What are the boundaries between love and sacrifice or are they one and the same?

At the beginning of the book, I hated it. I couldn't understand what Joyce was talking about, where he was coming from, I couldn't even understnad the charcters. But as I continued to read, I found myself becoming more and more connected with Stephen...not neccesarily in the text itself, but in the relationship he had with his art. Stephen had to sacrifice so much of his Ultimately, Stephen's love of art becomes his sacrifice. He must sacrifice himself, body and soul for the survival of his art.

The more I read of Stephen, the more I discovered pieces of myself in his character. His feelings of lonliness and the intense emotion epitomize the many times in my life I've felt no one understood how I was feeling. When the words get too much, or the sounds of life come crashing down around my head...in order to let go of those feelings, most of the time I surrender myself to art--most of the time, music. I feel like the entire human race is like Stephen...though he presents himself as an anomoly. Stephen simply expresses the thoughts and emotions we all supress. But surrendering/sacrificing himself to his art, he truly allows himself to live and love.