A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man: Conflicting Desires Within A Doctrine

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from Eileen when she puts her hand into his pocket and
touches his hand. Stephen gets quite confused 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, just 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 Stephen's life comes from the story
"The Count of Monte Cristo" while reading this story, Stephen starts to
fantasize about Mercedes. As he fantasizes, he tries to bring her to ...

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