Chaste Egoist

Chastity Article in the first installment of Portrait in The Egoist Magazine.

This is juxtaposed with a Wordle of the first part of Chapter 3 in Issue 16 of the Egoist, as this excerpt from the novel particularly deals with Stephen's grappling with his religiosity (I'm not sure I would call it religion, per se) and morality.

 (having problems loading my second Wordle :( )

One of the things I noticed is a sterility in the chastity article, perhaps because not so much moralizing is going on, whereas with the Chapter three excerpt Stephen is facing a lot of unbridled hatred and condemnation. The first has a loftiness, seems preoccupied with the "ideal" "virtue" "virginity," while the second is mired in "sin" "hell" "fire" "death" "torment" etc. Quite the contrast.

From "Chastity" is "life," but from Portrait is "death," Chastity's "virtue" to Portrait's "damned." Somehow there is a freedom to the chastity article, a lightness, reflecting the article's evenhandedness toward feminine sexuality (lack of judgmentalism, internalized or otherwise), versus the "world of judgment" in which Stephen seems to be drowning.

Other notable words in the latter Wordle, for merit on its own is "heart" "foul" "God" "poor" and "time." The internal crisis in which Stephen is subsumed becomes amply evident in the prominence of these words. In some ways one could argue the "chastity belt" of Stephen's strict Catholic education--designed to, at least in theory, free him from eternal damnation--sent him on a spiral of internal turmoil, a true crisis of faith and earthly damnation.