life, to periods of Epicurean thought, belief and deed.

An overview of the belief system of Epicurus is offered within the context of Joyce's and Stephen's lives. Incidents are analyzed and probed with the purpose of revealing the protagonist's struggle to achieve a Truth that transcends God. It is concluded that Stephen achieves a new sense of awareness which typifies Joyce's view of the world.