A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man tells the
• story of Stephen Dedalus, a boy growing up in Ireland at the end of the
• nineteenth century, as he gradually decides to cast off all his social,
• familial, and religious constraints to live a life devoted to the art
• of writing. 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. At first, Stephen is
• lonely and homesick at the school, but as time passes he finds his place
• among the other boys. He enjoys his visits home, even though family
• tensions run high after the death of the Irish political leader Charles
• Stewart Parnell. This sensitive subject becomes the topic of a furious,
• politically charged argument over the family's Christmas dinner.

• Stephen's father, Simon, is inept with money, and the
• family sinks deeper and deeper into debt. After a summer spent in the
• company of his Uncle Charles, Stephen learns that the family cannot
• afford to send him back to Clongowes, and that they will instead move to
• Dublin. Stephen starts attending a prestigious day school called
• Belvedere, where he grows to excel as a writer and as an actor in the
• student theater. His first sexual experience, with a young Dublin
• prostitute, unleashes a storm of guilt and shame in Stephen, as 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 with debauched abandon into a variety of
• sins—masturbation, gluttony, and more visits to prostitutes, among
• others. Then, on a three-day religious retreat, Stephen hears a trio of
• fiery sermons about sin, judgment, and hell. Deeply shaken, the young
• man resolves to rededicate himself to a life of Christian piety.
• Stephen begins attending Mass every day, becoming a model of
• Catholic piety, abstinence, and self-denial. His religious devotion is
• so pronounced that the director of his school asks him to consider
• entering the priesthood. After briefly considering the offer, Stephen
• realizes that the austerity of the priestly life is utterly incompatible
• with his love for sensual beauty. That day, Stephen learns from his
• sister that the family will be moving, once again for financial reasons.
• Anxiously awaiting news about his acceptance to the university, Stephen
• goes for a walk on the beach, where he observes a young girl wading in
• the tide. He is struck by her beauty, and realizes, in a moment of
• epiphany, that the love and desire of beauty should not be a source of
• shame. Stephen resolves to live his life to the fullest, and vows not to
• be constrained by the boundaries of his family, his nation, and his
• religion.
• Stephen moves on to the university, where he develops a number of
• strong friendships, and is especially close with a young man named
• Cranly. In a series of conversations with his companions, Stephen works
• to formulate his theories about art. While he is dependent on his
• friends as listeners, he is also determined to create an independent
• existence, liberated from the expectations of friends and family. He
• becomes more and more determined to free himself from all limiting
• pressures, and eventually decides to leave Ireland to escape them. Like
• his namesake, the mythical Daedalus, Stephen hopes to build himself
• wings on which he can fly above all obstacles and achieve a life as an
• artist.

Character List

• Stephen Dedalus -
• The main character of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
• Growing up, Stephen goes through long phases of hedonism and deep
• religiosity. He eventually adopts a philosophy of aestheticism, greatly
• valuing beauty and art. Stephen is essentially Joyce's alter ego, and
• many of the events of Stephen's life mirror events from Joyce's own
• youth.

• Read an
• in-depth
• analysis of Stephen Dedalus.

• Simon Dedalus -
• Stephen's father, an impoverished former medical student with a
• strong sense of Irish patriotism. Sentimental about his past, Simon
• Dedalus frequently reminisces about his youth.

• Read an
• in-depth
• analysis of Simon Dedalus.

• Mary Dedalus -
• Stephen's mother and Simon Dedalus's wife. Mary is very religious,
• and argues with her son about attending religious services.

• The Dedalus Children -
• Though his siblings do not play a major role in the novel, Stephen
• has several brothers and sisters, including Maurice, Katey, Maggie, and
• Boody.

• Emma Clery -
• Stephen's beloved, the young girl to whom he is fiercely attracted
• over the course of many years. Stephen constructs Emma as an ideal of
• femininity, even though he does not know her well.

• Read an
• in-depth
• analysis of Emma Clery.

• Mr. John Casey -
• Simon Dedalus's friend, who attends the Christmas dinner at which
• young Stephen is allowed to sit with the adults for the first time. Like
• Simon, Mr. Casey is a staunch believer in Irish nationalism, and at the
• dinner he argues with Dante over the fate of Parnell.

• Charles Stewart Parnell -
• An Irish political leader who is not an actual character in the
• novel, but whose death influences many of its characters. Parnell had
• powerfully led the Irish National Party until he was condemned for
• having an affair with a married woman.

