UNIVERSITY OF GJAKOVA “FEHMI AGANI”

FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

BA DIPLOMA THESIS

Main Themes in James Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”

Supervisor: Candidate:

Prof. Asoc. Dr. Lirak Karjagdiu Ardiana Komani

Gjakova

November, 2018

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To my Parents

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DECLARATION

I Ardiana Komani declare that I worked on my thesis on my own – pursuing the Academic

Honesty Statement’s principles in word and spirit – and used the sources mentioned in the

Bibliography.

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Table of Contents:

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………….… 5

2. Biography of the Author…………………………………………………………..…… 8

2.1. Life…………………………………………………………………………….… 8

2.2. Work………………………………………………………………………….…. 9

3. Relevant information about A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man……………..…… 11

4. Themes…………………………………………………………………………….…… 13

5. Religion………………………………………………………………………………… 14

5.1. Stephan Daedalus…………………………………………………………..…… 14

5.2. The girl next door…………………………………………………………..…… 14

5.3. God……………………………………………………………………………… 15

5.4. Prayers………………………………………………………………………….. 16

5.5. Christmas dinner………………………………………………………………… 16

5.6. Sin…………………………………………………………………………..…… 16

6. Transformation…………………………………………………………………….…… 18

6.1. Bad sides of Stephen’s transformation……………………………………..…… 18

6.2. Good sides of Stephen’s transformation………………………………………… 19

7. Ireland………………………………………………………………………………..… 21

7.1. Catholicism in Ireland……………………………………………………….…... 21

7.2. Exile………………………………………………………………………..…… 22

7.3. Dublin…………………………………………………………………………… 22

8. Paternity……………………………………………………………………………..… 24

8.1. Biological father………………………………………………………………… 24

8.2. Soul father…………………………………………………………………….…. 25

9. Artist Development……………………………………………………………………. 26

9.1. Bird Girl................................................................................................................. 26

9.2. Four crucial conversations..................................................................................... 27

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….…… 29

References…………………………………………………………………………….…… 31

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1. Introduction

The late of nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century marked new literary movement called

“Modernism”. Writers of modernism era wrote about realism, naturalism and also Marxism. James

Joyce is one of the most influential writers of modernism. According to Parsons (2007), Joyce

among other famous authors like Yeats, Lawrence, Eliot and Woolf were the first who in his

writings dare to write differently. After World War I, themes of religion, capitalism and social

order were the dominant ones in these writers’ writings. Joyce wrote for what his inner self cares

about.

A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man deals with struggles of a young boy in different periods of

his life. It deals with very sensitive themes some of them are still present in different societies.

I chose Joyce, his novel A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man because it really thrilled me: the

language and techniques that Joyce used in it. Mostly themes which Joyce elaborated raise a high

interest in me. Joyce not occasionally is listed above other writers of modernism era. Many critics

compare Joyce’s writing style, techniques, and language with Shakespeare’s. A literary critic

Bloom (2009) cited that “No writer since Shakespeare has generated more literary interest and

analysis” (p.15). In this novel, Joyce’s writing style and subject combination matter. According

to Broderick (2018), once being familiar with Joyce’s biography to understand that the novel A

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man includes passages from Joyce’s life and that some

conversations are from Joyce’s own experience.

A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man elaborates in very specific way themes of Religion,

Transformation, Ireland, Paternity and the Development of Stephen as an Artist. Though

Stephen’s life has a lot of autobiographical elements from Joyce’s life, the first part of this paper

includes important information about the author’s biography and his works. His personal events,

thoughts, and sins are described in the novel, describing the narrator, Stephen Dedalus. Each theme

is connected closely with each other because each of them was part of Joyce’s life. I analyzed each

one in a different Chapter.

The theme of Religion even these days is a very sensitive one. Joyce elaborated it as it was in the

late nineteenth century, in Ireland. While analyzing Religion another theme came to a path: sin.

