Conflicting Desires in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man :: Portrait Artist Young Man

Conflicting Desires in A portraiture of the mechanic as a Young Man           In the story, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, written by crowd Joyce, the main character Stephen Dedalus has many encounters with women. Women and sexuality are major influences on Stephens adolescent bread and butter. Another major factor that has an influence on Stephens life is the Church. Women and sexuality conflict with the Church and its beliefs, and that is one of Stephens major problems thus far. Stephen is having a very big identity crisis, from being a God fearing Catholic to a very hormonal teenager.           As Stephen sits at the adults dinner display board for the first time, his father, Mr. Casey and Dante are fighting about(predicate) religion and politics in Ireland. As they are arguing, Stephens train of thought leads him to think about Eileen. Eileen Vance was the detailed girl that Stephen wanted to marry when he was younger. She is described to have off-white dedicates and golden hair, which confuses Stephen with the phrases, Tower of tusk and suffer of Gold which is commence of the Roman Catholic Litany of Our Lady. Later when Stephen is at school, he again thinks about Eileen. Stephen gets his first sensual experience from Eileen when she puts her hand into his sacque and touches his hand. Stephen gets quite humbled with the terms of the Litany of Our Lady so he starts to associate the Tower of Ivory and House of Gold to Eileen. The way James Joyce describes the scene, She had put her hand into his pocket where his hand was and he had felt how cool and thin and soft her hand was.(43) gives the reader the idea that Stephen enjoyed the feeling. The only problem with Eileen was that she was a Protestant and Stephen was a Catholic. Stephen also associates women with the Virgin Mary, who was the mother of Jesus Christ. He thinks women as pure, bonny as Mary was and since he already associated the Tower of Ivory and House of Gold with Eileen, he assumes her to be like the Virgin.           Another influence of women in Stephens life comes from the story The Count of Monte Cristo while reading this story, Stephen starts to fantasise about Mercedes.