A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man

An ‘Aesthetic Autobiography’ of James Joyce

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel about the education of a young Irishman, Stephen Dedalus, whose background has much in common with Joyce’s. However, in determining the genre of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man readers and critics both face a lengthy debate. In terms of its critical reception A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man has had its share of detractors and its admirers. As far as its autobiographical elements are concerned A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man can be seen both as a ‘Bildungsroman’ which describes the youthful development of the central character and as ‘aesthetic autobiography’ or ‘Kunstler roman’. We will now carry out our discussions on Joyce’s portrayal of Stephen and see how he keeps varying his distance from Stephen but never does so drastically.

            If Lawrence’s personal experiences have shaped the material in Sons and Lovers or if we find several facts of the life of Somerset Mangham with little modification or distortion in Of Human Bondage, the same approach Lto Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man cannot be reached. The characters in Sons and lovers or Of Human Bondage seem to enjoy an independent existence; in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man they figure mainly in the hero’s reveries and resentments. And the question if Joyce stations himself in relation to his hero Stephen is a crucial one. Alike Austen in her Emma both attempts at objectivity and subjectivity; Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man maintains the same status. Sometimes the two personae, Joyce and Stephen almost merge but quite often a distance is kept though it is never too great. This kind of management of distance allows Joyce to bring irony also in play at places but even that is never allowed to become too hard-hitting.

           A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is based on a literal transcript of the first twenty years of Joyce’s life. If anything, it is more candid than other autobiographies. It is distinguished from them by its emphasis on the emotional and intellectual adventures of its protagonist. Joyce’s own life had a direct bearing on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Literally A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man covers the childhood and adolescence of Stephen Dedalus. We see him, over the course of the novel, grow from a little boy to a young man of eighteen who has decided to leave his country for Europe, in order to be an artist. This especially the case with how he reacted to Ireland and to Ireland’s treatment of Parnell. As we read the opening section the novel we can easily identify how the ‘betrayal’ of Parnell was a part of the Irish psyche of those time. The Parnell and the Irish situation in general have a direct bearing on the Christmas dinner scene. Again Joyce had a firm belief that the political subjection had led the Irish people to have a slavish mentality. Joyce had an attitude of deep distrust towards the Irish political activities and it is obvious in the closing sections of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. On the exchanges between students in the closing stages of the novel Stephen says to Davin with odd violence:

Except for the thin incognito of its characters, “Do you know what Ireland is?  … Ireland is the old saw that eats her furrow”.  Further there are other aspects of Joyce’s life that find more or less a direct echo in the novel. Alike Joyce Stephen too shares a large family. The family’s poverty and its frequent changes of house both happen in Joyce and Stephen.

            But despite of these similarities, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is not straight autobiography. Joyce was not the weak in health who figures in the novel. Joyce has drawn it true very largely upon his life and his own experience, but it is not an autobiography, it is an artistic creation. It is reshaped for artistic module. In a sense one can say that in offering us the growth and the development of Stephen Dedalus, Joyce was not exclusively concerned with getting to the heart of his own young self or an imaginary equivalent of that, but in getting to the heart of young artist as such. The destiny we are brought face to face with could be any young man’s destiny in Catholic Ireland. Especially, if the young man was sensitive and had artistic ambitions or pretensions!

            We may again deal with another controversial issue – its title. As the phrase ‘Portrait of the Artists’ hints at the self-portraitures of Joyce, the other phrase ‘as a young man’ hints at it universal aspects or generalization. Stephen is young Joyce, “purified in and projected from the human imagination’ of the developed artist who must, in the words of Stephen, “try slowly and humbly and constantly to express, to press out again, from the gross earth or what it brings forth, from sound and shape and colour which are the prison gates of our soul, an image of the beauty we have come to understand”.

            Thus Joyce uses his personal life as a framework for his novel but is free to revise his biography for artistic purposes or remodeled it, which can assert the growth of ‘artist’.

            What happens in A Portrait is that the autobiographical element, which is otherwise its very significant ingredient, is consciously and painstakingly recast into a mode of depersonalization, objectification and presentation of a myth of an artist borne.

As a Psychological Novel

It will be pointed out some main psychological features of this character that will further help the reader create and understand the complex teenager that is Stephen. From the very beginning, Stephen, possessing an undeniably aloof personality, himself admits that he is in some way different from others. He notes that is “hardly of the one blood” with his family, indicating that his life is filled with isolation, a sense of insecurity and growing independence.

