Stephan's Loves

     At the end of the book Stephan talks about how he has to give up everything, including love so that he can become a great artist. Stephan leaves Ireland, which has been his home for his whole life with the intention to never return. He gives up all the love he had, the church, his mother, friends, and his home. However I do not think Stephan really gave up love, especially his love for Ireland. Joyce the author wrote this book and used Stephan as a representation of himself. Throughout the rest of his life all the things Joyce writes are set in Dublin, where he grew up. I think that he wrote about it so much because he still loves the place where he grew up. He knows Dublin so well, he is able to tell this in-depth stories about it without ever going back to do research or refresh his memory. His years in Dublin where so instrumental in shaping him as a person that there is no way he can not love the place, remember it in such detail.
     Another love that Stephan still has is that for his mother. While he does leave her with a broken heart because he says he is no longer a Catholic he still comes back to her funeral. I think this shows how much love he had for her because he said he would never return yet he does, for her. In one of his other books Joyce has a character named Stephan that has just returned to Dublin because his mother died. He portrays this man as racked with guilt over his mothers passing and I think that is how Joyce really felt when his mother died.
     Dublin and his mother I think are two examples of how much Stephan actually loves and that he did not let go of love to be an artist. I think the love Stephan has did not hinder his art, he used that love to become such a good artist.




Comments

  1. I agree. It is just like when people say get a job that you would like to do otherwise you would be bored. If he didn't love Dublin then he wouldn't be able to write about it in such great detail. Just like in the book when he says he doesn't understand what love means, I think that that is what he really means. He loves Dublin and his mother, but he doesn't know how to portray that love.

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  2. I agree that Stephen obviously can't get rid of all of his emotions even if he thinks he has to. I don't think it's very healthy for him to try either, and I think he's kind of wrong in saying you need to be separated from life to be an artist. Because in the end, you do need some life experience to be an artist, and trying to be an observer instead of a participant doesn't work.

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  3. I, too, agree. As much as Stephen (or any person really) would like to not care, which in Stephen's head is the vision of "madam, I never did like to eat such-and-such grapes", he can't really give up on feeling or returning to where he comes from. It's what leads him home for his mother's funeral, it's what leads Joyce to write about Dublin, and likely both to pursue romantic endeavors.

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  4. I mean it's like he has to discard all of his connections so that his flow of artistry can remain uninterrupted. If he were to remain in Dublin, he would be continually haunted by memories of his past, too immersed in the topic of his craft to fully engage with it. Moving away allows him to take a more holistic approach to his subject matter.

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  5. I agree with you that Stephen didn't give up his love for Ireland. I think it's just that he felt he needed to distance himself in order to write about it well. If he had stayed, he would have been too consumed with all the memories of his past to effectively write about it.

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  6. I agree that Joyce and Stephen still love. Joyce must have cared for Dublin considering how detailed his description of the city was. I'm a little unsure about Stephen's feelings regarding Dublin though but I don't think he hates it. I also think that both Joyce and Stephen are careful to not to let their love for their families and country limit their growth as an artist. Although Stephen might have loved his family and country, he still left them behind to pursue his art. I'm unsure if that was the "right" choice but it was a brave one.

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  7. I don't think that if you truly love someone, you can just leave them with the intent of ever coming back or reconnecting with them again. I don't think Stephen understands what exactly love is and that it's a commitment, which is something that he completely disregards. The only reason he went back to Dublin was because of his mother's funeral ( which thank god he went because if he didn't he would've been the world's biggest a**hole), and then he never visited after that. If he did actually love Dublin don't you think he would've visited at least a couple of times?

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