his father. Despite the lack of affection between Stephen and his father, Stephen shares a fondness for his mother. “His mother had a nicer smell than his father. She played on the piano…he danced” (Portrait, 7). When Stephen wet the bed she even “put on the oil-sheet. That had a queer smell” (Portrait, 7). Because of the affinity Stephen developed for his mother as an infant, the queer smell of urine brings Stephen comfort. This comforting, childhood association is attributed to the Freudian theory developed prior to the novel. Freud’s influence upon Joyce is also evident in exemplifying Stephen’s Oedipal complex early in the novel. This complex creates a detrimental conflict for Stephen throughout the novel. Guilt is instilled in Stephen at a very young age for sexual thoughts. “O, Stephen will apologize…if not, the eagles will come and pull out his eyes. Apologize, apologize, pull out his eyes” (Portrait, 8). Because of this shame, Stephen grows up torn between women resembling his nurturing mother, the ivory tower, and women such as Eileen, seductive temptresses. Joyce foreshadows Stephen’s alienation from Ireland and the Catholic Church with the child’s isolation from his classmates. As a boy, Stephen was not concerned with “the charge and thud of the footballers [or how] the greasy leather orb flew” (Portrait, 8). Rather, Stephen always had more important matters on his mind.Joyce opposes the treatment of childhood as an abstract, self-contained period before the emergence of personal character. He sees this as rendering the past meaningless. Rather, Joyce imagines early childhood as a time when the ‘self’ is formed and the shape of its surroundings cut out. ...
