“She too wants me to catch hold of her, he thought. that’s why she came with me to the tram. I could easily catch hold of her when she comes up to my step: nobody is looking. I could hold her and kiss her”
James Joyce, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, Oxford World’s Classics, New York 2000, pp.58
Are these thoughts truly the thoughts of Stephen, or are they something he was was lead to assume do to the societal influences surrounding him?