At first, as suggested by Foley, while indulging his family’s wishes, appeasing the religious ideals of the community and church and trying to fit in, Stephen also tries to identify himself as an individual and goes through various stages.“…..constant voices of his father and of his masters, urging him to be a good catholic above all things….When the gymnasium had been opened he had heard another voice urging him to be strong and manly and healthy and when the movement towards the national revival had begun to be felt in college yet another voice had bidden him to be true to his country and help to raise up her language and tradition”

The pressure from expectations gradually becomes a burden and his soul search finally results in art a mea of breaking the cage. To Stephen art was nevertheless a way of liberating his soul by fulfilling his hunger for meaning not with what was imposed upon him by others but by something originating from inside himself. Stephen‘s path toward becoming an artist is seen at every step while going through the novel. His first act of courage, independence and rebellion is when he protests his palm-whipping. Later on, he would also commit heresy when writing a school essay and reject priesthood. The growing gap between him and his family, especially his father is ever more obvious as time passes. “Old father, old article, stand me now and ever in good stead.”

Stephen has experienced severe traumas in the early course of their lives. Namely repeated financial troubles which Stephen was a witness of and the deep divide over the question of religion and patriotism within his own family. It can be observed that Stephen‘s relations with his siblings are rarely mentioned and subsided, irrelevant to the overall story and formation of the artist. Stephen in times of stress and sorrow only occasionally relishes in the memories of his childhood, such as his friendship with a boy named Aubrey Mills or eating slim Jim out for his pocket cap. Stephen is experiencing religious, national and pressure from his family.

An adolescent individual will always be forced with multiple form of expectations and regardless of whether they are coming from the family, schools or society, it is the way these teenagers deal with what is expected of them with their own strength, mental potency and emotional capacity and deciding whether they are going to fulfill these expectations or not that will define them as a person later on, as opposed to the expectations themselves.

Joyce consumes alcohol; and uses foul language often, depicting some of the negative sides of adolescence and the temptations it brings along. Stephen, on the other hand, does not fall under these temptations or the pressure of conformity, but rather commits sins such as gluttony. Sex represents an important part of lives of this two teenager- Stephen Dedalus felt that “his childhood was dead or lost and with it nothing but a cold and cruel loveless lust”

Remained within his soul. He also believed that out of lust, all other sins originate easily. Lust and love for aesthetic beauty combined, however, lead him to numerous encounters with young prostitutes of Dublin. What can be noticed in Stephen‘s behavior is that through isolated, he is actually trying to protect himself even through he, like everyone else needs human contact and compassion. Of course, the boy had that “special someone” present in his live- Stephen  on the other hand , also idolizing the image of Emma , a girl who he has never actually met , through still considered her to be the temple of beauty and a symbol of femininity finds himself ashamed and daunted by the thoughts of his own teenage fantasies: “If she knew to what his mind had subjected her or how brute- like lust had torn and trampled upon her innocence! Was that boyish love? Was that chivalry? Was that poetry? The sordid details of his orgies shrank under his very nostrils”

It must, however, be note that the contradictions of his actions and sins against his position and role in the society did not seem to bother him at times. It can be concluded that traumatic experiences, unreasonable expectations and the lack of support are just some of the burdens halting a normal development of an individual during his or her teenage years. The result of these factors can vary from some of the negative, above mentioned perpetual circle of awkwardness and discomfort.

Epiphany in A portrait of The Artist as a Young Man

Critics have variously interpreted the experience of the modern novelist as tolling the death of story. The words are a proven truth for James Joyce. His expression of experience took a different turn as also a different form. The early years of his life were passed in Dublin. Joyce was almost blind from his childhood, and he lived in the world of sounds; in that glamorous town of Dublin, Joyce wanted to express the immediate and the present he called it ‘an epiphany’ (Greek epiphaneia, “appearance”). Unlike roust he wanted to express the immediate consciousness as reality. Joyce’s A Portrait of The Artist As a Young Man clearly demonstrates such epiphanies to signify the moment when all of a sudden the personae probes into the heart of things and experiences a sudden spiritual manifestation. In the present novel it is used to resolve and resolute a conflict the to be an artist face with.

Stephen’s spiritual manifestation and his aesthetic satisfaction is presented through the epiphanies which is a sudden revelation of the inner truth by paralleling a visual moment. The journey of Stephen from his very tender infancy till he becoming an artist is presented through certain epiphanies to express the inflow of Stephen’s conscious and its changing schedules. In the artistry of literary device Stephen’s rejection of priesthood, his peeling of nationality, his self-search in an artist in exile are presented through certain revelation meticulously and forcefully.