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Stephen’s inner struggle of committing sin and his suffer route until he is able to confess, plays a

deep role in Stephen’s evaluation as an artist. His development to an Artist is another similarity of

Joyce’s and Stephen. Joyce in his life worked hard in his writings, he practiced, he never gave up,

he wanted to be known for his value as an Artist, as a Writer. Even though with too many problems

in his life, living in poverty, exile in France, Italy and Switzerland, his mother’s death, his

daughter’s mental illness and at his fifties his loss of sight. Also, Stephen overcomes his barriers

throughout the novel, by becoming an independent intellectual and critical thinker. Ireland, Joyce’s

loving country, with all its problems, bad functioning, remain important even for Stephen. As an

old proverb say: “Home is where the soul is”. Ireland was Joyce’s soul. But Ireland was not enough

for Joyce, he wanted to fly far away from Ireland, only this way he could feel free.

Because of it’s dense language and many unfamiliar words, sometimes readers may find it hard to

cope with the book, as Wells noted (as cited in Fragnoli & Gillespie, 2006) “A Portrait of the Artist

as a Young Man is a book to buy and read and lock up, but it is not a book to miss” (p.149).

While working on this diploma paper, I found interesting and exiting the fact of how much literary

critics value Joyce’s writings, and it gave me the will to work even harder on this project.

Sources about this research paper are taken mostly from literary critics whose studies were about

James Joyce and his works. Most of them I found in libraries and the rest as online edition, and I

tried to do my best while combining both during this academic paper. Here I will present some of

the main books that I used: “Joyce Effects on Language, Theory and History” by Derek Attridge,

“The Cambridge Introduction to James Joyce” by Eric Bulson, “James Joyce: A Critical Guide”

by Lee Spinks, “James Joyce” by Richard Ellmann, “The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce”

edited by Derek Attridge, “Bloom’s modern critical views: James Joyce” by Harold Bloom.

Among other methods, standard method fits perfectly while working on this diploma thesis. Also

while analyzing author’s life and work, for the sake of facts I use historical method. But in general,

in order to explain themes each one by one and to analyze them in details, I chose to use the

deductive method.

During these four years of studies at the University of Gjakova, I had the opportunity to meet

generous people with generous hearts who helped me and walked with me in this journey. I would

like to thank the Academic Staff and my dear colleagues, thank you for your help and support.

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I would like to thank and express my gratitude to Professor Lirak Karjagdiu for being very

cooperative and helpful during the process of writing this Diploma paper. For her advices, and for

her unconditionally help I would like to thank assistant Lorina Pervorfi. As a mother of two little

angels, I faced too many difficulties through these four years of studying English, including the

fact that during the sixth semester of studies, my second child came to life. This fact did not prevent

or stop me, but it gave me wish to continue. They, my children were my force and my strength, I

would like to thank them for being my inspiration. Next I would to express my sincere gratitude

to my little sister Blerina Frrokaj, who was also my colleague during these four years of studies.

She helped me, supported me and she was my partner in every single presentation. Also, I would

like to thank my biological parents and my in-laws for their support. Last but not least, a special

thank goes to my husband who always supports and believes in me. He witnessed all of my

struggles of being a student and a mother at the same time. He gave me force to overcome them

all. I am grateful to him.

Finally, I would love to express my gratitude to all who helped and supported me during these four

years of studies, in a way or another but whose names I have not mentioned here. Thank you very

much.

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2. Biography

2.1 Life

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born in 1882, on 2nd February, in Rathgar, Dublin. He was a

son of John Joyce and Mary Jane Murray. They got married in May 1880, who were parents of ten

children (four boys and six girls). Joyce was the eldest son, the blue-eyed, clever and handsome

boy, he had parents’ love and support, (Bulson, 2006). Because of the fact that John inherited

money from his father, they had a good financial life in the beginning. In 1888, when he was six

years old, he started to attend the Jesuit school, Clongowes Wood College, forty miles far from

home. In the Jesuit school, James took his first knowledge about theology, Latin and about classics.

Because of financial issues like low- incoming jobs and, small rents that the family experienced,

in 1891 he had to leave the Jesuit College, and in 1893 started to attend Christian Brothers School.

Later on, James Joyce moved to Belvedere, which fits the family stable, because it was free of

charge.

