hether or not to kiss Emma stems from his continuing religious beliefs that women are holy and not to be defiled, and like with Mercedes, he is forced to be content in fulfilling his wishes only in his head. This encounter with Emma does place females at a slightly more attainable level for Stephen and we are able to see how it begins to shape his ultimate ideals of feminine beauty. However connected to the church Stephen feels, it is impossible for him to just push these feelings away from himself and ignore them. He decides to write a poem about Emma Clery and for the first time, we see Stephen successfully use art as a means of expression and relief. In his poem which is modeled after one from his favorite poet, Byron, he acts out what he wishes he would have done and that is to give Emma a kiss. Again this illustrates a side of Stephen that is not comfortable with abstraction. He has not yet come to the realization that he is not unlike other boys his age. This poem which is addressed to E____C____, starts out with Ad Majorem Dei Gloriem, a Latin phrase meaning, “For the Greater Glory of God” and ends with Laus Deo Semper meaning, “Praise to God Always”. This is especially interesting because the poem merges both religion and art without Stephen’s knowledge that this is where the heart of the conflict lies. It becomes an even greater conflict for Stephen when, as time passes, he finds it more and more difficult to resist the temptations of his sexual urges. He mentally defiles “with patience whatever image had attracted his eyes” (p.99) and turns those images which had been innocent by day into cunning and sinful images at night. His urges grow and become so strong that Stephen is no longer able to resist temptation and crosses that line into wretched sinner.The next major step in Stephen’s transformation is his visit to the prostitute. The setting for this visit carries a...
