Grapes and Wine in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce uses grapes and wine as a symbol of the opposing inner feelings that Stephen Dedalus experiences as he matures. Grapes and wine can be directly related to the blood of Christ, which represents Stephen’s religious view towards life, or to the Greek god Dionysus who is known for his dual nature between joy and unthinkable rage.
Readers witness Stephen Dedalus maturing throughout the book and how he opens his eyes and starts seeing the world for what it is. As a young boy Dedalus is completely naïve about the world and about how people are. Dedalus is seen as an innocent young boy who lacks information and experience. In the passage on pg 48-49 the author suggests that Dedalus’s innocence is shattered by the new information that he overhears from a group of kids his age. “You know the altar wine that they keep in the press in the sacristy? … well they drank that and it was found out who did it by the smell… A faint sickness made him weak.” (pg 49) The wine in this passage can symbolize the blood of Christ and his suffering that he has done for mankind. In Catholic religion the wine is very sacred and is symbol of the sacrifice that Jesus’s made for the sin’s of the world. The fact that these young children went into the church and stole this wine and drank it can symbolize how easy it can be for someone to come in and step all over the Catholic religion. The stealing of the wine can be looked at as a mockery of the religion and this sickens Stephen.
He recalls back to his youth in the church, “He remembered the summer evening he had been there to be dressed as a boatberer, the evening of the procession to the little alter in the wood. A strange and holy place.” (pg 49) The alter and the Catholic setting is seen to Stephen as “strange and holy.” Strange usually is a word that would describe something out of the ordinary, something that has not been experienced, bizarre, or even not natural. Something that is holy has to do with spirituality or God. The fact that Stephen sees the alter as something strange and holy shows that Stephen is really inexperienced and unsure about his beliefs. He knows that the alter and church is religious and holy but he has not been educated or been able to experience it or he has not come to terms with his religion and he is questioning it. He refers to the sacristy as “Dark and silent” (pg 49). The sacristy where the wine and sacred items are kept is a dark place. Usually darkness is associated with uncertainty and can symbolize Stephen’s struggle of knowing what is right and wrong as he grows up.
Stephen almost doesn’t want to listen to his fellow schoolmates talk. “The fellows were all silent. Stephen stood among them, afraid to speak, listening… how could they have done that?” (p 49.) Stephen feels guilt for how morally wrong this act is. Although he took no part of it he feels guilty. The wine that is stolen can also be symbolically relating the to the Greek god Dionysus. Dionysus is the god of wine, agriculture, nature, fertility and art. Dionysus is also know as Baccheus and he is capable of bring joy and ecstasy but can also bring unthinkable rage and anger. The two sides of Dionysus can symbolize the confusion of the two sides that Stephen is caught up in between. This incident marks a growth period in Stephen’s life when he realizes how religion is based in his life and how people are capable of being sinners and having a bad side that opposes the good side whereas before Stephen was not aware of this characteristic of humanity.
Stephen relates himself to Edmond Dantes who is the protagonist in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. (p 67) James Joyce brings this story into the context of The Portrait of the Artist as a Young man to put Stephen’s character into contrast with another in order for the reader to understand the similarities between the two. Edmond Dante is seen as a heroic character and the Count of Monte Cristo is known for being an adventurous tale of betrayal and revenge. The story has a lot to do with danger and changes which is the same idea for Stephen. Stephen’s view to life changes through the book his innocence leaves him as he goes into his teen years.
Edmond Dante’s fiancé is Mercedes and in his imagination Stephen pictures Mercedes as this sensual magical beautiful being, “and in his imagination he lived through a long train of adventures, marvelous as those in the book itself, towards the close of which there appeared an image of himself, growing older and sadder; standing in a moonlit garden with Mercedes who has so many years before slighted his love, and with a sadly proud gesture of refusal saying: -Madam, I never eat muscatel grapes” (p 67.) Stephen imagines this scene of himself getting old and sad. Stephen feels that as he grows he will miss out on something and regret it therefore being sad in the future. He pictures himself standing in a moonlit garden with this woman named Mercedes and he refuses her offer of grapes. The refusal of the grapes is symbolic of Stephen refusing to give in to his desire for women. Grapes are associated with Dionysus who is also known for youth, healing, joy, and freedom by madness and ecstasy just as how drinking a large amount of wine can relieve thoughts and free the mind.
Mercedes offering these grapes can be looked at as a form of seduction towards Stephen. Mercedes is just symbolic of women in general and she “slighted his love so many years before” which means that she didn’t take his love as something important and in result to that he refused her offer of grapes. This imagined setting shows that Stephen wants to be desired by women and that he feels that women can free him. This desire that burns within him is part of growing up but he feels that it is impure. This situation sets up the struggle that Stephen has with his desire for women and the Catholic religion.
Stephen refuses Mercedes offer of grapes “sadly and proudly.” Again Stephen is sad for picking the more Catholic approach to his problems. He is sad for giving up love and sad for refusing and giving into his desire and fulfilling his wants, but he is also proud . Proud of himself for maintaining his pride and not giving into sexual desires. James Joyce often describes Stephen’s feelings having two sides: sad but happy. It is related to how Dionysus the god of wine is also known for his dueling nature and how at a certain moderation wine can be a good but if it is abused the outcomes may be bad. The two sides of wine reflect with the two reactions that Stephen have to the offering of the grapes.
Symbolism of grapes and wine in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are used as a tool to add more meaning to the changes that Stephen goes through as he learns and experiences new things that he can not explain. The wine and the grapes symbolize his desire for freedom of his mind versus the teachings of the Catholic church. The struggle between being pure and impure is a struggle that Stephen Dedalus goes through.