The discussion is meant to coincide with the readings. Below you will find discussion topics, questions, and points which can serve for class discussions in the manner of a diagnostic assessment (formative if the students are held accountable) or they can be repurposed as short response or even essay topics (formative or summative). There are many questions that can be formed and discussions had; these simply to serve as a starting point.
Time Frame: 15-17 days.
Standards: ELA.10.R.1.1, ELA.10.R.1.2, ELA.10.R.1.3, ELA.10.R.3.1, ELA.10.R.3.2, ELA.10.C.2.1, ELA.10.V.1.1, ELA.10.V.1.2, ELA.10.V.1.3
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Time Frame (if used as papers or short responses): 2-3 days
Standards (if used as papers or short responses):
Argumentative ~ ELA.10.R.1.1, ELA.10.R.1.2, ELA.10.R.1.3, ELA.10.R.3.1, ELA.10.R.3.2, ELA.10.V.1.1, ELA.10.V.1.2, ELA.10.V.1.3, ELA.10.C.1.3, ELA.10.C.3.1, ELA.10.C.1.5
Informative ~ ELA.10.R.1.1, ELA.10.R.1.2, ELA.10.R.1.3, ELA.10.R.3.1, ELA.10.R.3.2, ELA.10.V.1.1, ELA.10.V.1.2, ELA.10.V.1.3, ELA.10.C.1.4, ELA.10.C.3.1, ELA.10.C.1.5
(Students should have the option of pitching an alternative prompt for teacher approval if a topic interests them that isn’t listed as what is being assessed here is writing format including attention to audience and purpose, incorporation of textual evidence, and use of standard English.)
Time Frame: 15-17 days.
Standards: ELA.10.R.1.1, ELA.10.R.1.2, ELA.10.R.1.3, ELA.10.R.3.1, ELA.10.R.3.2, ELA.10.C.2.1, ELA.10.V.1.1, ELA.10.V.1.2, ELA.10.V.1.3
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Time Frame (if used as papers or short responses): 2-3 days
Standards (if used as papers or short responses):
Argumentative ~ ELA.10.R.1.1, ELA.10.R.1.2, ELA.10.R.1.3, ELA.10.R.3.1, ELA.10.R.3.2, ELA.10.V.1.1, ELA.10.V.1.2, ELA.10.V.1.3, ELA.10.C.1.3, ELA.10.C.3.1, ELA.10.C.1.5
Informative ~ ELA.10.R.1.1, ELA.10.R.1.2, ELA.10.R.1.3, ELA.10.R.3.1, ELA.10.R.3.2, ELA.10.V.1.1, ELA.10.V.1.2, ELA.10.V.1.3, ELA.10.C.1.4, ELA.10.C.3.1, ELA.10.C.1.5
(Students should have the option of pitching an alternative prompt for teacher approval if a topic interests them that isn’t listed as what is being assessed here is writing format including attention to audience and purpose, incorporation of textual evidence, and use of standard English.)
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"A Portrait Discussion Questions" ~ Here is a downloadable copy of the below topics. They are numbered for each chapter to correspond with the below teacher's edition of the novel so it is easier to identify where the discussions should take place in the reading.
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"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Teacher's Edition" ~ This version has numbers in it to correspond with the numbered discussion topics above.
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Chapter 1
- In the preface, Joyce wrote a quote from Ovid, Metamorphoses, VIII, 188: “Et ignotas animum dimittit in artes.” This translates from Latin to English as: “And he applies his mind to unknown arts” and is a description of Daedalus. It is worth noting that in his posthumously published draft of A Portrait, known as Stephen Hero, Joyce’s protagonist’s last name was spelled “Daedalus”; he later changed the spelling to “Dedalus” for A Portrait and then later, Ulysses.
- What is the significance and symbolism of the name?
- What might it foreshadow?
- How could this quote be applicable to Joyce himself?
- In the beginning of the novel, what is the effect of the childish language on the reader? Note that unlike quite a few editions of the novel, in the original Joyce wrote of the song on the first page, “O, the geen wothe botheth” which was later changed by editors to “green”. Young Stephen couldn’t pronounce his r’s.
- Dante’s name carries with it symbolic significance. What could her name imply about her role in the novel? Consider The Divine Comedy and particularly Inferno. Consider religious allusions with Joyce’s character as well as the role Dante played in his own epic poem.