In fact, at the end of each chapter epiphanies are skillfully used. In Chapter-I Stephen at in childhood meets certain conflicts that makes in confusion. With the baffling impressions Stephen perceives the world of elders. He oscillates and vacillates over the implicit faith on the elders and his helpless insecurity. He has absolute trust, justice and morale from his elders yet how they quarrel over political and religious matter he cannot understand. So, naturally there is marked difference between the expectation and reality. But ultimately Stephen triumphs when he gets rustic at school and he is being hailed as hero. Thus at the end the finality of resulting the conflict and achieving justice is marked by epiphany.

In chapter-II we pass into Stephen’s adolescence where a few of the family problems disturbs him. In school, his essay is accused of heresy and his school mate’s unfriendly attitude to him hurts him dearly. But more distressfully increasing hatred for father on the part of Stephen widens. Interestingly enough, Stephen’s ideal shed beauty and notice of purity transits into a vague erotic fantasy of the girl Mercedes who often comes into dreams. So torn in disputes, ultimately resolving into an epiphany towards a learning experience. Stephen’s dream of Mercedes is united with the embrace of a whore. Thought it is an absolute sin, Stephen passes into an emotional learning and resolution: “Tears of joy and relief shone in his delighted eyes. In hat arms he felt that he had suddenly become strong and fearless and sure of himself.”

Extending the same conflict, Stephen in Chapter-III finds himself frequently in the embrace of whores. Stephen’s moral dilemma and sinned meeting the world of religion and doing the epiphany provides him immense relief: “He had confessed and God had pardoned him. His soul was made for and holy once more, holy and happy. The past was past. The ciborium had come to him.”

The journey of Stephen to be an artist born is narcissism and it is proving truth by the epiphany of muse at sea beach in chapter-IV. More complex than any other is the description of the figure of the girl on the beach after the vision of the hawk like man flying sun ward above the sea, and the suggestion of all the emotional associations which radiate from the glimpse of her. The vision of mysterious, birdlike, mythical figure is the certitude of Stephen’s vocation of an artist. It is the message he receives from the spy, heavenly yet flow of life. It is religiously ammunition and a voice of divinity. In romantic ecstasy Stephen learns the truth of beauty and art and an artist is born.

Finally, in chapter-V Stephen wishes to encounter ‘the reality of experience’ and invokes the mythical Daedalus to air him in that purpose. To note further, it is to be mentioned that there are many other epiphanies which contribute to a certainty in developing Stephen and his journey to an artist. Such as ‘tower of ivory’, ‘house of gold’, ‘fetus’ etc. are few examples. So, in conclusion, it is fair to say that epiphany is used to experience both the world of Stephen and Joyce as an artist in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Stephen in the Novel is the Search of an Artist in Exile.

 Escape is the natural complement to the theme of Entrapment and Constraint. Joyce depicts escape metaphorically by the book's most important symbol and allusion: the mythical artificer Daedalus is not at all an Irish name; Joyce took the name from the mythical inventor who escaped from his island prison by constructing wings and flying to his freedom. Stephen, too, will eventually escape from the island prison of Ireland.            

Truly speaking in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the hero moves from childhood to manhood, learning his own destiny as artist and as exile. Again, of all the characters in the novel, Stephen Dedalus is the only one whose portrait is fully realized. His most intimate thoughts, memories and sensations are revealed to us throughout; all the other characters exist for the reader only insofar as they matter to Stephen. Stephen is tied by family, country and religion, but one by one he releases himself from those ties to discover his true vocation on the free and uncommitted life of the artist. Stephen tends to view his life in terms of a heroic struggle to free himself from the various confinements he feels his native city imposes upon him—the “nets” of politics, religion and family. The church was the greatest rival to the world of art: it, too promised loneliness and power. But he understood at last that “he was destined to learn his own wisdom apart from others or to learn the wisdom of others himself wandering among the snares of the world”. And so the artist is born. The climax of the book comes soon after Stephen’s realization of his true destiny. He is wandering alone by the shore alone and young and willful and hardhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish water and the sea-harvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight and gay clad and light clad figures of children and girls and voices childish and girlish in the air. He sees a girl standing in mid-stream, “alone and still, gazing out to sea” and he contemplates her, intently, frankly, without desire or ulterior motive of any kind he is relishing the artist’s perception of life. And as he looks, he is overcome by joy: “Heavenly God! Cried Stephen’s soul, in an outburst of profane joy”. It is profane joy, the artist’s joy in life.

