Faubourg Saint Patrice - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

Egotistical power seduces Stephen; it is, however, the power of artistic
expression which he hopes to find in the role of secular artist rather than the spiritual
power of the priesthood. Instead of attaining this power through serving the orthodox
God he would later identify as a "Chewer of corpses" (1.279), Stephen, with his
escalating egotism, envisions himself as god-like in his ability to create from his
imagination: "The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or
beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his
fingernails" (A Portrait 187); he would become a "a priest of the eternal imagination.. .
transmuting the daily bread of experience into the radiant body of everlasting life" (192)5.
Obviously, Stephen adapts the characteristics normally associated with both theJudeo-
Christian God and the Catholic priest into those of the modern secular artist. In words
similar to Stephen's, Stanislaus Joyce relates his brother's view on the role of the priest
and artist: "He believed that poets in the measure of their gifts and personality were the
repositories of the genuine spirit of their race, and priests were the usurpers" (108).
For Stephen, the poet becomes the universal voice which reflects the "genuine
spirit" of a culture, a voice more catholic than the Catholic priest. In A Portrait,
Stephen, like Joyce, believes that his spiritual mission is to create a new consciousness
for his race: a consciousness distinct from, and opposed to, the stifling spirituality of
orthodox religion; a consciousness that could only be manifested through the
imagination and insight of the artist. As Boyle describes it:
. . .Stephen pictures the imagination, like another Mary, conceiving its
artistic product, its word, under the power of the artist's spirit, which is
like another Holy Spirit, and bringing forth an external word, the finished
literary work, which extends into a true Eucharist giving life to those who
participate. Joyce employs the beautiful and noble aspirations of Catholic
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