- The mention of Dante’s brushes for Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell reveals the socio-politics of the time and the mention of Stephen, a catholic, not being able to be with Eileen, a protestant, reveals the religious divides in Ireland. Why might Joyce throw that out to the reader so early in the novel?
- When asked by Nasty Roche if his father was a magistrate, instead of replying, Joyce wrote, “He crept about from point to point on the fringe of his line, making little runs now and then.”
- How might this have a double-meaning with the rugby (or Gaelic football) being played and Roche’s line of questioning?
- What does this say about Stephen?
- When Stephen is reading to himself the flyleaf of his geography book where he was, beginning with “Stephen Dedalus” and ending in “The Universe”, what could Stephen be trying to figure out? This was a common joke of sorts students would write in their books at the time in Ireland, but it could have more meaning in Joyce’s novel.
- Why could there be so many olfactory senses described around Stephen Dedalus?
- Even though, while in the infirmary, Stephen considers writing home to his mother and father, why did he write only to his mother? Consider the familial roles.
- During the Christmas dinner, Mr. Casey says that his fingers were cramped “making a birthday present for Queen Victoria” which implies that he was imprisoned with forced labor for revolutionary activities. What might this detail imply about the Dedalus family’s political leanings?
- During the debate of the Christmas dinner between Dante and Simon Dedalus and Mr. Casey, consider the conflict.
- What is the role of the church in Ireland? How might this brew discontent socially in a country that is colonial yet moving towards independence and heavily catholic yet strongly protestant in parts such as Dublin and Ulster?
- During the Christmas dinner debate, Dante mentioned in regard to young Stephen, “O, he’ll remember all this when he grows up”. What might this be foreshadowing for a young adult version of Stephen?
- Joyce wrote, “By thinking of things you could understand them.”
- How might this be advice for the reader as well as Stephen?
- What might this imply about the growth/development of Stephen in relation to the reader?
- The prefect of studies quotes Shakespeare’s Macbeth when he warns the students that Father Dolan will be in to see them “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.” What parallelism could exist between the two texts in tone, theme, or foreshadowing?
- During the pandybat incident, Joyce wrote, “He felt the prefect of studies touch it [Stephen’s palm] for a moment at the fingers to straighten it…”, “…and of the firm touch of the prefect of studies when he had steadied the shaking fingers…”, “He felt the touch of the prefect’s fingers as they had steadied his hand and at first he had thought he was going to shake hands with him because the fingers were soft and firm…”, and “…because he had steadied the hand first with his firm soft fingers and that was to hit it better and louder.” These incidents are paired with the “swish” sound of the prefect’s soutane sleeve which will forever associate for Stephen the sound with pain. The three or so pages all of this takes place on reveal the drama and effect of this incident on Stephen’s psyche. Reread it.
- Why would Joyce pair these seemingly intimate acts with acts of cruelty?
- What could Joyce be implying about the catholic church and Stephen’s developing relationship with it?
- What might this foreshadow in regard to Stephen’s relationship with the church?
- What could be symbolic about the skull on the desk of the college rector which Stephen notices?
- Consider Joyce’s acclaimed short story, “The Dead”, and the ending of Chapter 1 of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
- What similarities can one find here in the wording?
- What literary device is being utilized?
- Why might Joyce be showing such similarities between these two endings?
Chapter 2
- How does the language shift in the beginning of Chapter 2 compared to the beginning of Chapter 1?
- In what subtle way is Joyce conveying something about Stephen’s character development (and perhaps the readers’) through this technique?
- Stephen began wandering into pubs after leaving Clongowes Wood College for Belvedere in Dublin where he heard elders speaking. Joyce wrote of them, “through them he had glimpses of the real world about him.” What could this be implying about Stephen’s development and what could it foreshadow for the adolescent character?
- Joyce wrote, “In a vague way he understood that his father was in trouble…” How might this tie into the myth of Daedalus and Icarus?
- Why might Joyce use this myth with the development of Stephen?
- Stephen, reading The Count of Monte Cristo, fantasizes about finding his Mercedes. There is a clear naivety in this scene. What might this foreshadow ahead for young Stephen?
- After the embarrassing moment on the tram with the girl, Stephen wrote a poem about the incident. However, it is not true to what actually happened. What is key difference?
- What is Stephen attempting to do here with literature?
- What might this imply about what Joyce is doing with such an autobiographically inspired fiction?
