A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

  "Special thanks to Priya who helped me for proof reading this content"

Book: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Genre: Novel

Language: English

Author: James Joyce (James Augustine Aloysius Joyce)

I have added a summary of Autobiography of James Joyce here since the novel ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ portrays the early childhood to young adulthood of the life of James Joyce itself. So this will help us to relate the incidents in the novel to his life.

James Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, just south of Dublin in Ireland. Joyce was the eldest of ten children. The Joyce family was initially well off. John Joyce, was a fierce Irish Catholic patriot with bloodlines that connected them to old Irish nobility in the country. The wealth of the Joyce family started going down due to his father’s drinking and spending habits. Even then the Joyce family sent James to the renowned Jesuit institution Clongowes School and Belvedere, then at University College Dublin. At this point in his life, it seemed evident that Joyce was to enter the priesthood, a decision that would have pleased his parents. As James Joyce made contact with various members of the "Irish Literary Renaissance," his interest in the priesthood waned. Indeed, Joyce became increasingly critical of Ireland and its conservative elements, especially the Church.

In opposition to his mother's wishes, Joyce left Ireland in 1902 to pursue a medical education in Paris, and did not return to Ireland until the following year upon news of his mother's debilitation and imminent death. After barely spending a year in Dublin, Joyce returned to the Continent, drifting in and out of medical school in Paris before taking up residence in Zurich. It was during this period that Joyce began writing professionally

In 1905, Joyce completed a collection of eight stories, entitled Dubliners, though it was not until 1913 that the volume was actually printed. Joyce heavily relied upon the emotional support of Nora Barnacle, his unmarried Irish lover, as well as the financial support of his younger brother, Stanislaus Joyce. Joyce and Barnacle had two children, a son named Giorgio and a daughter named Lucia.

Joyce's next major work, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, appeared in serialized form in 1914 and 1915 but the complete text was printed in New York in 1916, and in London in 1917. It is notable that Previous to the publication of Portrait, Joyce had published several stories under the pseudonym "Stephen Dedalus.” In 1922 Joyce’s best work Ulysses was published in Paris in 1922 with his inventive narrative style and multiple philosophical themes, Joyce had established himself as a leading Modernist in 20^th century English novelists. His final novel entitled Finnegan's Wake was a critical failure. On January 13, 1941, James Joyce died of a stomach ulcer at the age of 58, and was buried in Zurich's Fluntern Cemetery.

About the Book

“Joyce’s A portrait of an Artist as a young man’ remain a permanent part of English literature,” -- Ezra Pound

"By far the most important living and convincing picture that exists of an Irish Catholic upbringing." -- H.G. Wells

The most beautiful self portrait I have ever seen. A portrait posses it’s soul when the artist himself was imprinted on the canvas. In the novel ‘A portrait of an Artist as a young man’ James Joyce did the same thing. He could successfully translate the experiences, thoughts and feelings (In literature it is referred as Consciousness) of young man as an artist to the canvas; he could transfer his soul in to this portrait. The novel exactly narrates the life of a student of 20^th century who is highly influence by the Catholic Church. The novel also reveals the influence of the Catholic Church in the life of child who is from the orthodox catholic family.

Somewhere the novel reminds me of my life as member of Catholic family (As many of us). As a kid you like to go to church, attend Sunday catechism classes and be an Altar boy but as the time passes the principles of Christianity will try to stop you from the temptations of the world. Terrifying your mind by the “Judgment Day” where the God punish you for all your sins. (In Catholic Church the concept of Loving God and Punishing God is always debated).

 (Refer the conversation between Stephen and Cranly just before Stephen determines to leave Ireland.

Cranly asked, “Because you are not sure of that too, because you feel that the host, too, may be the body and blood of the son of God and not a wafer of bread? And because you fear that it may be?”

—Yes, Stephen said quietly, I feel that and I also fear it.

