Proteus

Stephen's thought covers a lot of ground in this episode. Fleeting memories of the events of the last two chapters mix with images that we haven't seen before. This makes this episode difficult to critique effectively without getting as fragmented as the prose is.

I think Amelia gets pretty close to a major theme in Proteus. Stephen IS grappling with appearances and things in themselves. But I think it gets even broader than that. Stephen is trying to reconcile his thoughts with the physical world. The episode begins with a solipsist argument. Stephen contemplates the legitimacy of the world as he experiences it through his senses. These two things, mind and world, seem to act independently of each other and yet perpetually interweave. This paradox is the allegorical shape-shifting Proteus. In order for Stephen to mature as a writer, he has to resolve this mind-world duality even as it rapidly dilates and switches forms.

And this problem takes on many forms. Joyce explicates Stephen's train of thought in a way that makes the world and consciousness interrupt each other. Stephen's imagination pokes out into the real world: "dogskull, dogsniff, eyes on the ground, moves to one great goal." Mr. Deasy's determinism impresses itself onto the unsightly scene that presents itself to Stephen, surfacing amid simple sense-images to interpret the world. But he thought of Deasy because he thought of death. He thought of death because the living dog scared him and reminded him of his cowardice. This thought reminds him of a drowning man, who Stehen knows he would not have the courage to save. And that thought makes him wonder at his refusal to pray for his dead mother. Stephen seems to be just as unable to make sense of these twists and turns as we are.

There seems to be some kind of a resolution towards the end, because Stephen writes something. As he writes he thinks: "I throw this ended shadow from me, manshape ineluctable, call it back." Maybe he is trying to bring his mind and body closer together, by pushing and pulling at the latter with his thoughts. The speed at which thought bounces off memory and physicality seems to increase as Stephen becomes inspired. By the end, the trains of thought slow down and clear sections of sensation and introspection emerge. This is a real hard chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to make something more out of it when we talk in class.