I really don't think Stephen would make a bad priest and if he were
going to make it anywhere, the Jesuit order is a good place for him. For
the following reasons:
Stephen likes hierarchy and
order and the structure of the Catholic church provides just that for
him. There are clearly separated levels of power and carefully defined
rights of passage to climb the ladder of the clergy. He doesn't have to
awkwardly puzzle over which priests are his superiors in social
situations. He will also have someone always giving him directions which
seems, up to this point, a comfort for him.
The
Jesuits are a highly intellectual order. The theological,
methodological, and philosophical debates under discussion by the other
Jesuit fathers would be right up Stephen's alley.
Along
the same lines, there are books and books of rules about how a priest
is to comport himself. No more sneaking around trying desperately to be
unnoticed to avoid a social faux pas of sorts. Stephen wouldn't have to
worry so much about figuring out where the straight and proper path is
because it would be already clearly drawn for him.
The
mysterious, semi-secret power of being a priest also seems to allure
Stephen to the priesthood. Maybe it's perverting the purpose of a priest
a bit but he loves the idea that he gets to know, read, learn, think,
and do things normal people can't. Most of all, he is extremely
attracted to the prospect of hearing the confessions, particularly of
girls. This probably stems from the fact that Stephen wondered a lot
when he was little and people explained very little social and sexual
escapades to him.
In the end, Stephen rejects the idea,
his intrigue stunted by the general anonymity and monotony of the
vocation. For me, this just perpetuates the Satanic narrative that
periodically pops its head up in this novel. In this case it sheds its
subtlety and becomes rather blatant. Stephen rejects the priesthood,
even with his special gift of piety, to search for a less common
purpose, just as Satan will not serve God and pridefully searches for
minions of his own. Faith and piety are surprisingly different from each other and Stephen's situation exemplifies the distinction that Joyce is trying to make.
I think Stephen as the Satanic hero is further exemplified in the end where Stephen decides he must leave Ireland. He doesn't say that he want's to leave-though he clearly does-he says that he is being exiled. In a sense he is right, Cranly views him differently after Stephen's open rejection of his mother, and Davin is ashamed of his lack of Irish nationalistic spirit. While I really don't think you could say he is being exiled from his native land, and that instead he is trying to create the same passive behavior he exhibits with the prostitutes, this even more closely relates him to Satan. Satan is told he can never return to Heaven, which is exile, but he knew when he tried to rebel that that was really the only possible outcome-his pride was so great he never would have been content again in Heaven, but he doesn't want to be the angel that left Heaven so he forces G-d's hand into exiling him, just like Stephen forced his friends and family into changing their opinion of him.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that Stephen does think about the prospect of hearing girls' intimate confessions as something that appeals to him about the priesthood, but doesn't that still send up a red flag? He's not *supposed to* think of confession this way, and to me, it signals an inevitable "fall" (which is what sends him away, ultimately). He likes the *idea* of a priest's "purity" (getting to experience the vicarious thrill of confession, but then emerging "unscathed" from the confession box), but we can see that his mind might not be so easily tamed.
ReplyDeleteBut it also does signal some of the earliest artistic tendencies in evidence: his idea of vicarious, imaginative experience that remains "pure" because it's only in his head perhaps connects to the way he will be both "of the world" and detached from it in his role as artist. Life is his "raw material," but this means he isn't quite living it, either.