Stephen Dedalus as The Portrayal of James Joyce’s Misogynistic Attitudes

James Joyce was an Irish writer who was born in 1882. He belonged to a middle class family. His novel A portrait of The Artist as a Young Man was published in 1916. The novella belongs to the genre of “Bildungsroman” which is defined as a novel that talks about the psychological, spiritual and moral development of a particular character for a certain period of time. A portrait of The Artist as a Young Man is a bildungsroman novel. This novel is also can be called “semi Autobiographical” in a sense that James Joyce portrayed the protagonist Stephen Dedalalus as a portrait of his own life with certain changes. Stephen Dedalus is not any imaginary character rather he contains Joyce’s characteristics to some extent. James Joyce actually told the story of himself being an artist gradually by saying the story of Stephan Dedalus. That is why, we get a lot of similarities between the personal life of James Joyce and Stephan Dedalus for example, punishment is school for two times, encounter with the prostitutes, being religious after being afraid about afterlife, viewing women as objects and inferior, similarity is epiphany moment, leaving Ireland in order to become a writer and so on.

James Joyce did not have a good relationship with women throughout his life. Stephan Dedalus as he portrayed, did not have a good relationship with women either. Moreover, Stephen Dedalus is the portrayal of James Joyce’s misogynist attitude because of his treatment towards women throughout the novella ex: his mother; sisters; Emma and Eileen, hateful attitude towards the prostitutes, narrow concept of feminism, inability in intimacy with women, presenting a female character: Dante as the antagonist; also it includes the passive role of women throughout the novella, majority of male characters and their significance in Dedalus’s life, his epiphany moment where he described a girl’s physical beauty intensely and so on. “Consequently, women, in A Portrait, do not play a significant role since they are dominated by an overwhelming prominence of patriarchy and power; they are merely devalued as a physical object for men’s longings and desire”.

In the novel A portrait of The Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce portrayed every female character as passive except Dante. “Stephen Dedalus, the novel’s protagonist, fluctuates between these two binary ways of being, but most genuinely performs patriarchal definitions of female behavior”. His father was failed to be idealized by his son Stephen. Stephen had different perceptions which changed frequently till his 20s about his father. He saw his father Simon Dedalus as a “gentle man, an oarsman, an amateur actor, a shouting politician, a good fellow, a drinker, a story teller, a tax gatherer , a bankrupt, a praiser of his own past”. Even though, Stephan never followed or tried to follow his father’s path but still, he talks a lot about his father thought-out the novella. On the contrary, his mother had a very motherly attitude towards him. His mother always supported and prayed for him. She always adored and loved him. Still, he did not talk much about his mother in the novel. The character of his mother was presented in a way that his mother Mary Dedalus had no role in his life on the way to be an artist.

Other than his mother, the same treatment goes for his sisters as well. In the whole novel, there was almost no description of his sisters or his relationship with his sisters. Katey, Maggy, and Boody are stephen’s younger sisters who only appeared momentarily when they help Stephan to get ready to leave for the university. Other than his mother and sisters, Stephen also portrayed Emma clery as a passive character. Shephen had a tinder and romantic feelings for Emma. In the whole story, there is very little description about her when we only know that Emma studies in a university and Stephen had an interest in her over the course of many years. Stephen wrote a poem about her and she symbolizes as an ideal of femininity to Stephan. At the end of the novel, we know almost nothing about Emma. She was a sudden emergence as Stephen’s love interest and at the end she got vanished with no significance. The other female characters such as Dante or Eileen do not have any significance in Stephen’s life as well. They were emerged for the sake of the flow of the story and fall out in time.