During six years of studying at the Belvedere, James marked a great character development, he

made a successful academic career there, and won several prizes in national exams. Fragnoli and

Gillespie (2006), in their book Critical Companion to James Joyce give detail information about

Joyce’s life. Among other successes, Joyce “Was elected president of Sodality of the Blest Virgin

Mary” (Fargnoli & Gillespie, 2006, p.4). Between periods of 14 to 16 years old, was the time

when Joyce firstly embarked a sexual experience with prostitutes. It was this time when Joyce lost

his faith into God and got deeper into religious and shameful sin, (Spinks, 2009). At age 16, James

started studying Bachelor at Arts at University College, Dublin (1898). Joyce’s interest was not

just in one subject, but among all reading was something he did continuously. Dante Alighieri,

Gabriele D’Annunzio, Gustave Flaubert are some of the medieval names that Joyce read.

After Joyce’s graduation in 1902 at University College for modern languages (English, French and

Italian), he was decided to study medicine in Paris, but while there he spent his time reading and

writing and followed a literary career. After a short period of time, Joyce returned to Ireland

because of his mother’s sickness. She died at age of forty-four, on August 1903. Joyce and his

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brother Stanislaus, refused to kneel and pray with her in her death bad, even though it was her last

request for them because they already had abandoned the Catholic Church.

In 1904, Joyce met the young girl named Nora Barnacle. According to Bulson (2006), Nora was

exactly what Joyce needed at that time, a person to complete and understand him, a person who

could fulfill him. These two fell in love and decided to leave Ireland for good in October of that

same year. Their first destination was Trieste, Italy. There Joyce worked as a teacher, where he

taught English. Financial crises were present, and the family barely managed it. While there Joyce

started to write an autobiographical novel named Stephen Hero. Later on, he took some of this

writing to complete A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In 1914, at the beginning of World

War I, Nora and James moved to Switzerland. Several of his works were published at that time,

Dubliners in 1914, some of his writings from Portrait were published in The Egoist magazine. But

even though James became famous for his writings, he still used to live in poverty. Expect this, he

had eye- problem, for which James talks in the first Chapter in the novel, and the mental illness of

his daughter Lucia broke him down. Joyce refuses to make commercial publication, which would

help with financial issues. He spent the rest of his life in Zurich with Nora. He died in 1941, and

since then his works are still in the center of scholars, readers and critics.

2.2 Work

James Joyce is known as a leading figure of the movement, in literary modernism. That James

Joyce is a writer to evaluate, a literary critic Tindall (1959), compares his writing style to

Shakespear’s. “Like Shakespeare, Joyce was a master of words and that his verbal arrangement,

offering ways of accosting reality, increase our awareness and give us peace” (Tindall, 1959, ix).

His skill for writing is known since he was adolescent in Belvedere, winning two prizes for essay

writing. He also had the desire to learn foreign languages, and he chases the Italian language,

among Latin and French. Joyce used to practice his essay writing, by choosing different topic from

his brother Stanislaus. Expect essay writing, Joyce at age fourteen started writing poetry, and also

drama. Silhouettes is the name of series of prose, and Mood is the name which includes sixty poems

of Joyce. A few years later, collection of the poems were under the name Shine and Dark. In 1907,

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Chamber Music, a very first collection of Joyce’s poems were published. While in 1929 a second

poems’ collection entitled Poems Pennyeach were published. Though poetries were not his

favorite, he continued writing and practicing them.

In his College years, Joyce wrote a public paper, named “Drama and Life” with the attention to

raise arguments about it. In that paper, Joyce lists Art above Ethics. His classmates attacked him

about that, and Joyce replied each of their critics.

After graduating in 1902, Joyce found it impossible to get a stable job related to Arts. Hence, Joyce

took an unexpected decision to study medicine in Paris. So, Joyce first left Dublin in 1902,

December 1st.

While in Paris, Joyce could not afford the financial issues of study, even though it did not stop him

staying there and live of the payments of the book review, of private English courses, and a loan

help from home. Reading and writing, were two things that Joyce did in Paris, and somehow living

this independent life of an exiled boy, he kind of liked it.