- The night of the Whitsuntide play is two years from the previous section. Consider the subtle changes in language and Stephen’s character. What can be seen happening to his development as a youth?
- Since his poem about the girl on the tram, what talent has Stephen honed and what could this foreshadow as well?
- Joyce wrote, “All the leisure which his school life left him [Stephen] was passed in the company of subversive writers…” This is quickly followed by the scene with his teacher, Mr. Tate. What is beginning to happen to Stephen’s development in this regard?
- Why might this threaten the catholic school’s hold on Stephen’s attention and path ahead?
- Mr. Tate pointed out to Stephen that he had written in his essay, “without a possibility of ever approaching nearer” in reference to the Creator and the soul. Stephen replied, “I meant without a possibility of ever reaching.” This satisfies Mr. Tate. How might this exchange of semantics connect with the Icarus myth and its application to Joyce’s novel so far?
- Fun Puzzle: “…the silent telegraphpoles passing his window swiftly every four seconds…” Knowing that in late 19th century Ireland telegraph poles were roughly 60 yards apart, how fast was Stephen’s train going in miles per hour?
- What does the line about Stephen, “His prayer, addressed neither to God nor saint…”, reveal about him at this point?
- What led him to this point in his life?
- In the anatomy theater of his father’s old university, Stephen notices the word “Foetus” cut into the dark wood of the desk. Not much further in the novel, Joyce wrote, “The letters cut in the stained wood of the desk stared upon him, mocking his bodily weakness and futile enthusiasms and making him loathe himself for his own mad and filthy orgies.” What does this imply Stephen has been doing in his spare time lately and how is it making him feel?
- Why would the word “Foetus” be such a trigger for Stephen? Consider what it is and what it could represent. Consider Stephen’s character development in the novel.
- The Latin Stephen is asked to translate (Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis) means “Times change and we change with them.” How might this apply on a deeper level to this point in the novel for Stephen?
- How might it apply to Simon, Stephen’s father?
- Stephen, watching his father and his friends drink, thinks to himself, “His mind seemed older than theirs: it shone coldly on their strifes and happiness and regrets like a moon upon a younger earth. No life or youth stirred in him as it had stirred in them.” What could this complex symbolism be hinting at from Joyce in regards to Stephen’s relationship to his father?
- When Stephen returned to his wanderings after considering his “mortal sin” near the end of the chapter, he had a flashback to years before in Blackrock where he fantasized about Mercedes. What is the purpose of this flashback in the story?
- What is revealed in this flashback, contrasted with the reality, about Stephen?
- Near the end of the chapter, Joyce wrote, “The yellow gasflames arose before his troubled vision against the vapoury sky, burning as if before an altar. Before the doors and in the lighted halls groups were gathered arrayed as for some rite.” What are the allusions being made here and how do they interact with what is happening at this point in the story?
- The final paragraph with its beautiful description brings up some fascinating topics to consider:
- What role does failure play in our lives?
- Why are people fascinated by failure more so often than success (i.e. Paradise Lost, Icarus…)?
- Is failure essential for growth?
Chapter 3
- Explain the two kinds of hunger described in the first two paragraphs of Chapter 3.
- What is Joyce revealing here in the beginning of this chapter?
- Joyce introduces phrases and words such as “The stars began to crumble and a cloud of fine stardust fell through space”, “balefire”, “burning stars”, “What did it avail to pray when he knew that his soul lusted after its own destruction?”, “falsehood”, “barren pride”, “veiled voice”, and “morning star”. What familiar allusions are being made here and what is the effect on the reader?
- Read the early paragraph that begins, “His sin, which had covered him from the sight of God…” In what ways are the prostitutes Stephen visited similar to the Virgin Mary?
- In what ways are they different?
- Christianity is founded on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. One of Catholicism’s key aspects is confession and forgiveness of sins. In what way could Stephen’s recent choices be critical in the model of the catholic church?
- How might Stephen’s fall from God’s grace align with other literary allusions made thus far?
- What is hell?
- Can hell be an earthly creation as opposed to one set in the afterlife?
- What is the purpose of hell to those of us who are still living?
- In what way could hell be used by the church as a means of control and how might Stephen respond to it?
- Why do you think the hellfire sermon, something Joyce experienced in real life, is such a long and vivid section in the chapter?
- How does it fit in with Stephen’s development?
- During the hellfire sermon, why does the memory of Emma, the girl on the tram, enter Stephen’s mind?