James Joyce in his novel, only portrayed Dante, a woman as an active character whom he portrayed as an antagonist. James Joyce was non-religious person when Ireland had religious extremists. Stephen was an admirer of Charles Stewert Parnell, belonged to the nationalist party who campaigned successfully for agricultural reforms. He almost brought Irish home rule when the enemies exposed his personal relationship with a married woman. After that, Parnell’s own party threw him out and Catholic church criticized him. James Joyce respected Parnell by heart and he thought that, only Parnell could bring independence of Ireland. Even at a point he said to his friend Davin, “No honorable and sincere man….has giv­en up to you his life and his youth and his affections from the days of Tone to those of Parnell, but you sold him to the enemy or failed him in need or reviled him and left him for another. And you invite me to be one of you. I’d see you damned first”.

Dante Riordan however supported church and she talked against Charles Parnell. The Church opposed Irish nationalism and so did Dante. Dante holds her perspective as the exact opposite of Stephen. She had an argument with Stephen’s father Simon Dedalus and his friend Mr. Casey at the Christmas dinner about the influence of the Church. Simon and Casey they both thought Church as a harmful influence where only Dante continued to support the Church. Also, Dante had negative impression about Parnell as she said about him, “He was no longer worthy to lead, said Dante. He was a public sinner”. As a non-religious person and being a supporter of Parnell, Stephan also had a negative perspective against the Church and Dante Riordan.

Stephan had a crush on a protestant girl, named Eileen Vance in his childhood. Dante forbid Stephen to marry Eileen because she was a protestant. At that time there was a clash between Protestants and Catholics. Dante believed in Roman Church and was pure Catholic. At their childhood, Dante did not even let Stephan play with Eileen because as Joyce said, “And she did not like him to play with Eileen because Eileen was a protes­tant and when she was young she knew children that used to play with protestants and the protestants used to make fun of the litany of the Blessed Virgin” (Joyce 37 chapter 1 ). In his childhood, Dante mostly had negative influence in Stephen’s life. All the things she used to do are opposite to Stephan’s point of view. That is why, it is demonstrated that James Joyce placed Dante as the antagonist.

Stephen started to grow his physical needs when he was a teenager. At that time he was attracted towards women’s body. He started to satisfy himself by regular visit to prostitutes. He had his first sexual experience at the age of 14. As she satisfied himself by visiting the prostitutes, he did not have any respect for them. He thought this kind of intercourse as “ his first violent sin” (Joyce 117 chapter 3). The prostitutes never attracted him and he had a hateful attitude towards them. He even compared the prostitutes with Emma about being too common and impure. Also at the time of his confession he said that, “I... committed sins of impurity, father” (Joyce 166 chapter 3). He looked down upon the prostitutes and that expresses his intolerable attitude towards the prostitutes.

Stephen’s concept of femininity was very much narrow minded. As he had a love interest on Emma, he used to express views about Emma time to time. In the novel, Emma is shown as an example of femininity. According to him, women should be pure, distant and unapproachable like Emma. Stephen had a difficult relationships with women in his life and throughout the novel. “The narcissistic reality of Stephen’s fantasy for Emma comes as no surprise, since his solipsistic tendencies were presupposed by his father”. As readers, we expect to see the growth of an artist along with his mental development. The female characters are seemed sophisticated. “in A Portrait, are under the pressure of patriarchy, and they are metaphorically colonized by men’s power. “Thus the female characters are the channel through which the masculine power, self-assurance, and most significantly their experience can be obtained” (Torkashvand & Jamili 417) . Also the female characters do not get and developed perspective about femininity. It seems like Joyce intentionally obstructed the concept of femininity which expresses his misogynist attitude. Emma was studying in university and she was a good student. Emma had such qualities for which she could be signified in a better way, but it did not happen because of Joyce’s misogyny and male ego. “Additional to these characteristics, the differences between men and women have been distinguished as a direct result and outcome of male power and dominance over women”.

Stephan dedalus could not go beyond the beauty of female body. At every moment, he felt attached towards a girl or women, Stephan always had physical beauty in mind. “The scene near the novel’s conclusion, in which Stephen experiences a wet dream while unconsciously thinking about his crush, Emma Cleary, is particularly telling of the sexualized relationship between Stephen’s body and soul” (Wagner 117). Emma’s desires play a very small role and the focus remains on Stephen to further emphasize his sexuality.