As a husband and a father, Joyce could not give too much attention to his writings. In Trieste,

Joyce continued to write short stories about Dubliners, which were not published till 1914. At that

time Joyce started to write his autobiographical novel Stephen Hero, which one Joyce rewrote and

later on published as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Another novel Exiles that Joyce

wrote between 1914-1915, was later on published in 1918. Ulysses was published in 1922.

In Trieste, Joyce wrote three articles for Il Piccolo della Sera newspaper: “The Shade of Parnell,”

“The City of the Tribes,” and “The Mirage of the Fisherman of Aran.”

According to Fragnoli (2006), publication of these three articles, another Joyce’s talent came to

stage, that of journalism. To be known as an artist, as a writer, that was what Joyce wanted most.

And luckily for him in 1913 things took a good turn for him. He got an invitation from Ezra Pound,

an American poet, whether Joyce wanted to publish something of his writings in Pound’s

collection Des Imagistes, and “I hear an army” was the chosen one to publish.

In 1916 A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man was finally published. Finnegans Wake, the cryptic

was completed, it was published in England and America on May 4th, 1939.

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3. Relevant information about “A Portrait of the Artist as a young man”

“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...” (Joyce, 1916, p.3)

With these famous lines Joyce opens his first novel A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man. These

lines give the reader the feeling like hearing/reading an old fairy tale. Though, with its difficult

structure it is not a fairytale at all.

A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man- this book was the bridge of Joyce with readers. The novel

was composed for a period of ten years. Joyce began writing it in 1907, and two years later in

1909, Joyce gave a chapter to his student Ettore Schmitz as language exercise. Schmitz was thrilled

from what he read, and it was then when Joyce decided to continue writing in it.

It is a prose written in the late nineteenth century and at the beginning of twentieth century. It

describes the lifetime of an Irish boy Stephen Dedalus, from his childhood days, until the age of

twenty. A Portrait is a portrait of Irish society and education, also as Catholicism. There are themes

of moral and social, but the center of the novel is the narrator, Stephen Dedalus, (Tindall, 1959).

The novel talks about his education, how life changes him from being a shy boy to one who takes

control of his own life. Stephen, among all of his difficulties through his life, in the end of the

novel, as a grown boy, is capable to understand what he loves to do most – Art. According to

Brodeick (2018), the artist needs his own space, freedom and experimentation in order to create

and live authentic life. Through the education process Stephen got also moral and intellectual

development, and it helped him see the world differently. Stephen is the portrait of the author

himself, and because of that, while reading, the reader gets the feeling like experiencing events

themselves. Autobiographical moments are described in the novel among the fictional one. It, the

novel can be seen as a Bildungsroman (which follows the development of the principal character),

or as kunstlerroman or aesthetic autobiography. Through a stream of consciousness style, Joyce

directly describes thought and feeling that go through Stephen’s mind. According to Bulson,

(2006), this autobiographical novel had the attention to synthesize Ireland, as well as religion and

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art. Stephen stands against religious, politics and society in order to gain his artistic life. The climax

of the book is Stephen’s rejection of the Catholic faith, which led him to write.

Tindall (1959), in his book A Reader’s Guide to James Joyce, writes that the “Portrait” does not

refer to only one portrait, it refers to several portraits of Stephen’s development. Nowadays more

than a hundred years from its first publication is still the model text of twentieth modernism. In

modern novels, everything and everyone is challengeable.

The novel is not a traditional roman, it does not follow coherent or chronological orders of events

or places. It is composed of five Chapters, and each one embodies different parts of Joyce’s life,

the evaluation of the main character, Stephen, emotionally, intellectually and his character

development in different stages of his life.

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4. Themes

Although it is a novel that deals with many themes at the same time, I am focused mostly on these

controversial themes: Religion, Transformation, Ireland, Paternity and Artist Development. All of

these themes Joyce bind together in a very particular method, by mixing and separating them at

the same time. Considering the fact that the Church played a big role in Ireland, it also affected

Stephen’s life. Born and raised in a Catholic family, Stephen was used with religious terms and

prayers. But later on, this fact prevent Stephen from becoming independent, and so he decides to

abandon Catholicism. The purpose of choosing the name Stephen Daedalus will be explained in

the theme of Religion. Also, Sin, Prayers and his relationship with God will be discussed in this

Chapter.