- Unlike Icarus and Lucifer, do you think there is hope for redemption for young Stephen?
- In what way might the fall of one’s soul be instrumental in its salvation?
- How might this give the church power and thus, could the church have a vested interest in the evils of the living world?
- During the break of the hellfire sermon, Joyce has Stephen look out the window at “the bleak rain”. Someone mentions, “It might clear up, sir.” How might this be a metaphor for what Stephen is going through in this moment?
- What is the effect of the hellfire sermon on Stephen?
- Why is it believable that Stephen might feel this way? How did Joyce create this realistic character development?
- What was the effect of the sermon on the reader?
- Shortly after the hellfire sermon, Joyce writes that Stephen sees creatures in the field moving about and uses the terms “swished” and “swishing” to describe various aspects of their features. What might this “swish” be reminiscent of from Stephen’s childhood and how might it be associated with pain and injustice following the sermon?
- Near the end of the chapter, Joyce wrote, “…his prayers ascended to heaven from his purified heart like perfume streaming upwards from a heart of white rose.” How might this relate to the academic battle young Stephen faced at Clongowes Woods College, playfully modeled after the War of the Roses?
- At the end of the chapter, Joyce wrote, “The alter was heaped with fragrant masses of white flowers…the white flowers were clear and silent as his own soul.” How might the flowers and their colors be symbolic of the transformation of Stephen’s recent development?
- Immediately before the hellfire sermon, Joyce wrote, “Stephen’s heart began slowly to fold and fade with fear like a withering flower” and “Stephen’s heart had withered up like a flower.” How does this language contrast with that at the end of the chapter and what is the cause of this metaphorical shift?
Chapter 4
- When Joyce wrote of Stephen that “his voice which was then breaking”, what transition is Stephen going through at this point?
- Stephen’s eyesight is still poor. However, despite the emphasis on olfactory senses Stephen experiences, his interpretations are unusual. In Chapter 2, Stephen thinks to himself, “That is horse piss and rotted straw, the thought. It is a good odour to breathe.” Now, in Chapter 4, as he attempts to suppress sensual enjoyment as penance for his past discretions, he realizes that “he found in himself no instinctive repugnance to bad odours…” Despite this, “whenever it was possible he subjected himself to this [stale fishy stink] unpleasant odour.” What is Stephen doing here and why?
- How does this form of penance fit his character development?
- In swinging to the far extreme from sin, what might this foreshadow for Stephen? Consider his thought, “To merge his life in the common tide of other lives was harder for him than any fasting or prayer…”
- As the director was approaching Stephen to find out if he had ever considered a vocation in the priesthood, “he heard the handle of the door turning and the swish of a soutane.” If you recall from Chapter 1, how might Stephen’s association with the sound of the “swish” of a soutane sleeve foreshadow his decision on joining the priesthood?
- The conversation with the director revolves initially around Franciscan orders in Belgium and the French they were speaking with “Les jupes” which translates to “the skirts”. However, there is a noticeable lack of identity with what nation given where the novel takes place?
- What might this subtly hint at with the views of Home Rule and the politics of the time?
- After the director makes his plea about Stephen joining the priesthood, Stephen leaves and the tone immediately shifts. What diction (and there are many examples) reveals this tonal shift?
- What does the tone shift to?
- What does this tone foreshadow about Stephen’s decision?
- Joyce wrote, “He was destined to learn his own wisdom apart from others or to learn the wisdom of others himself wandering among the snares of the world. The snares of the world were its ways of sin. He would fall. He had not yet fallen but he would fall silently, in an instant.” “Fall” or “fallen” is then mentioned three more times in that paragraph. What does this imply about Stephen’s decision to join the priesthood?
- What seems to be the reasoning in his decision?
- How might this reasoning connect with Milton’s Paradise Lost or the Icarus myth?
- When Stephen goes home he sees “the last of the second watered tea remained” and “small glassjars and jampots which did service for teacups.” What does this imply about Stephen’s family’s situation?
- How might Stephen’s family connect to Milton’s Paradise Lost or the Icarus myth?
- In Chapter 1, young Stephen said that the sentences he had to repeat in his spelling book “were like poetry.” Now in Chapter 4 Stephen looks at the sky and says, “A day of dappled seaborne clouds” and then thinks to himself, “Words. Was it their colours?” What vocation, not the priesthood, does Stephen seem drawn back toward?
