So, just a warning, I think that this post will probably be a bit confusing as I just kind of spilled my thoughts. I also want to apologize in advance if I offend anyone's religious beliefs because that isn't my intention and I'm going to try not to talk about the actual beliefs here...
Anyway, I want to talk about the section that we read last night where Stephen hears the sermon about hell during his school's retreat. I was pretty surprised by how blunt and scary and terrible the description of hell was. This may not have been a new image to some people who were raised in a more religious way than I was, but, even back when I went to church every Sunday, I never encountered such a depressing depiction of hell. To be honest, while I was reading the sermon, my mouth slowly opened more and more and I just felt awful. Joyce, unfortunately, did a great job of really making the reader feel as though they were in the scene being described. However, it was easy for me to kind of move on after reading that passage as my beliefs don't really fit with that idea, but I felt awful for Stephen and the other boys, especially when Stephen threw up due to his fear and discomfort. Honestly, I wasn't very happy with the priest while I was reading that section, but I can overlook that because I think that, in the end, hearing that sermon had a really good effect on Stephen. It made me really excited to see Stephen feeling so good about himself, life, etc. after he confessed his sins. I've felt like there has been sort of an ominous cloud over Stephen's head throughout the novel that darkens as he gets older, but now that cloud is gone. I've been struggling a lot with my feelings about Stephen because I can relate to his feelings a lot of the time, but I think that he and I make decisions differently, so it has been a bit frustrating to read Portrait. Now that he seems to have cleared up some of his angst (not sure if that's the best word to describe it), I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about him. Obviously I can't know this already, but I feel like this sermon, as difficult as it was for Stephen to hear, will be a turning point for him and that makes me excited for Stephen and excited to read more of the novel.
We could look at the sermon as the rhetorical equivalent of Father Dolan's threat to come back the next day and whack Stephen's hands again--instead of a positive moral persuasion to be good, the tactic is fear and intimidation. Don't be a "lazy, idle little schemer" or God will send you to hell for all eternity.
ReplyDeleteThe priest (who is Father Dolan, by the way--cementing the analogy further) knows his audience: he's speaking to credulous young boys who've been raised in this context of religious education, and he takes a very literary/metaphorical approach to trying to get them to wrap their heads around the context of hell. He literally is trying to tell them a very scary story, and he deploys literary devices to help him do so. The rhetoric he uses might be excessive--it's probably not typical of Sunday schools across contemporary America (although there are phenomena like "hell houses" on Halloween in certain Christian-dominated communities in America, where trick-or-treaters are given an ostensible taste of hell's torments), but there is a tradition of "fire and brimstone" preaching in a range of Protestant and Catholic traditions.
Though I agree that the sermon seems to have gotten Stephen out of a pretty bad rut, I think that, as is often the case with the chapter endings, it's probably not the perfect transformative moment Stephen thinks it is. I feel like true emotional healing can't come from so much fear and guilt. Also, since it seems like so far Joyce has been kind of critical of especially zealous catholic beliefs, I doubt that Stephen will end up a priest. The bit about him reverting back to his young self in a lot of ways could also be a little troubling (though I'm writing this after having read more of the book, so you couldn't see that at the end of chapter 3). This means that the devotion he got from the sermon has to start to slide again. Hopefully with a different outcome this time.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I was encouraged by Stephen's redemption from constant sin, I worry about the way that he went about it. Stephen was transformed by fear, and his resulting deep focus on religion seems problematic. By taking an opposite extreme, I worry that Stephen won't be very resilient if confronted with a challenge.
ReplyDeleteStephen seems to experience many turning points in the novel--going along with the idea that coming of age is a process, not a point in time--and I agree that this is one of them. In light of later readings, though, this sermon doesn't seem to trigger positive change because he swings to pious extremes (however, I realize this post was speculation for the most part, and I would have agreed with your prediction before we continued reading).
ReplyDeleteIn class, we talked about the sermon and its aftermath as being a defense on Stephen's behalf. Knowing that this is a coming of age novel, I think readers (including myself) tend to completely disregard Stephen's feelings because he's an angsty teen with grandiose ideas. There's kind of a stigma against teens--others' perceptions are tinged with the dismissing belief that our feelings and actions are just phases. However, Joyce shows us here that Stephen is genuinely affected by what he's hearing, that he's a human being, too, and that he's terrified. It makes Stephen a more sympathetic character; it makes him more of a person and less of a caricature.
I agree with you 100% on your shock with the sermon. I felt the same way while reading it. The first school I went to that I can really remember was a private Christian school. I was only there from Pre-K to 1st grade, and it was nothing like the religious school experience Stephen had. As I have grown up and had various (unresolved) inner debates about religion and my beliefs, one thing that stuck with me for a long time was a dislike for the majority of religious schools.
ReplyDeleteLike, my school was very dissimilar from Stephens and they tried to instill morals and ethics and values that a person should have no matter what they believe in. That is a great thing for a religious school to do, and the common beliefs parts would create a sense of community and that is great. However, my old school wasn't perfect and even now I can remember being terrified that when I died my fate might be that I was burning in Hell's flames (literally, the image in my head was a giant bonfire with sinners in the fire) for all of eternity.