A Portrait O f T he Artist as a Young M an: Chapter 3

1. A Portrait Of The Artist as a Young Man: Chapter 3 Paige & Emily Galloway, Dani Armstrong, Tess Armbrust, Jazzie Jackson, Yasmeen Helim, Brandon Furey, and Natalie Burns.

2. Stephen continues to see prostitutes and then becomes confused about his spiritual beliefs. He considers his actions to be very sinful, but he becomes indifferent toward the idea of eternal hell. He believes that since he broke one rule, he can break all of the Seven Deadly Sins. St Francis Xavier’s Feast Day approaches, and for three days before the feast, the students have to go on a spiritual retreat. On each of the three days, Stephen hears a sermon on the torments of hell and the punishments given out by God. The first day’s sermon is on the inevitability of judgment. Stephen becomes sick of fear because the sermons seem like they were written just for him. He then thinks about his sins and is too fearful to confess to God because God seems so pure. Stephen imagines being brought back to God through Emma, the girl he tried to write a poem for.

3. Summary (Continued) The second day’s sermon is on the incredible physical torment of hell. Stephen feels like he has to confess all of his sins but is too ashamed to do so. The third day’s sermon go more in-depth on hell’s tortures; The worst being cut off from God. That night, Stephen dreams of Hell and his nightmares are so intense that he wakes up and vomits. He then searches for a church where no one knows him so he can make his confession. When Stephen finds a church, he confesses all of his sins to the Priest. As Stephen walks out of the church, he feels as if he can start a new life.

4. Sensory Descriptions • “…the eyes with impenetrable utter darkness, the nose with noisome odours, the ears with yells and howls and execrations, the taste with foul matter, leprous corruption, nameless suffocating filth, the touch with redhot goads and spikes, with cruel tongues of flame.” (107) • Father Arnell preaches to Stephen and his peers about the hell and what a tormented soul has to endure. He uses each of the five senses to explain to the boys how the entire body is tortured in Hell. He does this so that he can scare the boys into choosing not to sin. • “To bear even the sting of an insect for all eternity would be a dreadful torment. What must it be, then, to bear the manifold tortures of hell forever?” (115) • Father Arnell compares the eternity of hell to the sting of an insect over and over again. He wants the boys to imagine something as painful as being stung happening continually with no end as a means of frightening them.

5. Sensory Descriptions (Continued) • “…though his eyes were shut fast, he saw the places where he had sinned and, though his ears were tightly covered, he heard. He desired with all his will not to hear nor see.” (120) • Stephen is kneeling in an act of prayer and is reflecting on his sins. He is very ashamed of his sins at this point and wants to distance himself from them. Stephen is sorry for sinning but he would rather forget than confess and ask God for forgiveness. However, he cannot escape his sins no matter how hard he tries. • “Soft language issued from their spittleless lips as they swished in slow circles round and round the field, winding hither and thither through the weeds, dragging their long tails amid the rattling canisters.” (120) • As Stephen lies in bed he “sees” his own personal Hell. He sees terrible ugly goatish creatures stuck forever in a field of weeds and thorns and concludes that this is the hell that God has reserved for him should he continue to sin. Stephen’s view of Hell scares him into going to confession.

6. Methods That Stephan Uses To Try To Avoid Guilt Or Punishment Stephen avoids punishment because he believes that he is going to go to hell anyway,so it does not matter how much more he sins. He then reasons with himself for all of his sins. Stephen avoids punishment/guilt by trying to get rid of his moral and religious obligation to Catholicism all together. This proves to be too difficult for him; to abandon the beliefs in which Stephen was raised is no easy task. During the three day retreat, Stephen learns that God will forgive all sins if one confesses to these sins. So Stephen sets out to find a confessional in where confidentiality and anonymity are held high. In that church Stephen confesses his guilt and repents for his "whoring" around and hopes to slide by without punishment from God.

7. Fall From Redemption Through fear of hell, Stephen begins to pray once more for gods forgiveness. “His tongue cleaving to his palate, [Stephen] bowed his head, praying with his heart.” (141) That night Stephen has a dream about the hell he imagines to be waiting for him, and he then looks to god to save his soul and fears an everlasting hell. “His eyes were dimmed with tears, and looking humbly up to heaven, he wept for the innocence he had lost.” (145). Stephen then confesses his sins to the priest, and pray to mother Mary. “He knelt there sinless and timid: and he would hold upon his tongue the host and god would enter his purified body”. Stephen had been re-birthed and cleansed, feeling as if he now had a new life and he was finally awake.

