DEF LITERATURA JAMES JOYCE

THE PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN

BILDUNGSROMAN, AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL
PLOT
- autobiographical novel,
- the account of the first 20 years in the life of a young writer Stephen Dedalus
- the novel describes his intellectual development, his search for an identity as a writer and his realization that before he
can be a writer he must free himself from the suffocating effects of Irish religion, provincialism and narrow-mindedness
- Stephen struggles to decide whether he should be loyal to his family, his church, his nation, or his vocation as an artist
POINT OF VIEW
- although most of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is in the third person, the point of view is Stephen's: as
Stephen develops as a person, the language and perspective of the narration develop with him
- we see everything in the manner in which he thinks and feels it
- at the very end of the novel, there is a brief section in which the story is told through Stephen's diary entries; this section
is in the first person
- Joyce's use of stream of consciousness makes it a story of the development of Stephen's mind
THEMES
THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUAL CONSCIOUSNESS
- the development of Stephen's consciousness 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
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 and then 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 lifestylesthe completely sinful and the completely devout are extremes that have been false and harmful
THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST
- the novel 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
CHARACTER CONSTRUCTION
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 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

DEF LITERATURA JAMES JOYCE

finally, Stephen's greatest transformation is from near fanatical religiousness to a new devotion to art and beauty
this transformation continues through his college years and 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
he 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
EMMA CLERY
- she is a shadowy figure throughout the novel, and we know almost nothing about her even at the novel's end
- she 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
- 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

THE DUBLINERS
- a collection of 15 short stories about a group of Dublin residents reflecting paralysis of the city
- the stories are characterized by key symbolic moments which Joyce called epiphanies and which allow each of the
protagonists to experience a deep level of self awareness
the stories: The sisters, an encounter, Araby, Eveline, after the race, Two Gallants, The Boarding House, A little cloud,
Counterparts, Clay, A painful case, Ivy day in the Committee Room, A mother
POINT OF VIEW
-the first three stories are narrated by the main character of each story, which in all three cases is a young, unnamed boy.
-the rest of the stories are narrated by an anonymous third person who pays close attention to circumstantial detail though in
a detached manner

THEMES
THE PRISON OF ROUTINE
- restrictive routines and the repetitive, mundane details of everyday life mark the lives of Joyces Dubliners and trap them
in circles of frustration, restraint, and violence
- In Counterparts, Farrington, who makes a living copying documents, demonstrates the dangerous potential of repetition
- Farringtons work mirrors his social and home life, causing his anger to worsen
-Farrington, with his explosive physical reactions, illustrates more than any other character the brutal ramifications of a
repetitive existence
-the most consistent consequences of following mundane routines are loneliness and unrequited love
- Eveline, in the story that shares her name, gives up her chance at love by choosing her familiar life over an unknown
adventure, even though her familiar routines are tinged with sadness and abuse
THE DESIRE FOR ESCAPE
- the characters in Dubliners may be citizens of the Irish capital, but many of them long for escape and adventure in other
countries
- such longings, however, are never actually realized by the stories protagonists
- Evelines hopes for a new life in Argentina dissolve on the docks of the citys river
THE INTERSECTION OF LIFE AND DEATH
- Dubliners opens with The Sisters, which explores death and the process of remembering the dead, and closes with The
Dead, which invokes the quiet calm of snow that covers both the dead and the living
- in Eveline, Ivy Day in the Committee Room, and The Dead, memories of the dead haunt the living and color every
action

DEF LITERATURA JAMES JOYCE

- the dead cast a shadow on the present, drawing attention to the mistakes and failures that people make generation after
generation

MOTIFS
PARALYSIS
- in most of the stories in Dubliners, a character has a desire, faces obstacles to it, then ultimately relents and suddenly stops
all action
- these moments of paralysis show the characters inability to change their lives and reverse the routines that are an obstacle
their wishes
EPIPHANY
- characters in Dubliners experience both great and small revelations in their everyday lives, moments that Joyce himself
referred to as epiphanies, a word with connotations of religious revelation
- these epiphanies do not bring new experiences and the possibility of reform, but they allow characters to better understand
their particular circumstances, usually full of sadness and routine, which they then return to with resignation and frustration

TONE
- the stories of Dubliners form a self-conscious examination of Joyces native city in Ireland
- because the narrator maintains a neutral and distant presence, detecting Joyces attitude toward his characters is not always
eas
- the abundance of details about the grim realities of the city and the focus on hardships, however, create a tragic tone and
offer a subtle critique.