- What could Joyce be saying about youth given Stephen as in a way reverted to an earlier self?
- Stephen’s friends call him in Greek “Bous Stephanoumenos”, the garlanded bull which is a sacrificial martyr symbol. He thinks to himself, “Now, as never before, his strange name seemed to him a prophecy.” He then considers the “fabulous artificer” and “a hawklike man flying sunward above the sea”. Stephen declares to himself, “He would create proudly out of the freedom and power of his soul, as the great artificer whose name he bore…” What could the Greek language referenced to himself imply about Stephen’s sense of nationalism?
- What could the translation of the Greek name foreshadow about Stephen’s chosen path?
- Why might that be a romantic ideal to him?
- What other allusion is heavily referenced here to drill in this foreshadowing?
- Towards the very end of the chapter, Stephen describes a girl standing in the water. The paragraph begins, “A girl stood before him in midstream, alone and still…” It is an incredibly descriptive paragraph. It is almost a portrait in words. What is the symbolic significance of this girl to Stephen?
- What is the purpose or value of a portrait in this context?
Chapter 5
- Contrast Stephen’s personality in the beginning of Chapter 5 with that of his in the beginning of Chapter 1. How has it developed?
- What has led to this development?
- In the paragraph that begins with, “The word now shown in his brain, clearer and brighter…” Stephen thinks, “Ivory, ivoire, avorio, ebur”. This is “Ivory” in English, French, Italian, and Latin. Stephen even considers English and Portuguese in this paragraph. Consider Britain at this time. The very next paragraph mentions the Roman empire. What could all of these references be hinting at and what could Joyce be subtly commenting on here?
- There have been many allusions in this novel. When the topic of Irish nationalism comes up, Stephen refers multiple times to the Irish myth. What are Stephen’s views on Irish nationalism?
- Why do you think he feels this way? Are those opinions mature and why?
- During Stephen’s walk with Mat Davin, there are interesting themes present. In Davin’s story, he mentions the woman in the doorway who beckoned to him, “Come in and stay the night here. You’ve no call to be frightened. There’s no one in it but ourselves…” Immediately after the story, a woman selling flowers cries, “Ah, gentleman…Buy that lovely bunch. Will you, gentlemen?” What common theme here is present?
- What could this be alluding to from Stephen’s past?
- In addition to the female temptresses of Stephen’s past such as the prostitutes, what catholic figure could also be viewed as a female temptress?
- How does Stephen react to these themes and why?
- In Chapter 3 during the hellfire sermon, the rector said in contrast to the fire of hell, “But our earthly fire was created by God for the benefit of man, to maintain in him the spark of life and to help him in the useful arts…” In Chapter 5, the dean kneeling and lighting a fire says to Stephen, “There is an art in lighting a fire.” There is symbolism in fire. Consider the myth of Prometheus. How might this apply to Stephen?
- How might the way Stephen symbolically sees fire differ from that of the priests?
- When discussing art with the dean, Stephen quotes St. Thomas Aquinas with, “Pulcra sunt quae visa placent.” This translates to “Those things are beautiful which please the sight.” He then says that “Aquinas also says Bonum est in quod tendit appetitus.” This translates to “Good is that to which an appetite tends.” This is a very Platonic approach to art. Which view do you think Stephen would gravitate towards and why?
- The dean says to Stephen, “Only the trained diver can go down into those depths and explore them and come to the surface again.” Fascinatingly, Carl Jung, the noted psychiatrist who treated Joyce’s daughter, Lucia, for a brief time in the 1930’s, said to Joyce biographer Richard Ellmann that Joyce and Lucia were “like two people going to the bottom of a river, one falling and the other diving.” What could Joyce be commenting on in the novel in regards to genius?
- How does Carl Jung relate genius to madness?
- When Stephen attempts to correct the dean who references a “funnel” when Stephen points out that it is called a “tundish” in Ireland, the dean says, “That is a most interesting word. I must look that word up.” What does this imply about Irish culture, particularly in relation to the church?
- What does this imply about Stephen’s sense of authority?
- When Moynihan murmured during the lecture, “Isn’t MacAlister a devil for his pound of flesh?” he is referencing William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. MacAlister is a Scottish name. How might this be a cultural and perhaps anti-Semitic jab at the character?