8. Fall from Graceand Repentance • Stephen steers away from religion and God as he feels a “cold lucid indifference,” has “reigned his soul.” (111) Stephen refers to himself as having a “sin loving soul,” and returns to the red light district with more frequency. His prayers to god cease, and he views himself as “lusting for his own destruction.” He becomes scornful of all churchgoers and displays an overall dismay for life in general, even beginning to feel a sort of pride for his own condemnation understanding that “to break one commandment is to break them all.” • Stephen listens to a sermon given by Father Arnall that asks for the boys of the church to put aside all worldly desires and ponder on the great Catholic mysteries of death, judgment, hell and heaven. The second day of this retreat, Stephen begins to think about death, imagining his own death. He tells of how god is merciful to his sinners as they live, attempting to direct them and giving them time to repent, but when sinners die he gives his judgment, and his judgment is just. As Father Arnall gives his second sermon Stephen begins to fear death and judgment and begins to regret his sins, he believes that every word is directed towards him. Even though some of the boys are led into confession after these sermons, Stephen still cannot bring himself to confess.

9. Indications Of ATurning Point Or Climax For Stephen The turning point for Stephen occurs towards the end of the chapter when Stephen learns to be mature and confess his sins. He asks a passerby in the street where the nearest chapel is. Once she informs him of the location, Stephen immediately goes to the chapel because he knows he must confess. The grotesque, vivid imagery of hell as proposed by the leader of the retreat led Stephen to become extremely fearful of the sights and terrors and eternity of hell. By eventually confessing to the priest that he has had sexual relations with a woman and is “impure”, and he is only sixteen, he takes the priest by surprise. However, the priest grants Stephen forgiveness, which ultimately gives him back the innocence he once had as a child.

10. Examples of Stephen’s Turning Point • “He bowed his head upon his hands, bidding his heart be meek and humble that he might be like those who knelt beside him and his prayer as acceptable as theirs” (Pg.101). • “Blinded by his tears and by the light of God’s mercifulness he bent his head and heard the grave words of absolution spoken and saw the priest’s hand raised above him in token of forgiveness” (Pg.103). • “The muddy streets were gay. He strode homeward, conscious of an invisible grace pervading and making light his limbs. In spite of all he had done it. He had confessed and God had pardoned him. His soul was made fair and holy once more, holy and happy” (Pg.104).

11. Dante Alighieri: Bio Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 into a family with a multitude of involvement in poitics. His mother died only a few years after his birth, and as a preteen, his marriage was arranged to take place with a family friend’s daughter--Gemma Donati. Around age 20, the two married. However, Dante was in love with another woman, Beatrice. He met her when she was nine years old, and claims to have experienced “love at first sight”. Beatrice unexpectedly died five years after Dante’s marriage to Gemma, but serves as the main inspiration for Dante’s Divine Comedy. His first studies were focused on theology, rhetoric, grammar, and philosophy. He later wished to study politics in hopes of keeping up the long family tradition and in 1295 joined a medical corporation. With hard work paying off, in the next five years his career expanded and he became a priore--a type of governor.

12. Dante Alighieri: Bio Continued A member of the White Guelfo political party, Alighieri was exposed to increasing differences and conflicts among the black and White Guelfo parties in the beginning of his political career. As a governor, he was forced to make difficult decisions. In one case, he opposed the pope’s expansion policy, which was supported by the blacks. The blacks, however, with support of a French prince, won against the whites. With Alighieri being a huge political icon in the eyes of his followers, he was accused of fraud and sentenced to pay a fine. Refusing to pay the fine and serve a two-year exile, Alighieri was sentenced to death. For years after, though, he wandered about various Italian courts and never returned to Florence. He later died in 1321 in exile and was buried in Ravenna.

13. Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante between 1308 and 1321 (his death). In it, he tells the story of his travels through hell, purgatory, and heaven in the quest for salvation. Through his travels and experiences, he essentially learns the meaning of sin, evil, damnation, and forgiveness. One of the major themes of this work are the “sins of incontinence”, meaning a lack of self-control. Those who commit these sins often do it to satisfy their materialistic and physical urges. Their wrongdoings are centered around their failure to properly use their minds to make wise decisions and judge whether their actions are good or evil.

