THE USE OF EPIPHANY IN ‘A PORTRAIT’

Mrs. Ritu Bajaj

Associate Professor

Department of English

Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya, Jalandhar

• According to the dictionary an epiphany is a ‘manifestation or showing forth.’ It is the sudden revelation of the hidden meaning of an ordinary happening. Sometimes some unimportant thing happens which makes us realize the real significance of things which was up, till then hidden from us. The experience has been described as the lifting of a veil which enables one to see the essential equality or unity of some idea, event or person. Such a spiritual breakthrough could be triggered by something as insignificant as a sound or a gesture.

• It is a moment of vision when one suddenly looks into the heart of things and finds a temporary solution to the problems that were baffling him. Epiphany is actually an ecclesiastical term which was secularized by Joyce. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem three Wise Men of the East (Called the Magi) came there and they realized through their spiritual insight that the baby in the manger was not an ordinary child but the son of God and they offered gifts to baby Christ.

• The coming of the Magi to Jesus at Bethlehom is commemorated in the Christian churches with the feast of the Epiphany on the 6^th of January every year. It is called the Epiphany because the Wise Men were able to see that what appeared to be a poor infant lying in the manger was actually the son of God. Joyce has not used the word in A portrait but he has introduced epiphanies at every stage of Stephen’s spiritual progress.

• It happens sometimes tha an insignificant event suddenly reveals the truth or provides an insight into the causes of his conflict. The revelatory moment comes all of a sudden and he quickly understands the situation. For a long time there are conflicts in Stephen’s mind and then suddenly there is a resolution. There is a synthesis. The problem is solved for the time being. This is an epiphany. There is a major epiphany at the end of each chapter. But there are smaller epiphanies within each.

​

• There are a number of epiphanies in the first chapter and the chapter closes with a major epiphany. When he was very young he became aware of the conflicts between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. He used ot play with Eileen and he imagined that when he grew up he would marry her but he was warned not to think of this because Eileen was a Protestant.

• The Protestants made fun of the litany of the Blessed Virgin by asking how a woman could be tower of ivory or a house of gold. Suddenly he understood this thing one day when Eileen suddenly put her hand in his pocket. He felt that Eileen’s hand was like ivory but very soft. And her hair streamed out behind her like gold in the sun. Immediately he understood what the Catholics meant by saying that the blessed virgin was a tower of ivory and a house of gold.

• This sudden revelation of the truth was an epiphany. From his childhood Stephen was very proud of himself. He regarded himself as very important and felt that he was different from other boys. Because of this feeling he came into conflict with the authority of his parent, his aunt, his school fellows and his teachers. The other students are rough and rude and he finds it very difficult to live with them and play with them. His megalomania (feeling of his own importance) is deeply hurt when Wells pushes him in a ditch of dirty water.

• He falls ill. Then his feeling of his own importance is restored in an epiphany. He dreams of his own death. When he dies the whole school will mourn for him and even Wells will feel sorry for having pushed him in the ditch. This thought gives him great satisfaction. The he has a dream of Parnell’s death in which he imagines that the clergymen who had condemned him would feel very sorry for what they had done. From the beginning there was a conflict in his mind between his faith in the authority of his parent, his aunt, his teachers and the senior students and his feeling of insecurity.

• He expected the elders to be just and consistent. At home he found his elders quarrelling about Parnell and the priests. In school the senior boys are rude and sometimes cruel. He is shocked about someone stealing the altar wine. Then he is most unjustly punished by Father Dolan with his pandybat. He takes a bold decision to report the matter to the Rector. The Rector is very sympathetic and tells Stephen that he would talk to Father Dolan about it.

• This is the triumph of justice. When he comes out of the office of the Rector he is greeted by the other students as a great hero. Thus the first chapter closes with this major epiphany. But the unity achieved at the end of the first chapter is soon disturbed. When Stephen’s father talked to Father Conmee (the Rector) regarding the affair of the Pandybat, it seemed that the authorities were treating it as a joke. So what had seemed to be a tr4oumph of justice turned out to be only a cruel joke.

• The financial position of the family became worse and Stephen was withdrawn from Clongowes which was a very expensive school. He was sent to Belvedere College which was a cheaper school. In the new school he was accused by a teacher of heresy and the other boys beat him up with a cane and a cabbage stump. When Stephen accompanied his father on a visit to Cork he got a very poor impression of his father’s character.

• He was a drunkard and was boasting all the time about his own actions and those of his friends. He was an irresponsible person who was quite incapable of managing his own affairs. Thus Stephen feels that he cannot rely on his father. His father image is completely corroded. On a desk in Queen’s college he found the word Foctus inscribed on a desk. All the ideas of sin and obscenity which had been passing vaguely in his mind got concentrated and fixed in his mind. All the adolescent monstrosity became symbolized for him by this word.