            Once Stephen recognizes his destiny, the shedding of his other loyalties proceeds quickly. He is haunted by the sea-gulls flying overhead in the evening sky. They symbolize escape for the artist, escape from the cramping environment where other claims on his loyalty oppress him. Like the Greek Daedalus who made the labyrinth for king Minos and afterwards made wings to enable him to escape across the sea from the labyrinth of life and claims of Dublin. Daedalus, too, was the first craftsman, ‘old artificer’. As epigraph to the book, Joyce has quoted a line from Ovid’s description of Daedalus’s construction of the labyrinth: “And he turned his mind to unknown arts”. So Joyce would turn his mind to enlarge the surname is that of the Old artificer, his Christian name is that of the first Christian martyr. Thus, the artist is both crafts man and martyr. However, Stephen identifies with the classical hero whose name he bears, but he is more like the son Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and came crashing down into the sea, than the father Daedalus, whose cunning enabled him to forge the wings that permitted his escape from Minos’s prison.

            So Stephen works out his theory of the artist as exile. “The artist like the God of creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails”. Stephen refuses to serve that in which he no longer believes – home, country, church; he will express himself freely, using for his defense the weapons of ‘ silence, exile and cunning’. He is prepared to take the risk of separating himself from others and of having not even one friend.

            As its title suggests, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a kind of self-portrait, a novel that traces the development of its central character, Stephen D, from infancy to young adulthood, as he finds himself drawn into and struggling with the social, religious, and political currents of late 19th-century Ireland. While Joyce clearly bases Stephen on his younger self, he maintains an ironic distance from his character, implying at the end of the novel that his youthful alter ego still has much to learn about both life and the art that he dreams of making. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is thus an important document in the history of the artist as exile. But it is also a remarkable work of art in its own right. Combining the naturalistic and the symbolist traditions, Joyce finds a solution to the problems of the literary artist in his time.

Joyce's Use of Imagery

Although Joyce is frequently praised for his mastery of the "stream-of-consciousness" narrative technique, his distinctive use of imagery has contributed much to the artistic development of the twentieth-century novel. Specifically, in A Portrait, he uses imagery to establish motifs, identify symbols, and provide thematic unity throughout the work.

Perhaps the most obvious use of imagery in the novel occurs during the novel's first few pages, with the introduction of the sensory details which shape Stephen's early life: wet versus dry; hot versus cold; and light versus dark — all images of dichotomy which reveal the forces which will affect Stephen's life as he matures. If we can understand this imagery, then we can better understand Stephen's reasons for deciding to leave Ireland.

The wet/dry imagery, for example, is symbolic of Stephen's natural response to the world versus a learned response. As a small child, Stephen learns that any expression of a natural inclination (such as wetting the bed) is labeled "wrong"; the wet sheets will be replaced by a dry, reinforcing "oilsheet" — and a swift, unpleasant correction for inappropriate behavior. Thus, wet things relate to natural responses and dry things relate to learned behavior.

Other examples of this wet/dry imagery include the wetness of the cesspool (the square ditch) that Stephen is shoved into and the illness which follows; likewise, the "flood" of adolescent sexual feelings which engulf Stephen in "wavelet[s]," causing him guilt and shame. Seemingly, "wet" is bad; "dry" is good.

A turning point in this pattern occurs when Stephen crosses the "trembling bridge" over the river Tolka. He leaves behind his dry, "withered" heart, as well as most of the remnants of his Catholicism. As he wades through "a long rivulet in the strand," he encounters a young girl, described as a "strange and beautiful seabird." She gazes at Stephen from the sea, and her invitation to the "wet" (natural) life enables Stephen to make a climactic choice concerning his destiny as an artist. Later, after Stephen has explained his aesthetic philosophy to Lynch, rain begins to fall; seemingly, the heavens approve of Stephen's theories about art, as well as his choice of art as a career.

The hot/cold imagery similarly affects Stephen. At the beginning of the novel, Stephen clearly prefers his mother's warm smell to that of his father. For Stephen, "hot" is symbolic of the intensity of physical affection (and, in some cases, sin); "cold," on the other hand, is symbolic of propriety, order, and chastity. Specific examples of this symbolism can be found in Stephen's memories: resting in his mother's warm lap, being cared for by the kindly Brother Michael (when Stephen is recovering from a fever), and receiving a heated embrace from the Dublin prostitute during his first sexual encounter.

In contrast, the cold, slimy water of the square ditch is evidence of the cruel reality of his changing life at school; in addition, Stephen initially experiences a "cold . . . indifference" when he thinks about the Belvedere retreat, and his vision-like worship of Eileen (the young Protestant girl) has coldly symbolic, touch-me-not overtones; her hands, pure and white, enable him to understand the references to the Tower of Ivory in an oft-repeated Church litany.