• Read an
• in-depth
• analysis of Charles Stewart Parnell.

• Dante (Mrs. Riordan) -
• The extremely fervent and piously Catholic governess of the
• Dedalus children. Dante, whose real name is Mrs. Riordan, becomes
• involved in a long and unpleasant argument with Mr. Casey over the fate
• of Parnell during Christmas dinner.

• Uncle Charles -
• Stephen's lively great uncle. Charles lives with Stephen's family.
• During the summer, the young Stephen enjoys taking long walks with his
• uncle and listening to Charles and Simon discuss the history of both
• Ireland and the Dedalus family.

• Eileen Vance -
• A young girl who lives near Stephen when he is a young boy. When
• Stephen tells Dante that he wants to marry Eileen, Dante is enraged
• because Eileen is a Protestant.

• Father Conmee -
• The rector at Clongowes Wood College, where Stephen attends school
• as a young boy.

• Father Dolan -
• The cruel prefect of studies at Clongowes Wood College.

• Wells -
• The bully at Clongowes. Wells taunts Stephen for kissing his
• mother before he goes to bed, and one day he pushes Stephen into a
• filthy cesspool, causing Stephen to catch a bad fever.

• Athy -
• A friendly boy whom Stephen meets in the infirmary at Clongowes.
• Athy likes Stephen Dedalus because they both have unusual names.

• Brother Michael -
• The kindly brother who tends to Stephen and Athy in the Clongowes
• infirmary after Wells pushes Stephen into the cesspool.

• Fleming -
• One of Stephen's friends at Clongowes.

• Father Arnall -
• Stephen's stern Latin teacher at Clongowes. Later, when Stephen is
• at Belvedere College, Father Arnall delivers a series of lectures on
• death and hell that have a profound influence on Stephen.

• Mike Flynn -
• A friend of Simon Dedalus's who tries, with little success, to
• train Stephen to be a runner during their summer at Blackrock.

• Aubrey Mills -
• A young boy with whom Stephen plays imaginary adventure games at
• Blackrock.

• Vincent Heron -
• A rival of Stephen's at Belvedere.

• Boland and Nash -
• Two schoolmates of Stephen's at Belvedere, who taunt and bully
• him.

• Cranly -
• Stephen's best friend at the university, in whom he confides his
• thoughts and feelings. In this sense, Cranly represents a secular
• confessor for Stephen. Eventually, Cranly begins to encourage Stephen to
• conform to the wishes of his family and to try harder to fit in with
• his peers—advice that Stephen fiercely resents.

• Read an
• in-depth
• analysis of Cranly.

• Davin -
• Another of Stephen's friends at the university. Davin comes from
• the Irish provinces and has a simple, solid nature. Stephen admires his
• talent for athletics, but disagrees with his unquestioning Irish
• patriotism, which Davin encourages Stephen to adopt.

• Lynch -
• Another of Stephen's friends at the university, a coarse and often
• unpleasantly dry young man. Lynch is poorer than Stephen. Stephen
• explains his theory of aesthetics to Lynch in Chapter 5.

• McCann -
• A fiercely political student at the university who tries to
• convince Stephen to be more concerned with politics.

• Temple -
• A young man at the university who openly admires Stephen's keen
• independence and tries to copy his ideas and sentiments.

• Dean of Studies -
• A Jesuit priest at University College.

• Johnny Cashman -
• A friend of Simon Dedalus.

• Stephen Dedalus
• Modeled after Joyce himself, Stephen is a sensitive, thoughtful
• boy who reappears in Joyce's later masterpiece, Ulysses. In A
• Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, though Stephen's large
• family runs into deepening financial difficulties, his parents manage to
• send him to prestigious schools and eventually to a university. As he
• grows up, Stephen grapples with his nationality, religion, family, and
• morality, and finally decides to reject all socially imposed bonds and
• instead live freely as an artist.