14. Relationship To Alighieri and “The Inferno” • “And if it be pain for a mother to be parted from her child, for a man to be exiled from hearth and home, for friend to be sundered from friend, O think what pain, what anguish, it must be for the poor soul to be spurned from the presence of the supremely good and loving Creator” (Pg. 91). • “Every sense of the flesh is tortured and every faculty of the soul therewith: they eyes with impenetrable utter darkness, the nose with noisome odors, the ears with yells and howls and execrations, the taste with foul matter, leprous corruption, nameless suffocating filth, the touch with redhot goads and spikes, with cruel tongues of flame” (Pp. 86-87). • “Company, elsewhere a source of comfort to the afflicted, will be there a continual torment: knowledge, so much longed for as the chief good of the intellect, will there be hated worse than ignorance: light, so much coveted by all creatures from the lord of creation down to the humblest plant in the forest, will be loathed intensely” (Pg. 93).

15. St. Thomas Aquinas Saint Thomas Aquinas was a Catholic Theologian and Philosopher, he also was a well respected priest figure during the 1200’s. Thomas Aquinas was a Catholic Theologian who developed the three universal qualities of beauty: wholeness, harmony, and radiance. Stephen first references Saint Thomas Aquinas during his conversation with the dean. Stephen references Aquinas’s qualities of beauty when he explains his own theories.

16. The Seven Deadly Sins • Lust- A strong feeling of sexual desire or desire for something. • Gluttony: Excessive desire for food or food items. • Greed- A strong desire to gain power or money. • Sloth: A state of being wasteful or lazy. • Wrath- Inappropriate feelings of hate or anger towards someone or something. • Envy: Wishing that one has more then they already have. • Pride- Desire or thinking that one is better then another one.

17. Examples Of Stephen’s Violation Of Each Of The Seven Deadly Sins Stephen believes that his first sin of having sex with a prostitute has led him to commit the other six deadly sins: gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. “From the evil seed of lust all other deadly sins had sprung forth: pride in himself and contempt of others, covetousness in using money for the purchase of unlawful pleasure, envy of those whose vices he could not reach to the calumnious murmuring against the pious, gluttonous enjoyment of food, the dull glowering anger amid which he brooded upon his longing, the swamp of spiritual and bodily sloth in which his whole being had sunk” (93). After this Stephen begins to feel the burden of each sin and it haunts him throughout the entire chapter.

18. The Seven Deadly Sins (Continued) Stephen commits the sin, “envy,” when he is at church. Stephen is kneeling down next to other people when he refers to them as “humble followers of Jesus.” Stephen longs to be like his peers and he wishes that he could say that he is a loyal Catholic. Therefore Stephen is envious of their devotion to God and is in turn committing the deadly sin, Envy. Stephen feel guilty for committing so many sins and goes to confess his wrongdoings to a priest. When confessing Stephen mentions “sins of anger, envy of others, gluttony, vanity, disobedience,” and when the priest asks him if there is anything else Stephen confesses to all of the deadly sins.

19. Biblical Story of Jonah The story of Jonah and the Whale starts with God speaking to Jonah and asking him to go the city of Nineveh and preach repentance because of their wickedness against God. Not only was Nineveh known for its wickedness but it was the capital of the Assyrian empire, one of Israel’s fiercest enemies so Jonah decides he doesn’t want to do what God asked of him. Instead he plans to flee to Tarshish and books passage on a ship. In response to Jonah’s disobedience, god sends a violent storm that threatens the ship and crew. The crew throws Jonah overboard to save their ship and Jonah is swallowed by a whale. He stays in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights at the end of which he repents and cries out to God in prayer. God then asks Jonah again to travel to the city of Nineveh. This time Jonah listens and the people of Nineveh listen to what Jonah has to say and repent.

20. Jonah and Stephen’s Relationship Like Jonah, Stephen has been disobedient to God and has run away from Him. Stephen spends time on the retreat thinking about his sins just like Jonah when he sat in the belly of the whale for three days. Stephen realizes that he has sinned horribly and, after the very vivid descriptions of hell, realizes that he wants forgiveness from God. The Friday of the retreat, which happens to be three days after it has started, Stephen goes to a church where he confesses all of his sins to the priest and is absolved of his sins. The next day Stephen feels free and pure and takes part in communion with the rest of his fellow classmates.