The last of this set of opposites is concerned with the light/dark dichotomy: light symbolizes knowledge (confidence), and dark symbolizes ignorance (terror). Numerous examples of this conflict pervade the novel. In an early scene, when Stephen says that he will marry a Protestant, he is threatened with blindness: "Put out his eyes / Apologise." Stephen is terrorized without knowing why; seemingly, a good Catholic boy should remain ignorant about other faiths — and perhaps even of women. Stephen's natural fondness for Eileen is condemned. Stephen is only a boy, but his sensitive artist's nature realizes that he is going to grow up in a world where he will be forced to suppress his true feelings and conform to society's rules and threats.

Stephen's broken glasses are also part of this light/dark imagery. Without his glasses, Stephen sees the world as if it were a dark blur; figuratively blinded, he cannot learn. And yet he is unjustly punished for telling the truth about the reason for his "blindness." He quickly realizes the potential, dark (irrational) cruelty of the clergy. Further on in the novel, there are recurrent images of darkness in the streets of Dublin — for example, when Stephen makes his way to the brothel district. Here, we also see the darkness within Stephen's heart as he wanders willfully toward sin. Later on, the philosophical discussion about the lamp with the Dean of Studies (Chapter V) reveals the "blindness" of this cleric, compared with the illumination of Stephen's aesthetic thoughts.

A close reading of the novel will produce many more images within these patterns. Joyce's use of them is essential as he constructs his intricate thematic structure.

Another kind of imagery in the novel is made up of references to colors and names. Colors, as Joyce uses them, often indicate the political and religious forces which affect Stephen's life. Similarly, Joyce uses names to evoke various images — specifically those which imply animal qualities, providing clues to Stephen's relationships with people.

For an example of color imagery, note that Dante owns two velvet-backed brushes — one maroon, one green. The maroon brush symbolizes Michael Davitt, the pro-Catholic activist of the Irish Land League; the green-backed brush symbolizes Charles Stewart Parnell. Once, Parnell was Dante's political hero par excellence, but after the Church denounced him, she ripped the green cloth from the back of her brush. Other references to color include Stephen's desire to have a "green rose" (an expression of his creative nature) instead of a white one or a red one, symbols of his class' scholastic teams.

Another reference to color imagery can be seen in Lynch's use of the term "yellow insolence"; instead of using the word "bloody," Lynch uses the word "yellow," indicating a sickly, cowardly attitude toward life. The idea of a "bloody" natural lust for living would be appalling to Lynch. Lynch's name, literally, means "to hang"; he has a "long slender flattened skull . . . like a hooded reptile . . . with a reptilelike . . . gaze and a self-embittered . . . soul."

Like Lynch, Temple is also representative of his name. Temple considers himself "a believer in the power of the mind." He admires Stephen greatly for his "independent thinking," and he himself tries to "think" about the problems of the world.

Cranly, like his name (cranium, meaning "skull"), is Stephen's "priestlike" companion, to whom he confesses his deepest feelings. Note that several of Joyce's references also focus on Stephen's image of Cranly's "severed head"; Cranly's symbolic significance to Stephen is similar to that of John the Baptist (the "martyred Christ"). The name "Cranly" also reminds us of the skull on the rector's desk and Joyce's emphasis on the shadowy skull of the Jesuit director who queries Stephen about a religious vocation.

Concerning the other imagery in the novel, perhaps the most pervasive is the imagery that pertains to Stephen's exile, or, specifically, his "flight" from Ireland. The flight imagery begins as early as his first days at Clongowes, when Stephen's oppressed feelings are symbolized by "a heavy bird flying low through the grey light." Later, a greasy football soars "like a heavy bird" through the sky. At that time, flight from unhappiness seemed impossible for Stephen, but as the novel progresses and Stephen begins to formulate his artistic ideals, the notion of flight seems possible.

For example, in Chapter IV, after Stephen renounces the possibility of a religious vocation, he feels a "proud sovereignty" as he crosses over the Tolka and his name is called out by his classmates; this incident is followed by another allusion to flight. Later, the girl wading in the sea is described as "delicate as a crane," with the fringes of her "drawers . . . like the featherings of soft white down"; her bosom is described as "the breast of some dark plumaged dove." Her presence in this moment of epiphany enables Stephen to choose art as his vocation.

Finally, note that when Stephen's friends call him, his name seems to carry a "prophecy"; he sees a "winged form flying above the waves and . . . climbing in the air." The image of this "hawk like man flying sunward" is at the heart of the flight motif. As Stephen realizes his life's purpose, he sees his "soul . . . soaring in the air." He yearns to cry out like an "eagle on high." He experiences "an instant of wild flight" and is "delivered" free from the bondage of his past. At the end of the novel, Stephen cries out to Daedalus, his "old father, old artificer," and prepares for his own flight to artistic freedom.