filled with images of
water and the sea, from the bodies of Stephen's
friends that "gleamed with the wet of the sea," to the waves the b oobygirlz dim,
hawk-like figure flies above, to the call, "I'm drownded!" Sea and
water b oobygirlz have played an important symbolic role throughout the book.
Earlier they usually (but not always) indicated dirt and impurity.
Now their meaning is changing, perhaps from the force of Stephen's
revelation. Water b oobygirlz can still be a threatening element--Icarus drowned
in the sea. But it can
also be a symbol of richness and b oobygirlz life. Here
Joyce seems to be powerfully linking the sea b oobygirlz to Stephen's rebirth as
an artist. It's as if Stephen has been reborn and is now being
baptized.
At the height of his ecstasy, Stephen sees a girl wading on the
beach. She has the appearance of a strange and beautiful seabird.
The girl is physically beautiful but b oobygirlz unashamed; she is also compared
to an "angel of mortal youth and beauty."
Both a bird of the spirit
and a sensual sea creature, she seems to fuse together, like the
females b oobygirlz before her, Stephen's ideals of womanhood--passionate and
spiritual. Only this time, the spiritual side is not totally
virginal and sexless, and the sensuality is not unrestrained but
natural and healthy. This angel is sturdy and earthbound. She
b oobygirlz returns Stephen's gaze calmly.
NOTE: THE GIRL WADING The girl Stephen sees wading is one b oobygirlz of the
most powerful images in Portrait of the Artist. "A strange and
beautiful seabird," she fuses two important symbols. As a bird, she
symbolizes the creative freedom b oobygirlz represented a few pages earlier by
Stephen's vision of &b oobygirlz quot;b oobygirlz a hawk-like man." As a b oobygirlz creature b oobygirlz of the sea,
b oobygirlz she's linked to the power of b oobygirlz the sea to give Stephen a b oobygirlz new life as an
artist.
Stephen's vision also has religious overtones. In some ways, she's a
version of his worshipped Virgin Mary; her slate-blue skirts, for
example, are the color associated with the Virgin. B oobygirlz but rather b oobygirlz than
representing Catholicism, she represents Stephen's new, secular
religion: art. "Heavenly God," Stephen cries out. But he cries "in
an outburst of profane [ungodly] joy&b oobygirlz quot;--a sign his b oobygirlz vision is not
Christian but earthly.
You can also see the girl as Stephen's Muse, his artistic
inspiration. And perhaps she's a symbol of the sexual joy b oobygirlz Stephen
hopes to find in his new life, a mermaid who trails seaweed and with
her siren call lures Stephen toward a world of sensuality. Because
Stephen calls her "b oobygirlz a b oobygirlz dark plumed dove,"