)

The novel portrayed around few themes ‘The catholic church (Antagonist/Constraint), Aesthetics, Art and Freedom (escape). The Catholic Church is one of the major themes in the novel. The Church is perhaps the greatest constraint on Stephen, his sensitivity to beauty and the human body is not completely suitable to the rigid Catholicism in which he was raised. But the Church continues to exert some small hold on him. Although he eventually becomes an unbeliever, he continues to have some fear that the Catholic Church might be correct. Despite his fears, he eventually chooses to live independently and without constraint, even if that decision sends him to hell. So it is very clear that when he moves away from Church, is not because he is not believing or not against the church, it’s because he wanted to leave behind the constraints.

If someone asks me to summarize the novel thematically, then I would like to conclude this way, “The escape of Stephen Dedalus from his constraints and finds his life as an Artist” In fact Joyce took the name Dedalus (Greek Mythology -Daidalos) 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 constraints the Church, Family and Ireland.

The priest whose lengthy sermon on Hell reminds us the Virgil’s Underworld description in Aeneid. In-fact critics say Joyce was influenced by Virgil.

Other important thing which caught my attention was the language Joyce used in the novel, the level of complexity of the language is gradually increases as the protagonist ‘Stephen Dedalus’ grows. The novel starts with the simple language that we found in fables

“Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo.”

His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a glass: he had a hairy face.

He was baby tuckoo. The moocow came down the road where Betty Byrne lived: she sold lemon platt.

O, the wild rose blossoms
On the little green place.

But when move to the end of the novel, James uses a language which is much complex and mixed with quotes and poems which fills Stephen mind and a lot of philosophical notations. Stream of conscious is a narrative technique through which the author attempts to represent the fluid and eruptive nature of human thought,

Are you not weary of ardent ways,
Lure of the fallen seraphim?
Tell no more of enchanted days.

Your eyes have set man's heart ablaze
And you have had your will of him.
Are you not weary of ardent ways?

The book shows a wide range of narrative styles. There are lush and intricate passages, sections narrated in a direct style, and highly experimental sections. The close is very simply done, all in the form of Stephen's journal entries before leaving Ireland. The variety of styles is part of what makes Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man such an enjoyable read.

Summary:

Joyce portrays the state of mind of the protagonist ‘Stephen Dedalus’ and the subjective effect of the events of his life in the novel. The novel narrates from early childhood to young adulthood and his life-changing decision to leave Ireland to pursue the life of a poet and writer.

Stephen, the son of a religious mother and a financially inept father, the eldest of ten children and received his education at Jesuit schools. The book opens with stream of consciousness narrative filtered through a child's perspective; there is sensual imagery, and words approximating baby talk. Then the child Stephen sent to the boarding school at Clongowes where he is terribly homesick, un-athletic and socially awkward student but later Stephen shows different persona, when he unjustly hit by a prefect and showed the courage to complain to the rector about the perfect, winning the praises of his peers.

Stephen’s family moves to Dublin, once again because of financial difficulties. In Dublin he meets a girl named Emma Clere, who is to be the object of his adoration right up until the end of the book. Stephen then goes to Belvedere College, another institution run by the Jesuits. Stephen often feels quite isolated and continues to be a sensitive and imaginative young man, acting in school plays and winning essay contests.

Stephen involved with prostitutes during his teenage years and struggled with questions of faith. Stephen enters a period of spiritual confession and he considers his behavior sinful, but he feels oddly indifferent towards it. He cannot seem to stop going to prostitutes, nor does he want to stop. But during the annual spiritual retreat at Belvedere, he hears three fire sermons on the torments of hell. Stephen is terrified, and he repents of his old behavior. He becomes almost fanatically religious.

Later in his life Stephen becomes increasingly frustrated by Catholic doctrine. When a rector suggests that he consider becoming a priest, Stephen realizes that it is not the life for him. One day, while walking on the beach, he sees a beautiful girl. Her beauty hits him with the force of spiritual revelation, and he no longer feels ashamed of admiring the body. 

Stephen then becomes a student at University College Dublin. University has provided valuable structure and new ideas to Stephen. He became particularly attracted by the works of Aquinas and Aristotle on the subject of aesthetics. Stephen has developed his own theory of aesthetics. He is increasingly preoccupied with beauty and art. Stephen finally realizes that he must move away the constraints of nation, family, and religion. Stephen then leaves Ireland to pursue the life of a writer.