<P> His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a glass: he had a hairy face . </P> <P> The childhood of Stephen Dedalus is recounted using vocabulary that changes as he grows, in a voice not his own but sensitive to his feelings . The reader experiences Stephen's fears and bewilderment as he comes to terms with the world in a series of disjointed episodes . Stephen attends the Jesuit - run Clongowes Wood College, where the apprehensive, intellectually gifted boy suffers the ridicule of his classmates while he learns the schoolboy codes of behaviour . While he cannot grasp their significance, at a Christmas dinner he is witness to the social, political and religious tensions in Ireland involving Charles Stewart Parnell, which drive wedges between members of his family, leaving Stephen with doubts over which social institutions he can place his faith in . Back at Clongowes, word spreads that a number of older boys have been caught "smugging"; discipline is tightened, and the Jesuits increase use of corporal punishment . Stephen is strapped when one of his instructors believes he has broken his glasses to avoid studying, but, prodded by his classmates, Stephen works up the courage to complain to the rector, Father Conmee, who assures him there will be no such recurrence, leaving Stephen with a sense of triumph . </P> <P> Stephen's father gets into debt and the family leaves its pleasant suburban home to live in Dublin . Stephen realises that he will not return to Clongowes . However, thanks to a scholarship obtained for him by Father Conmee, Stephen is able to attend Belvedere College, where he excels academically and becomes a class leader . Stephen squanders a large cash prize from school, and begins to see prostitutes, as distance grows between him and his drunken father . </P> <P> As Stephen abandons himself to sensual pleasures, his class is taken on a religious retreat, where the boys sit through sermons . Stephen pays special attention to those on pride, guilt, punishment and the Four Last Things (death, judgement, Hell, and Heaven). He feels that the words of the sermon, describing horrific eternal punishment in hell, are directed at himself and, overwhelmed, comes to desire forgiveness . Overjoyed at his return to the Church, he devotes himself to acts of ascetic repentance, though they soon devolve to mere acts of routine, as his thoughts turn elsewhere . His devotion comes to the attention of the Jesuits, and they encourage him to consider entering the priesthood . Stephen takes time to consider, but has a crisis of faith because of the conflict between his spiritual beliefs and his aesthetic ambitions . Along Dollymount Strand he spots a girl wading, and has an epiphany in which he is overcome with the desire to find a way to express her beauty in his writing . </P>

Synopsis of portrait of the artist as a young man