Transformation of Stephen as an intellect, as a person passed into many difficulties through

Stephen’s life. It takes a turn for good and bad. These two sides I will analyze further on the theme

of Transformation in Chapter VI.

The theme of Dublin, Exile, and Catholicism are all related to Ireland, so for these themes, I will

discuss each of them in Chapter VII. Irish people were separated in two sides: one side were people

who believed that Church must lead political issues and that the Church and Country are

inseparable. On the other side, the rest thought that Church should not intervene into Country’s

issues.

Father authority played a key fact at the time that the novel was written. What kind of role played

Simon Dedalus and if Stephen was satisfied with it will be analyzed in Chapter VIII, in Paternity

theme.

And in the end theme of Artist Development will be analyzed in Chapter IX. How Stephen

managed to begin his dream, a journey of becoming an Artist, from a childish boy to an artist.

All of these themes were part of Joyce’s life, the author treated them in unique form throughout

the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

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5. Religion

According to Oxford Learner’s Dictionary (2018), religion is each person’s faith in one God or

many Gods, like a spiritual leader.

One of the most debatable themes in the novel and at the time that novel was written is the theme

of religion. 90 % of Irish people were Roman Catholic in 1890 (Gifford, 1982). Joyce through

religion tries to describe how it helped/prevent into growing an artist as a young man. The theme

of religion was present during A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, because at that time the

concept about the religion was changing. It is interesting the fact how Stephen-Joyce shifts from a

devoted Catholic into someone against it. In the last Chapter, Stephen explains why religion

prevents him from becoming an artist.

5.1 Stephen Daedalus

Joyce, intentionally chased Stephen Dedalus, a name, starting from the most obvious thing that a

reader’s eye can catch while reading. Daedalus is the first Christian martyr, a figure from Greek

mythology, and through it, the author makes comparison and contrast of Stephen Dedalus.

Daedalus builds a labyrinth for King Minos in Crete and finds himself stuck in it, with his son

Icarus. Daedalus creates wings made of wax and feathers and fled away with his son who flies

near to the sun and his wings melted and causes his death. According to Bulson (2006), the myth

of Daedalus has two possible meanings: Stephen could be the father- Daedalus or the rebellious

son – Icarus.

5.2 The girl next door

Growing in an Irish Catholic family, religion was a very strong side of Stephen. He had a spiritual

connection with it, even though flash tender stood into his way. In childhood, as we can find in

Chapter one, his parents tried their best to grow Stephen into a devoted Catholic man. Attending

Jesuit school from the very beginning is proof of that. Stephen’s affection for Eileen Vance, a

Protestant young girl who lives next door, and his desire to marry her, result into shock for his

Catholic family. Mrs. Dedalus forces him to apologize for this others around the table.

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5.3 God

That the God is prior and the creator, Stephen is pretty convinced in the first Chapter when he lists

God above school, city, county, country till to the Universe, making himself question what

Universe is, and what is more than that.

“Stephen Dedalus

Class of Elements

Clongowes Wood College

Sallins

County Kildare

Ireland

Europe

The World

The Universe” (Joyce, 1916, p.14)

Surely his answer in the end is God.

“It could not be a wall; but there could be a thin thin line there all round everything. It was very

big to think about everything and everywhere. Only God could do that.” (Joyce, 1916, p.15).

God is the name for Irish people, God is the name for every different language, and every one

when in need call for the same God, as Stephen’s God.

But this perception for God fades in the last Chapter. Stephen’s love, attitude and belief in God

somehow are gone somewhere in Stephen’s process of growing. In a conversation with his

college’s friend Cranly, Stephen made clear his opinion toward God, “I tried to love God... It seems

now I failed. It is very difficult. I tried to unite my will with the will of God instant by instant. In

that I did not always fail” (Joyce, 1916, p.301)

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5.4 Prayers

Prayers were a strong tool of Stephen while a child. Used to do so, Stephen prayed because he felt

like it was something to be done at different phases of the day: in the morning, before eating and

before he goes to bad.

