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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
His first full-length novel, it is considered to be a partly
autobiographical novel and a resource to have a better understanding of
Joyce and his art. It is a record of an Irish young man growing up at the
end of the nineteenth century attaining his real maturity from his
adolescent revolt. The world of Dublin is presented solely through the
consciousness of the narrator. The hero, Stephen Dedalus, is very much Joyce
himself and “with this key” Joyce “unlocked his heart”. Stephen finds
himself lonely in a hostile world around him. His thoughts trace back to his
childhood, school years, only to find disillusionment. As a young boy,
Stephen's Catholic faith and Irish nationality heavily influence him. He
attends a strict religious boarding school called Clongowes Wood College.
The death of
Parnell, the Irish Patriot, causes family tension of the views
over politics and religion during his visit home. This sensitive subject
becomes the topic of a furious, politically charged argument over the
family's Christmas dinner. Stephen starts attending a prestigious day school
called Belvedere in Dublin, for his family cannot afford study in Clongowes.
His first sexual experience, with a young Dublin prostitute, makes Stephen
feel guilty and ashamed. He tries to reconcile his physical desires with the
stern Catholic morality of his surroundings. For a while, he ignores his
religious upbringing, throwing himself into a variety of sins. Then the
young man resolves to rededicate himself to a life of Christian piety after
hearing “hellfire sermon” about sins preached by Father Arnall. When he is
considering whether to enter the priesthood, he is struck by the beauty of a
girl wading the tide on the beach, and realizes, in a moment of epiphany,
that the love and desire of beauty should not be a source of shame. Free
from the restraints of his family, his nation, and his religion, Stephen
resolves to live his life to the fullest. He moves to the university and
works to formulate his theories about art. He becomes more and more
determined to free himself from all limiting pressures. He eventually
decides to leave Ireland to remove all obstacles and achieve a life as an
artist.
In the novel, Joyce narrates his own life in words and
styles appropriate to each phase: the earliest stages were expressed in
simplistic and fragmentary diction of a child, which was a sharp contrast
with the complex style of University life. The novel explored the
development of Stephen’s artistic awareness and his growth from Catholic
boyhood to an early adulthood defined as an artist. During the developing
process he confronted and overcame paternal authority, subjugation by the
flesh, the dominance of the Catholic Church, the attraction of an immature
lyricism, and finally discovered the liberation of a true artistic vocation
born form a marriage of aesthetic judgment and logical order. Although many
episodes in the novel corresponded to Joyce’s own experiences, the
significance revealed by the novel was general and common to all the
Irishmen.
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