• Stephen undergoes several crucial transformations
• over the course of the novel. The first, which occurs during his first
• years as Clongowes, is from a sheltered little boy to a bright student
• who understands social interactions and can begin to make sense of the
• world around him. The second, which occurs when Stephen sleeps with the
• Dublin prostitute, is from innocence to debauchery. The third, which
• occurs when Stephen hears Father Arnall's speech on death and hell, is
• from an unrepentant sinner to a devout Catholic. Finally, Stephen's
• greatest transformation is from near fanatical religiousness to a new
• devotion to art and beauty. This transition takes place in Chapter 4,
• when he is offered entry to the Jesuit order but refuses it in order to
• attend university. Stephen's refusal and his subsequent epiphany on the
• beach mark his transition from belief in God to belief in aesthetic
• beauty. This transformation continues through his college years. By the
• end of his time in college, Stephen has become a fully formed artist,
• and his diary entries reflect the independent individual he has become.

• Simon Dedalus
• Simon Dedalus spends a great deal of his time reliving past
• experiences, lost in his own sentimental nostalgia. Joyce often uses
• Simon to symbolize the bonds and burdens that Stephen's family and
• nationality place upon him as he grows up. Simon is a nostalgic, tragic
• figure: he has a deep pride in tradition, but he is unable to keep his
• own affairs in order. To Stephen, his father Simon represents the parts
• of family, nation, and tradition that hold him back, and against which
• he feels he must rebel. The closest look we get at Simon is on the visit
• to Cork with Stephen, during which Simon gets drunk and sentimentalizes
• about his past. Joyce paints a picture of a man who has ruined himself
• and, instead of facing his problems, drowns them in alcohol and
• nostalgia.

• Emma Clery
• Emma is Stephen's "beloved," the young girl to whom he is
• intensely attracted over the course of many years. Stephen does not know
• Emma particularly well, and is generally too embarrassed or afraid to
• talk to her, but feels a powerful response stirring within him whenever
• he sees her. Stephen's first poem, "To E— C—," is written to Emma. She
• is a shadowy figure throughout the novel, and we know almost nothing
• about her even at the novel's end. For Stephen, Emma symbolizes one end
• of a spectrum of femininity. Stephen seems able to perceive only the
• extremes of this spectrum: for him, women are either pure, distant, and
• unapproachable, like Emma, or impure, sexual, and common, like the
• prostitutes he visits during his time at Belvedere.

• Charles Stewart Parnell
• Parnell is not fictional, and does not actually appear as a
• character in the novel. However, as an Irish political leader, he is a
• polarizing figure whose death influences many characters in A
• Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. During the late nineteenth
• century, Parnell had been the powerful leader of the Irish National
• Party, and his influence seemed to promise Irish independence from
• England. When Parnell's affair with a married woman was exposed,
• however, he was condemned by the Catholic Church and fell from grace.
• His fevered attempts to regain his former position of influence
• contributed to his death from exhaustion. Many people in Ireland, such
• as the character of John Casey in Joyce's novel, considered Parnell a
• hero and blamed the church for his death. Many others, such as the
• character Dante, thought the church had done the right thing to condemn
• Parnell. These disputes over Parnell's character are at the root of the
• bitter and abusive argument that erupts during the Dedalus family's
• Christmas dinner when Stephen is still a young boy. In this sense,
• Parnell represents the burden of Irish nationality that Stephen comes to
• believe is preventing him from realizing himself as an artist.

• Cranly
• Stephen's best friend at the university, Cranly also acts as a
• kind of nonreligious confessor for Stephen. In long, late-night talks,
• Stephen tells Cranly everything, just as he used to tell the priests
• everything during his days of religious fervor. While Cranly is a good
• friend to Stephen, he does not understand Stephen's need for absolute
• freedom. Indeed, to Cranly, leaving behind all the trappings of society
• would be terribly lonely. It is this difference that separates the true
• artist, Stephen, from the artist's friend, Cranly. In that sense, Cranly
• represents the nongenius, a young man who is not called to greatness as
• Stephen is, and who therefore does not have to make the same
• sacrifices.

• Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
• explored in a literary work.

