Pride

Throughout Stephen's life, from childhood to adolescence, from extreme sin to piety, Stephen maintains one major flaw: pride. In class, we discussed how as a child Stephen seems to sense something unique about himself, something that makes him different (if not better) than his fellows. We see him imagining his own funeral as he lays sick in bed, giving himself much importance. Perhaps this is only a childlike self-fixation, but I think it develops into the pride of his later years. Later on, in Blackrock, we see Stephen musing about a great transformation that will happen to him. As we talked about in class, Stephen adopts a passive attitude to this change, believing that he doesn't need to do anything to be transformed: "Weakness and timidity and inexperience would fall from him in that magic moment." There is some arrogance in Stephen's belief that he is almost destined to become greater.
He soon writes his first poem "To E---- C---" and stares at himself in the mirror. Perhaps he thinks of himself as already changed and is admiring the new him. We later see him and his father on a train. Stephen is annoyed by his father's sentimentality as he reminisces about his younger days. Stephen feels that his father is acting immaturely. He thinks of himself as better than his father in some ways. I would say that it is at this point that Stephen's sense of being special develops into pride.
We then see Stephen enter a life of sin. He feels too lost, too self-pitying, too prideful to seek God's forgiveness: "A certain pride, a certain awe, withheld him from offering to God even one prayer at night though he knew it was in God's power to...hurl his soul hellward...His pride in his own sin...told him his offence was too grievous to be atoned for..." He is also contemptuous of his classmates.
Eventually, Stephen seeks God's forgiveness and feels renewed and pure. Perhaps now he won't be so arrogant? Not so. As he enters a life of piety and asceticism, we see he still hasn't reigned in his sense of pride. He feels disdainfully irritated at those who distract him from his prayers, but at the same time knows this irritation is characteristic of his teachers, and does not want to be like them. Like how Stephen "talked" directly to God during his life of sin, he views his life of piety as a one-on-one battle between him and the Devil as he defends himself from temptation.
Even after meeting another mysterious women in a magical transformation, we see him still arrogant. He is quite flippant about his university education, overall feeling that he is not learning much. We see a new aspect of Stephen's pride as he talks to some fellow students. For not taking an Irish language class, Davin calls Stephen out on not being an Irish nationalist like himself: "In your heart you are an Irishman but your pride is too powerful."
Already nearing the end of the novel, we see that Stephen remains prideful. Maybe by the end we will see him lose his arrogance. Or perhaps he will mold his pride into a defining trait as an artist.