Thursday, April 1, 2010
Religious Aspect
Upon taking a deeper look into Stephen's prayer life, in class on Wednesday, I was very intrigued by the points that were made. We spoke a small amount about Catholicism and it's structure, which made me think a great deal whether or not Stephens prayers were genuine or out of habit. Although Joyce seems to be displaying the habitual notion of Catholicism, I feel as though, at this point in the novel, how Stephen's prays is important to his view of faith. On pg. 15 when the prefect prays, Stephen knew the responses and his prayers are very eloquent and structured (pg. 15-16). But if this structure is something that is important to the Catholic faith, Stephen is right on target. He is living out his faith the way he believes is correct and righteous. However, his repetition of the same prayer on pages 15 and 17, I believe, shows his immaturity for faith in general. He does grasp the fact that he is suppose to pray and this is exactly how it is suppose to be done ("insert name here" prayer) but he struggles with really praying because he wants too. He is torn between being cold and going to hell, all because of a prayer. I find it interesting that Joyce displays Stephen's faith this way in order to lead up to Stephen leaving to begin a life of writing.
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I completely agree with you that Stephen is torn when it comes to his religion and what approach to take to it. His structure prayers such as "insert name here," show that he has not yet learned that he can make his own prayers with his own words, but since the Catholic faith is so structure he seems to be following the "rules."
ReplyDeleteI agree as well. I liked your 'insert name here' comment, that was a perfect description of what he was doing. As so often in life, religion is something that many strive for when they are not pressed to do it right away. Dadelus is rushing this prayer. He knows if he gets it out his family and himself will be safe for a night and he can float his faith into the next day. He would rather go back to the warmth of his sheets (is this somewhat lustful or gluttonous) then be exposed to the cold while he prays to stay out of the hell fires.
ReplyDeleteIn a way I think the formulaic prayer makes sense in this context. It seems to go right along with the experts from the grammar texts in the school. The grammar text is obviously meant to provide meaningful examples that encapsulate one or two key points in hopes that the student will absorb them and later outgrow them. Perhaps the priests at the school encouraged the boys to learn these short, formulaic prayers in the hopes that the boys would absorb the principles in them and learn to better formulate their own as they grew up.
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