A Bleak View

One of the most chilling insights into Stephen's character comes when he is drinking with his father and his father's friends in Cork. In this scene one of his father's elderly comrades is talking about how the older Mr. Dedalus was once the most well known womanizer in all of Cork. The man says this to impress upon the young boy how wonderful life had been in the past. In fact, both the older gentleman are so full of nostalgia that they become somewhat pitiable.
In response to all of this, Steven merely, "watched the three glasses being raised from the counter as his father and his two cronies drank to the memory of their past" (83) and "An abyss of fortune or temperament sundered him from them" (83). These two lines show the profound disconnect between Stephen and his father. By the use of word choice such as "cronies" and "sundered" it is clear that Stephen views himself as better than these men. Although narratorial addition, one can picture Stephen thinking about how it is his own temperance that makes his better than these fools.
In the next sentence the narrator notes, "His mind seemed older than theirs: it shone coldly on their strifes and happiness and regrets" (84). This sentence is somewhat scary considering Stephen's youth. As a young man approaching adulthood one would expect Stephen to be happy go lucky and enjoying the prime of his life, yet the harsh disdain he feels makes the protagonist seem cold blooded. It appears that his arrogance has risen to such a level that he sees himself as better than all of those who cannot adhere to his ideals of stoicism and intelligence. Furthermore, the passage also notes, "Nothing stirred within his soul but a cold and cruel and loveless lust" (84). These lines are a far cry from the young boy who loved Eileen and her soft white hands. Somewhere on his path to adolescence Stephen seems to have lost his humanity and replaced it with a primitive sexual desire.  The dark images of "cold," "cruel," and "loveless" mak us as reader's almost afraid of what Stephen might do. Although these lines explain his somewhat scary dreams and desires for women, they still exhibit a fallen humanity guised in intelligence.
Even as we have seen Stephen's intelligence grow, I do not think his mind can redeem this bleak hatred of his father and all those he considers below him. This hatred is not even malignant in the sense of an active dislike, but it seems as though Stephen has merely written off his father as a pathetic life form. So, I would pose the questions, at what point did Stephen fall so far from his loving childhood? And secondly, are we meant to believe his first sexual experience will remediate Stephen's current soullessness?