Stephen’s epiphany moment is also criticized by expressing his sexuality. Epiphany is defined as a sudden realization of something. Generally, in literary term epiphany is used when a character achieves a feeling of realization or knowledge all of a sudden. Stephen became a pious man after confessing his guilt for visiting the prostitutes. He was offered to be a priest. One day, he was roaming at the beach and he saw a young girl wadding. Stephen suddenly realized that this pious and religious life is not for him. He was never meant to be like this. He realized that he wants to be an artist and he must go to fulfill his dream by leaving Ireland. At that moment he had an epiphany realizing that is neither a crime to love a woman nor to praise the beauty of a woman. He was praising the young girl’s beauty. Even at his epiphany moment, he could not go beyond the physical beauty of a woman. He did not see anything except physical beauty in women. He had seen that wadding young girl as seabird. He described the girl’s beauty as:

“She seemed like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful seabird. Her long slender bare legs were delicate as a crane’s and pure save where an emerald trail of seaweed had fashioned itself as a sign upon the flesh. Her thighs, fuller and soft-hued as ivory, were bared almost to the hips, where the white fring­es of her drawers were like feathering of soft white down. Her slate-blue skirts were kilted boldly about her waist and dovetailed behind her. Her bosom was as a bird’s, soft and slight, slight and soft as the breast of some dark-plumaged dove. But her long fair hair was girlish: and girlish, and touched with the wonder of mortal beauty, her face.” (Joyce 199 chapter 4)

For Stephen, women have no other significance except physical beauty. That is he expresses his misogynist attitude.

Stephen Dedalus also the same attitude towards Eileen Vance, his childhood crush. Eileen was a childhood friend of his and they played together. Stephan described Eileen’s beauty in a physical way as well. Eileen’s beauty was described as “Eileen had long thin cool white hands too because she was a girl. They were like ivory; only soft. That was the meaning of TOWER OF IVORY but protestants could not under­stand it and made fun of it” (Joyce 38 Chapter 1). Both of the love interests of Stephan Dedalus , Emma Clery and Eileen Vance are only described by their physical beauty and their outer attitude. James Joyce did not portray any female character with any significance in the life of Stephan. In addition, Stephan dedalus did not have any intimate relationship with any of the female character as Joyce had described in his novel. Moreover, It seemed like Stephan wants to maintain distance from women no matter how much interest he had on them.

The novel A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man had the vast majority of male characters. Even Stephen did not have any female friend or except male ones. Each of the male characters have somewhat active role in the novel no matter how minor the character is as long as it is a male. In this novel, Joyce portrayed many minor male characters for example, Father Conmee, Fleming, Mike Flynn, Aubrey Mills, Boland, Nash, MacCann, Temple and so on. All those male characters somehow had some significance in Stephen’s life. The last but not the least, all the male characters had active participation in the storyline. The female characters were somewhat mute and had no active participation or contribution . However, Joyce portrayed the female characters as exact opposite of males. That is how his misogynist attitude is disclosed.

In conclusion, James Joyce portrayed her female characters as “birds and bats which try to wing and escape”. James Joyce tried to oppress female power and signified the male dominance over women. Also the male characters are prioritized over women in terms of sexuality, formal education and religious matters. That is how Joyce showed the male society as superior and that is how expressed his misogynist attitude.

References

1. Joyce, James. A portrait of The Artist as A Young Man. Friend’s Classics. With a Detailed Introduction --- FBC Editorial Board. Friend’s Book Corner.
2. Torkashvand, Noosheen and Jamili, Leila. “Power and Patriarchy: Oppression of Women in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”. Journal of Novel Applied Sciences. ©2014 JNAS Journal-2014-3- 4/416-423. Available online at www.jnasci.org.
3. Wegner, Taylor. Gender Performance and Identity Formation in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The Undergraduate Literary Criticism Journal at the University of Ilinois. Vol 5, No 1 (2018) pp. 114-140.