Stephanos Dedalos

                             

            In the final section of Chapter 4, Stephen experiences a climactic epiphany.  When reflecting upon his name, he finally abandons his attempt to imitate Stephen the Martyr and instead resolves to channel the spirit of the “fabulous artificer.” However, although he has clearly found his true vocation as an artist, Stephen’s sensibility has not changed.  He ultimately possesses the same far-reaching spiritual aspirations.  But whereas Stephen felt confined and limited in his pursuit of these lofty goals by the restrictions inherent in the established structure of the Church, he now feels empowered to explore and to seek organically his spiritual identity through his own artistic method.

            Curiously enough, the way in which Stephen embraces his artistic calling possesses remarkable parallels to the manner in which he attempted to martyr himself as a pious Catholic.  For instance, Stephen used to carry his rosary everywhere with him, reciting prayers in a rigid program of supposed penance.  Similarly, at the end of Chapter 4, as he is wandering around beginning to consider his artistic destiny, he recites lines of poetry, “He drew forth a phrase from his treasure and spoke it softly to himself: ‘A day of dappled seaborne clouds.’” This brief recitation spawns a whole meditation on the nature of words, as he compares them to a musical chord and considers their glowing and fading colours, “sunrise gold, the russet and green of apple orchards, azure of waves, the greyfringed fleece of clouds.” This passage is the first time since Stephen’s attempt at penance that the reader experiences again the colorful (no pun intended) and highly sensitive language that Joyce uses in Stephen’s artistic reflections.  The dry and coarse language employed in the sections about Stephen’s penance is clearly meant to indicate the paralyzing nature of his ascetic endeavors, whereas the joyful and explorative nature of Stephen’s meditation upon the nature of words proves that his pursuit of art enlivens him.

            Stephen’s ultimate goal in pursuing art also presents a striking parallel to the duties of the priesthood.  After he talks to the priest in the middle of Chapter 4, Stephen envisions himself as a priest, gravely carrying out the sacraments, and considers the awful power that accompanies this task.  However, he focuses predominately on this sense of power and sees himself as performing the sacraments alone in the Church without the congregation.  Likewise, when Stephen considers his career as an artist, he imagines himself  an “artist forging anew in his workshop out of the sluggish matter of the earth a new soaring impalpable imperishable being.” This image resembles the idea of the priest consecrating the Eucharist, transforming bread into the body of Christ.  Thus it seems as if Stephen views his role as a artist as being similar to that of a priest, in that he is making holy the mundane earth, purifying and sanctifying it through his art.  Stephen feels the same spiritual urging and calling as he did before, but he now realizes that art allows him to express his spirituality freely in a wholly unique way. 

This idea of freedom is especially important to Stephen’s vocation as a artist.  The image of the hawk soaring in the sky clearly represents his wish to rise above the world in a powerful surge of beautiful freedom.  Having realized his calling, he now enjoys being “alone and young.” He no longer is scared that some “silent lapse of his soul” will send him “falling, falling, but not yet fallen, still unfallen, but about to fall.” As an artist, he feels free “to live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life!” This remarkable departure from his formerly ascetic, penitential self is most clearly seen in his sighting of a girl in the stream.  Stephen is able to admire her physical beauty and describe her with the most admirable, artistic language.  He does not see this woman as an object in the same way he did others earlier in the novel.  Instead, he views her as a work of art and is able to gaze upon her “without shame or wantonness.”  He does not feel the need to deny his aesthetic sensibility, and, in fact, he realizes that this vocation to art can be just as spiritual as one to the priesthood.