Prayers became a routine before he falls asleep. According to Oxford Learner’s Dictionary (2018),

prayers are words that a person addresses to God to thank him, or to ask a benefit from him. In a

Christmas dinner, sitting around the table, Stephen’s father asked Stephen to pray:

“Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts which through Thy bounty we are about to receive through

Christ our Lord. Amen.”(Joyce, 1916, p.32)

Stephen in the dark night murmured quietly for his family wellbeing and to get sure of not going

to hell after death. In the first pages of the first Chapter, Stephen in the Jesuit school, as a child

hurries to change for bad before the perfect came to check,

“He had to undress and then kneel and say his own prayers and be in bed before the gas was

lowered so that he might not go to hell when he died.”(Joyce, 1916, p.18).

5.5 Christmas dinner

Christmas dinner is another important feature which also occurs in the Chapter one. For it’s strong

debate round Christmas table, this scene has been discussed by almost every literary critics books.

It was that night when Stephen was allowed to sit in a table with adults, though his siblings were

in another room. From a quiet, peacefully Christmas dinner it turns to a chaos dinner, because of

the main theme of discussion-Religion. Mr. Dedalus and Mr. Casey are at the same opinion that

politic and church/religion should be separated from each other, and that cause of priest’s affection,

Ireland cannot make any progress. On the other side Dante thinks that everyone should obey to

priests, going to that point of justifying all of church leaders dons, "God and religion before

everything! God and religion before the world!"(Joyce, 1916, p.44)

5.6 Sin

But Stephen’s view about the church, about God and Faith gets weaker. He finds himself lost in

the sin, and enjoys being at that position. “He wanted to sin with another of his kind, to force

another being to sin with him and to exult with her in sin”(Joyce, 1916, p.122)

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Theme of sin is discussed in the third Chapter, in father Arnall sermons. Every Catholic knows the

heavy weight of living in the sin. According to Bible, sin came into this world from the very first

human beings on Earth: Adam and Eve. Also father Arnall explains to his students the sin origin:

“Adam and Eve, my dear boys, were, as you know, our first parents, and you will remember that

they were created by God”.(Joyce, 1916, p.143)

God gave the lovely garden, Eden, placed in Damascus. They had all.

Eve was the one who first made a sin, pushed by a devil in serpent shape. He promised her if she

and Adam will eat from a forbidden fruit, “they would become as gods, as God Himself” (Joyce,

1916, p.144).

Father Arnall in this point makes obvious woman weakness, “She ate the apple and gave it also to

Adam who had not the moral not the courage to resist her”(Joyce, 1916, p.145). Catholics believe

that because of this sin committed by Adam and Eve, each infant is born with this fluent sin, and

can get rid of it only with the process of baptism.

Stephen, as a Catholic, he was baptized, he was able about his sinfully habit – visiting prostitutes,

which became his routine. He felt flesh satisfaction but from the inside he felt bad. At that point

Stephen lost his soul’s purity. At the beginning of Chapter Three, Stephen start to feel guilty. He

already was distinct from others, but was yet not ready to be detached from the Church.

Tindall (1959) stated that “Faith and habit of obedience, defeated in the social game, gradually

decline, and Stephen feels betrayed by what he has trusted”(p.59). Stephen gradually started to

lose faith. In Chapter One, Stephen was beaten by mistake from father Dolan, because he could

not write, because his glasses were broken. He was beaten by a Jesuit priest, who did not even

believe Stephen and did not ask for explanation.

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6. Transformation

The development of Stephen is pretty obvious throughout the novel. Bulson (2006) noted that “The

childlike simplicity of the first chapter gives way to an increasingly sophisticated style that mimics

Stephen’s intellectual growth” (p.50). The style and technique of language that James used in the

first paragraph are simple sentences, they are limited and childish. So with the development of

Stephen, the style and techniques take turn, to an advanced level, intellectual one. From wordless

boy, Stephen’s personality changes. Growing up gives him the ability to think and act

independently, his conversations and dialogues become more complex, and have an intellectual

accent. It helped him hear his own voice, and take action in its own.