21. Descent of Christ into Hell • Christian theology teaches that the crucifixion of Jesus provided the perfect atoning sacrifice for the sins of mankind. The world’s sin was to travel into Hell along with Jesus. Therefore giving the rest of the world a clean slate. Jesus remained in Hell for three days before he was resurrected. • Stephen brought the load of his sin along with him to the three day retreat. The retreat is symbolic of Stephen’s own form of Hell. He falls into Hell and is forced to contemplate his life thus far. • During the time Stephen was trapped in his hell, he came to the sudden realization that his soul wasn’t lost. He still had plenty of time in his life to repent for his sins. In affect of Stephen’s realization, he was reborn into the world just as Jesus had after dying with mankind’s sin.

22. Function of Chapter 3 in Joyce’s Chiasmic Structure • This chapter’s use of chiasmic structureis like a mirror. The structure of the book shows the reflection on Stephan's past and how he is going to live in future. (Page 116 & 117) • The silence mentioned during the priest’s sermon is the point when the mirror image is shown. • The silence portion is the exact center of the book and it depicts a portrait or an mirror image of Stephen’s self. • The reflection of Stephen’s life in chapter three is pointed out through the science, which stops the inner hell that Stephan is living in. Stephen’s reflection shows where he has been and where he is going to go. This becomes the eye of the storm, the quiet in the middle of chaos, but just enough to understand what is going on around him.

23. How does the Biblical story of Jonah and the Whale describe the situation that Stephen finds himself in? • Explain all of The Seven Deadly Sins. • How is Stephen similar to Jonah? • What does the three day retreat symbolize in chapter 3? • What is the function of the chiasmic structure in this chapter? • When does Stephen commit the sin “envy”? • Who was Saint Thomas Aquinas? • Where/When is the turning point of this chapter for Stephen? • What is Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy? • What does Father Arnell compare the eternity of hell to?

24. Quiz Answers • The Biblical story of Jonah and the Whale describes Stephen’s situation very well. Stephen, like Jonah, disobeys God by doing all of the Seven Deadly Sins. Stephen then feels like he cannot be saved, but retracts that thought after the three day retreat. Stephen is then confesses all of his sins and is reborn. • Lust- A strong feeling of sexual desire or desire for something. Gluttony: Excessive desire for food or food items. Greed- A strong desire to gain power or money. Sloth: A state of being wasteful or lazy. Wrath- Inappropriate feelings of hate or anger towards someone or something. Envy: Wishing that one has more then they already have. Pride- Desire or thinking that one is better then another one. • Like Jonah, Stephen has been disobedient to God and has run away from Him. Stephen spends time on the retreat thinking about his sins just like Jonah when he sat in the belly of the whale for three days. Stephen realizes that he has sinned horribly and, after the very vivid descriptions of hell, realizes that he wants forgiveness from God. • The retreat is symbolic of Stephen’s own form of Hell. He falls into Hell and is forced to contemplate his life thus far. • This chapter’s use of chiasmic structure is like a mirror. The structure of the book shows the reflection on Stephan's past and how he is going to live in future. • Stephen commits the sin, “envy,” when he is at church. Stephen is kneeling down next to other people when he refers to them as “humble followers of Jesus.” Stephen longs to be like his peers and he wishes that he could say that he is a loyal Catholic. • Saint Thomas Aquinas was a Catholic Theologian and Philosopher, he also was a well respected priest figure during the 1200’s. Thomas Aquinas was a Catholic Theologian who developed the three universal qualities of beauty: wholeness, harmony, and radiance. • The turning point for Stephen occurs towards the end of the chapter when Stephen learns to be mature and confess his sins. He asks a passerby in the street where the nearest chapel is. Once she informs him of the location, Stephen immediately goes to the chapel because he knows he must confess. • The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante between 1308 and 1321 (his death). In it, he tells the story of his travels through hell, purgatory, and heaven in the quest for salvation. • Father Arnell compares the eternity of hell to the sting of an insect over and over again. He wants the boys to imagine something as painful as being stung happening continually with no end as a means of frightening them.