At the end of chapter five we see Stephen finally detach himself from faith. He completely abandons any form of Christianity—his commitment to his secularism cannot even be broken by the pleas and heartbreak of his own mother. The state of Stephen's faith took a complete 180 from his strict letter-of-the-law observance of religion. He prayed routinely at Clongowes even through freezing cold and sickness, and he disciplined his senses, forgoing mortal comforts all in fear of being damned to hell. While it may seem surprising to see the pious young Stephen's transformation to complete secularism, given the nature of Stephen's relationship with his faith, we really should have seen that coming.
Stephen's faith has always been driven by fear. In the beginning at Clongowes, he was driven to pray by the belief that missing a single prayer will damn him to hell. It seems that Stephen's faith is not genuine and kind of misguided. The fire and brimstone speech is one of the epiphanies or growing moments that occur at the end of the chapters. This time Stephen has supposedly realized his sinful actions and desires to reform himself. However the speech drives Stephen to fix his sinful actions, not because he has a true desire to reform himself, but because he is scared of the consequences of not doing so. The same insincerity in his reformation can be seen in how he disciplines his senses. He avoids even looking at women, avoids warming himself at the fire, and lowkey tortures himself by not drying his neck before going outside and sleeping in uncomfortable positions. Again he does these things out of fear. Stephen tries to repress and ignore his sinful desires by denying himself physical comfort and avoiding the sight of women, rather than accepting that he has those sinful desires and simply resisting them.
It's clear Stephen's piety is not driven by true faith, so he has a weak relationship with his religion. It should not come as a surprise that when he matures, he begins to be skeptical about his religion which was forced onto him through fear. One question I still have though is: is faith based on faith still genuine faith? If Stephen believes for a fact that his sins will results in eternal damnation, is that real faith?
Stephen's faith has always been driven by fear. In the beginning at Clongowes, he was driven to pray by the belief that missing a single prayer will damn him to hell. It seems that Stephen's faith is not genuine and kind of misguided. The fire and brimstone speech is one of the epiphanies or growing moments that occur at the end of the chapters. This time Stephen has supposedly realized his sinful actions and desires to reform himself. However the speech drives Stephen to fix his sinful actions, not because he has a true desire to reform himself, but because he is scared of the consequences of not doing so. The same insincerity in his reformation can be seen in how he disciplines his senses. He avoids even looking at women, avoids warming himself at the fire, and lowkey tortures himself by not drying his neck before going outside and sleeping in uncomfortable positions. Again he does these things out of fear. Stephen tries to repress and ignore his sinful desires by denying himself physical comfort and avoiding the sight of women, rather than accepting that he has those sinful desires and simply resisting them.
It's clear Stephen's piety is not driven by true faith, so he has a weak relationship with his religion. It should not come as a surprise that when he matures, he begins to be skeptical about his religion which was forced onto him through fear. One question I still have though is: is faith based on faith still genuine faith? If Stephen believes for a fact that his sins will results in eternal damnation, is that real faith?
You make a very interesting point. Throughout the novel Stephen takes things to the extreme in somewhat weird ways. Although Stephen views things in a religious context, the time when he physically tortured himself rather than develop mentally proves he doesn’t take religion to heart. Rather, religion plays a different role in Stephen’s life — it provides an outlet to illustrate his art and establish Stephen’s satanic hero persona.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this sentiment. Stephen is very much driven by what he thinks he's supposed to do and be. He's been taught that he needs to pray so that he doesn't go to hell; he doesn't actually give any thought to the action or prayer. That's part of the beauty of the ending--he takes his life into his own hands and rejects the pleas of his mother to resume his faith.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point. I feel like in doing this, Joyce is sort of criticizing the Catholic church itself. I think that this is Joyce's way of saying that the way that Catholicism teaches christianity ultimately pushes its followers away from truly being faithful.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point. Stephen does follows religious doctrine out of fear throughout the whole book. Stephen's rejection of his faith at the end of the novel might even be seen as a climactic rejection of his fear.
ReplyDeleteStephen basically says that in his eyes God is just the holder of the holy pandie bat, waiting to smite him down for his sin. That isn't a healthy relationship for anyone, to live in constant fear of the other, let alone God. To me I understand completely why Stephen is so ready to denounce his faith, probably because it wasn't his faith but rather that of the priests or his mother who forced it onto him.
ReplyDeleteI would say that Stephen's fear-based religious faith does help render his position at the end of the novel--poised to "exile" himself to Europe as an artist, rejecting his religion and nation and family--somewhat more "heroic," at least potentially. When Cranly challenges him as to why he would refuse to take Communion if he doesn't even believe in God, he claims to "neither believe nor disbelieve." It's so Stephen, but he wants to *withhold* his Communion from God--it's still "between him and God." So he claims that he's willing to be making an "eternal" mistake by pursuing this "wayward spirit" of art. He says that he's fully willing to go to hell for this choice--still in Satanic hero mode, to some extent!
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