Themes

The Development of Individual Consciousness

• Perhaps the most famous aspect of A Portrait
• of the Artist as a Young Man is Joyce's innovative use of stream of
• consciousness, a style in which the author directly transcribes the
• thoughts and sensations that go through a character's mind, rather than
• simply describing those sensations from the external standpoint of an
• observer. Joyce's use of stream of consciousness makes A Portrait of
• the Artist as a Young Man a story of the development of Stephen's
• mind. In the first chapter, the very young Stephen is only capable of
• describing his world in simple words and phrases. The sensations that he
• experiences are all jumbled together with a child's lack of attention
• to cause and effect. Later, when Stephen is a teenager obsessed with
• religion, he is able to think in a clearer, more adult manner.
• Paragraphs are more logically ordered than in the opening sections of
• the novel, and thoughts progress logically. Stephen's mind is more
• mature and he is now more coherently aware of his surroundings.
• Nonetheless, he still trusts blindly in the church, and his passionate
• emotions of guilt and religious ecstasy are so strong that they get in
• the way of rational thought. It is only in the final chapter, when
• Stephen is in the university, that he seems truly rational. By the end
• of the novel, Joyce renders a portrait of a mind that has achieved
• emotional, intellectual, and artistic adulthood.
• The development of Stephen's consciousness in A Portrait
• of the Artist as a Young Man is particularly interesting because,
• insofar as Stephen is a portrait of Joyce himself, Stephen's development
• gives us insight into the development of a literary genius. Stephen's
• experiences hint at the influences that transformed Joyce himself into
• the great writer he is considered today: Stephen's obsession with
• language; his strained relations with religion, family, and culture; and
• his dedication to forging an aesthetic of his own mirror the ways in
• which Joyce related to the various tensions in his life during his
• formative years. In the last chapter of the novel, we also learn that
• genius, though in many ways a calling, also requires great work and
• considerable sacrifice. Watching Stephen's daily struggle to puzzle out
• his aesthetic philosophy, we get a sense of the great task that awaits
• him.

• The Pitfalls of Religious Extremism
• Brought up in a devout Catholic family, Stephen initially
• ascribes to an absolute belief in the morals of the church. As a
• teenager, this belief leads him to two opposite extremes, both of which
• are harmful. At first, he falls into the extreme of sin, repeatedly
• sleeping with prostitutes and deliberately turning his back on religion.
• Though Stephen sins willfully, he is always aware that he acts in
• violation of the church's rules. Then, when Father Arnall's speech
• prompts him to return to Catholicism, he bounces to the other extreme,
• becoming a perfect, near fanatical model of religious devotion and
• obedience. Eventually, however, Stephen realizes that both of these
• lifestyles—the completely sinful and the completely devout—are extremes
• that have been false and harmful. He does not want to lead a completely
• debauched life, but also rejects austere Catholicism because he feels
• that it does not permit him the full experience of being human. Stephen
• ultimately reaches a decision to embrace life and celebrate humanity
• after seeing a young girl wading at a beach. To him, the girl is a
• symbol of pure goodness and of life lived to the fullest.

The Role of the Artist

• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
• explores what it means to become an artist. Stephen's decision at the
• end of the novel—to leave his family and friends behind and go into
• exile in order to become an artist—suggests that Joyce sees the artist
• as a necessarily isolated figure. In his decision, Stephen turns his
• back on his community, refusing to accept the constraints of political
• involvement, religious devotion, and family commitment that the
• community places on its members.
• However, though the artist is an isolated figure, Stephen's
• ultimate goal is to give a voice to the very community that he is
• leaving. In the last few lines of the novel, Stephen expresses his
• desire to "forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my
• race." He recognizes that his community will always be a part of him,
• as it has created and shaped his identity. When he creatively expresses
• his own ideas, he will also convey the voice of his entire community.
• Even as Stephen turns his back on the traditional forms of participation
• and membership in a community, he envisions his writing as a service to
• the community.

The Need for Irish Autonomy

• Despite his desire to steer clear of politics,
• Stephen constantly ponders Ireland's place in the world. He concludes
• that the Irish have always been a subservient people, allowing outsiders
• to control them. In his conversation with the dean of studies at the
• university, he realizes that even the language of the Irish people
• really belongs to the English. Stephen's perception of Ireland's
• subservience has two effects on his development as an artist. First, it
• makes him determined to escape the bonds that his Irish ancestors have
• accepted. As we see in his conversation with Davin, Stephen feels an
• anxious need to emerge from his Irish heritage as his own person, free
• from the shackles that have traditionally confined his country: "Do you
• fancy I am going to pay in my own life and person debts they made?"
• Second, Stephen's perception makes him determined to use his art to
• reclaim autonomy for Ireland. Using the borrowed language of English, he
• plans to write in a style that will be both autonomous from England and
• true to the Irish people.

• Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts,
• or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major
• themes.

