In order to escape his unhappiness, Stephen immerses himself in fantasies of love and romance. Thoughts of the beautiful Mercedes merge with his loving memories of a certain girl; he attempts to calm his young storm of emotions by writing a poem to his beloved, "To E — C — ." In an artistic re-creation of a meeting with this girl, Stephen composes a poem to her in romantic, Byronesque language. Afterward, he yearns even more for the girl, puzzling over his undefined ache for satisfying physical love — which, of course, he has not yet experienced.
When Stephen learns that his father has arranged for him to attend Belvedere College, a prestigious Jesuit day school, he is humiliated to learn that his father discussed the Clongowes pandying incident with Father Conmee and with Father Dolan. To Stephen's shame and dismay, they all "had a hearty laugh together" over Stephen's anguished confrontation with Father Conmee.
The next scene opens about two and a half years later. Stephen is probably fourteen years old, a confident young man at Belvedere, preparing to go onstage in the school play. During his years at Belvedere, Stephen has distinguished himself as an accomplished essay writer, actor, and model student.
Listening for his cue, Stephen waits outside the theater and is confronted by two classmates, Heron and Wallis, who propose a schoolboy prank. They mock Stephen's seriousness as a "model youth" and tease him about a girl who has shown interest in Stephen's upcoming performance in the play. Stephen answers their taunts irreverently; he rotely recites the Confiteor (the Roman Catholic prayer said during Mass for the confession of sin), and he recalls an earlier incident when Heron taunted him and initiated a similar response.
Stephen remembers his first year at Belvedere; it was a time when he felt terribly insecure about his home life and his future. He had begun to take pride in the success of his essay writing when Mr. Tate, the English teacher, discussed one of Stephen's essays, saying that it contained heresy. Strangely, Stephen felt a "vague . . . malignant joy" at being singled out by Mr. Tate. Afterward, Heron and two other troublesome classmates, apparently jealous of Stephen, confronted him and instigated a fight; during the incident, Stephen was forced to identify Cardinal Newman as his favorite prose writer and Byron as his favorite poet. The bullies — Heron, Boland, and Nash — all preferred Tennyson to the "heretical and immoral" Byron, and they attempted to force Stephen to "admit that Byron was no good" by beating Stephen until he finally freed himself. In spite of everything, though, Stephen remembers following after them, half-blinded by tears.
