The great poet Virgil guides Dante through hell, as a wish from Beatrice who is currently in heaven, and hopes for Dante to correct his ways so that they can be together again. .
Education plays a large role in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. He comes from a large family, but is the only child who is sent away to boarding school. .
This is because his father recognizes his son's talents, and wishes to develop them. Education becomes the primary element in all aspects of Stephen's life, and it helps guide him, as does Virgil in Dante's Inferno. Education leads Joyce, or Stephen, to become the author he is. It helps him learn that in order to become the artist he yearns to be, he must separate himself mentally from Ireland, his family, and from the Catholic Church, or his faith. This is difficult for Stephen because he has been such a devoted Catholic his entire life. .
In The Inferno, Virgil guides Dante through hell in order to frighten him into abandoning his errant ways. It is Virgil who provides this education for Dante, something that is similar to Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. According to Dante, he must follow a righteous path to gain the right to see his beloved again in heaven. In Portrait, Stephen believes that to make up for the sinful thoughts that he has, and to make up for a sin that he has committed, he must obey his religion more closely, and trust in his faith to cleanse himself. This is solution only temporarily helps the symptoms of Stephen's deeper problem, and he again later has these same thoughts. Stephen will ultimately realize that his true vocation in life is to be an artist, and as an artist can view women objectively. It is only then, when he can separate women from the concept of sin that he is able to view their beauty freely. In this way, both Dante and Joyce use the concepts of religion and faith to lead their protagonists to their ultimate goal.
