A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Welcome back everyone! It seems like we didn’t waste any time getting back into the swing of things. I felt like I was a little thrown off by this book after all the novels that we have read previously. Not only was the style of writing quite different, but also I felt like I was waiting throughout the whole novel for some sort of indication that Stephen was gay! I was expecting him to fall for one of the boys in his class or even the priest, after the last couple of our novels that we read centering on homosexuality it was strange to have a main character that was straight again. I don’t know about the rest of you, but that through me off. Anyways, to the analyzing...

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man can be seem in many ways as James Joyce’s autobiography. The similarities between Stephen and Joyce are quite obvious in that they both were born and raised in Ireland, both had a father with many debts and continual financial instability and both even went to the same school, Clongowes Wood College, where they both suffered from sicknesses. On a more personal level both men felt isolated in the company of their classmates, never really fitting in, and always feeling as though they were alone. Making a faux autobiography about his life, Joyce was able to place his views on politics and religion into the story, which were not only very prevalent in Ireland at the time, but were also very important in his family. Joyce was also able to incorporate his beliefs on the importance of art and its ability to form people’s identities and shape their thoughts, which was very different from the message that Wilde was trying to get across in The Picture of Dorian Gray, believing in “art for art’s sake.”

One of the main themes that I found to be prevalent throughout the novel pertained to the influence that the females in the story had over Stephen’s actions and thoughts throughout his life. Whether it was the Virgin Mary, prostitutes, Emma, or his mother, the women were placed in a superior standpoint in his life, but as the story progresses and Stephen grows, we begin to see how their influence on him changes.

While towards the beginning of his life the Virgin Mary was seen by Stephen as his main object of devotion, believing “The glories of Mary held his soul captive,” (112) towards the end of the story Stephen’s view of her dramatically changes and she seems to have lost the control that she once had over him. “He crossed the bridge over the stream of the Tolka and turned his eyes coldly for an instant towards the faded blue shrine of the Blessed Virgin…” (175) This change in Stephen marks the moment he turns his back on the church and toward the world. Once the struggle between religion and art is over, Stephen’s view of women begins to gradually change, finding that prostitutes no longer entice him and his mother no longer pushes him. Women that he once viewed as idealized superior beings he know sees as who they really are, mere human beings just like himself.

I have to admit that one thing about the story that really bothered me took place in the second chapter when Joyce made unannounced leaps in time from present time to the past. I felt like I was getting a mental whiplash from these unexpected time shifts! Although, once I understood what was happening I found it kind of interesting how Joyce toyed with the approach of portraying Stephen’s stream of consciousness. This method of showing how Stephen really thought made the whole experience of seeing things through his perspective more believable, while also helping the reader to understand the fact that we are reading from the point of view of Stephen’s consciousness, Stephen’s misperceptions, and not from the point of view of an objective reality.