Uncoiling the Snakes of Ireland in "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man": From the Souls in Hell to Laocoön

Riquelme talks about the meaning of "the snakes of Ireland" in the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Despite the pervasive presence of the Catholic Church in Ireland centuries later, for Stephen Dedalus, there are still snakes in the shamrocks associated with religion, the body, and the character of art. The depth of these connections becomes evident when they consider visual aspects of Stephen's experience and imagination in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. During Stephen's adolescence, the Church that ministers to his soul encourages him to imagine both the origin of sin and its consequences as viperous.