- During the political debate in the university over signing the petition for universal peace, Stephen claims, “If we must have a Jesus, let us have a legitimate Jesus.” What is he commenting on here with religion and politics?
- How might Stephen have developed this complex world view from his experiences reflected earlier in the novel? Consider Home Rule.
- Stephen proclaims, “This race and this country and this life produced me, he said. I shall express myself as I am”, “When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight”, and “Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow.” These are complex feelings for a young man to have. What is Stephen attempting to say about his relationship with his own country?
- How did this view develop over the text into what it is?
- How might these lines foreshadow for Stephen?
- Based on his conversation with Lynch, what do you think Stephen’s views on art are?
- Why?
- How do you think he came to this decision over the development of the novel?
- How might this be reflective of Joyce?
- Consider Stephen’s line: “The artist, like the God of creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.” What does this thought reveal about how Stephen thinks of himself?
- How might this thought have been developed over the course of the novel?
- Stephen sees himself as “a priest of eternal imagination, transmuting the daily bread of experience into the radiant body of everlasting life.” In My Brother’s Keeper, a biography of Joyce written by his brother, Stanislaus, and published in 1958, he wrote that Joyce hoped “…to give people some kind of intellectual pleasure or spiritual enjoyment by converting the bread of everyday life into something that has a permanent artistic life of its own…” What does this reveal about Stephen and how he sees himself?
- How might Stephen be compared with his creator, Joyce?
- How might Stephen’s view, given the metaphor used, developed over the novel?
- Consider the language Joyce wrote with in the beginning of the novel. Then consider the line describing the birds in flight above Stephen: “Their cry was shrill and clear and fine and falling like threads of silken light unwound from whirring spools.” How has the language evolved over the course of the novel?
- Why has the language changed?
- Stephen thinks about “the hawklike man whose name he bore” and “Thoth, the god of writers”. How does Stephen see himself and in what way is he embracing a sense of destiny?
- What foreshadowing could hint at whether or not this perceived destiny might work out for Stephen?
- Joyce wrote: “Then he was to go away for they were birds ever going and coming, building ever an unlasting home under the eaves of men’s houses and ever leaving the homes they had built to wander.” He later asks in the beginning of a paragraph, “Symbol of departure or of loneliness?” Paired with Stephen’s views on his own country of Ireland, what could this foreshadow about the young artist?
- Stephen notices Cranly’s book, Diseases of the Ox. Given Stephen’s Greek nickname given to him by his friends, what could this foreshadow about the young artist’s ambitious new outlook on life?
- Stephen’s friend, Temple, says that “The most profound sentence ever written” is “Reproduction is the beginning of death.” Why might he think this? Explain the complexity of this thought.
- In his conversation with Cranly, Stephen (quoting Milton’s Paradise Lost) says, “I will not serve” to which Cranly replied, “That remark was made before”. What is considered evil or wrong about servitude?
- Can one choose not to serve for good reasons? How?
- Why does Stephen choose not to serve? What has led him to this moment which is such a drastic shift from the beginning of the novel?
- Late in Chapter 4, Stephen rejects the priesthood, citing, “once a definite and irrevocable act of his threatened to end for ever, in time and in eternity, his freedom.” In Chapter 5, Cranly remembers something Stephen told him: “To discover the mode of life or of art whereby your spirit could express itself in unfettered freedom.” What seems to be the motivation for Stephen to turn away from the church and pursue a life of art?
- Stephen, again, later quotes Milton’s Paradise Lost by telling Cranly, “I will not serve that in which I no longer believe…” This paragraph ends with Stephen saying he will use “for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use – silence, exile, and cunning.” Consider these arms he describes. What might be foreshadowed in these beliefs?
- What does the final shift to a diary-style writing imply of Stephen and his recent decisions?
- Based on what you know of him and the allusions made by Joyce thus far, how do you think this will go for him?
- Stephen writes on 6 April, later: “I desire to press in my arms the loveliness which has not yet come into the world.” What does this imply about Stephen’s pursuit of art (literature)?
- At the very end of the novel, Joyce/Stephen wrote, “Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.” What could Stephen be saying here when this complex sentence is deconstructed?
- The last sentence of the novel is, “Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead.” This then ends with “Dublin 1904 Trieste 1914”. What is the allusion here and what could it symbolize is Stephen’s goal at the end of the novel?
- What does this sentence foreshadow Stephen is going to do immediately after the novel ends?
- Why is he leaving Ireland?