• This is a minor epiphany in this chapter. A major epiphany comes at the end of the chapter. He had idealistic longings for a most beautiful, pure and gentle girl. These fancies took the form of a dream girl Merceedes about whom he had a strong sexual urge. Although he was only 16 the urge of the flesh was too strong for him to resist. So he went to a prostitute. In the embrace of the prostitute he felt that there was a synthesis of the romantic and physical desires. This was actually the triumph of sin. But he did not feel weak or depressed.

• The sin seemed to have been made beautiful and gentle. Tears of joy and relief shone in his delighted eyes. In her arms he felt that he had suddenly become strong and fearless and sure of himself. He closed his eyes, surrendering himself to her, body and mind conscious of nothing in the world but but the dark pressure of her softly parting lips. This is the second major epiphany in the novel. At the end of the second chapter Stephen felt a sort of exaltation in sin. He felt happy and he visited the prostitutes regularly. But this mood did not last long.

• He soon realized that he was sinning in a big way. This gave rise to the conflict between the demands of the flesh and the demands of religion. He knew that he was transgressing the laws of morality and thus alienating God but he continued to sin. He continued his visits to the whores. His mind was troubled : “He had sinned mortally not once but many times and he knew that, while he stood in danger of eternal damnation for the first sin alone, by every succeeding sin he multiplies his guilt and punishment.” He could not pray because he felt that his sin was so great that it could never be pardoned by God.

• A three days Retreat was to be observed in the school in honour of St. Zavier, the patron saint of the school. They were told that during those days there would be sermons on death, judgment, hell and heaven. Father Arnall who had been his teacher in Clongowes, came to deliver the sermons. The speaker described in all possible details the horrors of the punishments to be inflicted on the sinners in hell. Stephen felt that the warnings were specially directed at him because he was an officer bearer of the soldality of our Blessed Lady and he had sinned grievously.

• He was touched to the depth of his soul. He felt that his soul will have to suffer all the horrors described by Father Arnall. He wants to confess his sins but he does not want to do this in the school Chapel. He takes a long walk alone and goes to a distant Chapel where he makes a full confession before a priest. The priest was kind and sympathetic. He told him that he was very young.

• He must avoid the repetition of the sin of impurity. Sin kills both the body and the soul. When the devil tried to tempt him again he must pray to God and send the devil back to hell. After this the priest granted him absolution and Stephen knelt in a corner to say his prayer of penance. The confession made him feel much better. He felt that a new life had begun for him. He had confessed and God had pardoned him. His soul was made fair and holy once more, holy and happy. The past was past. The ciborium (something that sanctifies) had come to him.

• This provided a complete solution to his mental conflict. This is a major epiphany. Stephen now becomes a saintly person. He started mortifying the flesh. He started crushing down all his senses. He became pious and devoted to God. He devoted the days of the week to different forms of worship. He carried the rosary in his trouser pocket and continually uttered the name of God. He walked with downcast eyes and never looked at a woman. He subjected himself to unpleasant smells. He observed austerity in eating and kept all the fasts of the church.

• He stood, walked and lay down in the most uncomfortable postures. But conflicts and doubts continued in his mind. One day he was called by the Director who had been highly impressed by Stephen’s piety and devotion to God. He told Stephen that God had chosen him to become a priest of the church. The Director said that this was the highest honour that God could do to man. No king or emperor, no angel or saint, not even the Blessed Virgin herself had the power which a priest of God had. This offer caused a stir in Stephen’s heart.

• Priesthood would solve his worldly problems and he would have secret knowledge and secret power which he desired to have. But he was repelled by the ordered and passionless life of the priests. He realized that priesthood would destroy his freedom as an individual. He was sure that he was destined to learn his own wisdom apart form others. As he entered the lane leading to his house, the sour stink of rotted cabbages came to him. He smiled to think that it was this disorder, the aesthetics. Aristotle had not defined pity and terror.

• According to Stephen pity is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the human sufferer. He defines terror as the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the secret cause. He agrees with Aquinas who had laid down three conditions for the apprehension of beauty. They are wholeness, harmony and radiance. Stephen wrote a villanelle in honour of E-C.

• This act of creation by an artist is also regarded as a minor epiphany. The act of poetic creation is seen as a ceremony of mass “a priest of eternal imagination, transmuting the daily bread of experience into the radiant body of ever living life the radiant image of the Eucharist. Stephen is convinced that he must break the bonds of family, nation and church in order to be able to pursue his vocation of an artist in peace and freedom. So he invokes his symbolic father, the old artificer, Dodalus, as he get ready to go into exile.

• In the final epipathy which closes the book he writes to his diary, “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…old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead. Thus epiphanies are sudden revelations of hidden truths. The veil is lifted for a second and the conflicts are resolved and a synthesis is achieved. The epiphanies are landmarks in Stephen’s spiritual progress. The last epiphany shows him his life’s mission. Just as Daedalus was imprisoned in the labyrinth Stephen was imprisoned by his family, ,his nation and his church and like Daedalus be must fly away from this prison in order to pursue his chosen vocation of an artist.

​