Motifs

• Music
• Music, especially singing, appears repeatedly throughout A
• Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Stephen's appreciation of
• music is closely tied to his love for the sounds of language. As a very
• young child, he turns Dante's threats into a song, " [A]pologise, pull
• out his eyes, pull out his eyes, apologise." Singing is more than just
• language, however—it is language transformed by vibrant humanity.
• Indeed, music appeals to the part of Stephen that wants to live life to
• the fullest. We see this aspect of music near the end of the novel, when
• Stephen suddenly feels at peace upon hearing a woman singing. Her voice
• prompts him to recall his resolution to leave Ireland and become a
• writer, reinforcing his determination to celebrate life through writing.

• Flight
• Stephen Dedalus's very name embodies the idea of flight.
• Stephen's namesake, Daedalus, is a figure from Greek mythology, a
• renowned craftsman who designs the famed Labyrinth of Crete for King
• Minos. Minos keeps Daedalus and his son Icarus imprisoned on Crete, but
• Daedalus makes plans to escape by using feathers, twine, and wax to
• fashion a set of wings for himself and his son. Daedalus escapes
• successfully, but Icarus flies too high. The sun's heat melts the wax
• holding Icarus's wings together, and he plummets to his death in the
• sea.
• In the context of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,
• we can see Stephen as representative of both Daedalus and Icarus, as
• Stephen's father also has the last name of Dedalus. With this
• mythological reference, Joyce implies that Stephen must always balance
• his desire to flee Ireland with the danger of overestimating his own
• abilities—the intellectual equivalent of Icarus's flight too close to
• the sun. To diminish the dangers of attempting too much too soon,
• Stephen bides his time at the university, developing his aesthetic
• theory fully before attempting to leave Ireland and write seriously. The
• birds that appear to Stephen in the third section of Chapter 5 signal
• that it is finally time for Stephen, now fully formed as an artist, to
• take flight himself.

• Prayers, Secular Songs, and Latin Phrases
• We can often tell Stephen's state of mind by looking at the
• fragments of prayers, songs, and Latin phrases that Joyce inserts into
• the text. When Stephen is a schoolboy, Joyce includes childish, sincere
• prayers that mirror the manner in which a child might devoutly believe
• in the church, even without understanding the meaning of its religious
• doctrine. When Stephen prays in church despite the fact that he has
• committed a mortal sin, Joyce transcribes a long passage of the Latin
• prayer, but it is clear that Stephen merely speaks the words without
• believing them. Then, when Stephen is at the university, Latin is used
• as a joke—his friends translate colloquial phrases like "peace over the
• whole bloody globe" into Latin because they find the academic sound of
• the translation amusing. This jocular use of Latin mocks both the young
• men's education and the stern, serious manner in which Latin is used in
• the church. These linguistic jokes demonstrate that Stephen is no longer
• serious about religion. Finally, Joyce includes a few lines from the
• Irish folk song "Rosie O'Grady" near the end of the novel. These simple
• lines reflect the peaceful feeling that the song brings to Stephen and
• Cranly, as well as the traditional Irish culture that Stephen plans to
• leave behind. Throughout the novel, such prayers, songs, and phrases
• form the background of Stephen's life.

• Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or
• colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Symbols

• Green and Maroon
• Stephen associates the colors green and maroon with his
• governess, Dante, and with two leaders of the Irish resistance, Charles
• Parnell and Michael Davitt. In a dream after Parnell's death, Stephen
• sees Dante dressed in green and maroon as the Irish people mourn their
• fallen leader. This vision indicates that Stephen associates the two
• colors with the way Irish politics are played out among the members of
• his own family.

• Emma
• Emma appears only in glimpses throughout most of Stephen's
• young life, and he never gets to know her as a person. Instead, she
• becomes a symbol of pure love, untainted by sexuality or reality.
• Stephen worships Emma as the ideal of feminine purity. When he goes
• through his devoutly religious phase, he imagines his reward for his
• piety as a union with Emma in heaven. It is only later, when he is at
• the university, that we finally see a real conversation between Stephen
• and Emma. Stephen's diary entry regarding this conversation portrays
• Emma as a real, friendly, and somewhat ordinary girl, but certainly not
• the goddess Stephen earlier makes her out to be. This more balanced view
• of Emma mirrors Stephen's abandonment of the extremes of complete sin
• and complete devotion in favor of a middle path, the devotion to the
• appreciation of beauty.