Big ideas like politics and universe did not have sense while he was a young boy, but they started

to get shape when he gets older.

According to Wollaeger, (2003), Portrait speaks about trying to get a command over the language.

Through Stephen, Joyce tries to fly over the nest (Dublin) and to express his soul freely in order

to dominate to the artistic aspiration.

The process of transformation in Stephen Dedalus took a turn for good and for bad.

6.1 Bad sides of Stephen’s transformation

When in Cork with his father, Mr. Dedalus, his attitude with a barman embarrassed Stephen.

Tindall (1959) cited that “No father, actual, ecclesiastical or even divine, seems fatherly or

reliable”(p.57)

“They had set out early in the morning from Newcombe’s co ee-house, where Mr Dedalus’s cup

had rattled nois- ily against its saucer, and Stephen had tried to cover that shameful sign of his

father’s drinking bout of the night be- fore by moving his chair and coughing. One humiliation

had succeeded another—the false smiles of the market sell- ers, the curvetings and oglings of the

barmaids with whom his father flirted, the compliments and encouraging words of his father’s

friends”(Joyce, 1916, p.114)

As cited in Tindall (1959), Joyce tells his friend Frank Budgen that he accepts that Stephen’s

character is so complicated: “I have been rather hard on that young man” (p.64).

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Second turn of bad development: loss of consciousness, his filtrations with whores, usage of

language. Seem like Stephen did not care for God’s punishment, did not have fear of the big day,

the Judgment day. During this period the satisfaction of body, flash were prior comparing to soul

or faith.

6.2 Good sides of Stephen’s transformation

Stephen's transformation has also good parts. It changes Stephen to become an intellectual and

an artist. Also a development of Stephen's soul. During this process, he became an adult in his

body and intellect. The way of thinking, writing and price winning, all in his favor. This

development process helped Stephen to leave his country and go to Europe, to become an artist.

Soul torture and body satisfaction became one for Stephen. After hearing sermons from father

Arnall about Judgment day, about physical and mental torture that expects sinners in hell,

Stephen experiences nightmares. Stephen thinks that all words coming out from father Arnall

mouth are dedicated to him. Then, after a night dreaming in hell and in order to release from his

deep pain, he decides to confess:

“—And what do you remember since that time?

He began to confess his sins: masses missed, prayers not

said, lies.

—Anything else, my child?

Sins of anger, envy of others, gluttony, vanity, disobedi-

ence.

—Anything else, my child?

—I... committed sins of impurity, father....

—With yourself, my child?

—And... with others.”(Joyce, 1916, p.177)

Released, reborn, full of life, full of joy, that is how Stephen felt after confession. Released from

the heavy weight of sin, Stephen tries to find himself as a devoted Catholic.

“But he could no longer disbelieve in the reality of love, since God Himself had loved his individual

soul with divine love from all eternity. Gradually, as his soul was enriched with spiritual

knowledge, he saw the whole world forming one vast symmetrical expression of God’s power and

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love. Life became a divine gift for every moment and sensation of which, were it even the sight of

a single leaf hanging on the twig of a tree, his soul should praise and thank the Giver”(Joyce,

1916, p184)

The director proposes Stephen to enter into the priesthood, promising to find the light, daylight

again in his soul. At this point Stephen reflects over his life, walking beside the beach he reflects

over life, over art, over nature, and the idea of entering in the priesthood gradually shades.

In the final Chapter, the reader faces a completely different Stephen, a grown, discreet boy.

Meeting new friends, discussing politic issues, even making jokes, far away from soul torment.

Eventually, Stephen decides to dedicate all of his time to art, far from religion and nationalism.

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7. Ireland

The complex situation of Ireland had a great impact on Joyce. At the time when the novel was

written, Ireland was under the British rule. Joyce’s Ireland was underdeveloped for twenty years.

It suffered from political defeat-the fall of Parnell. Ireland somehow became kind of trap for

Stephen to live and to create. In the last Chapter, in a conversation between Stephen and his friend

Davin, Stephen surprised Davin with his anti-English language and literature ideas. Dante

surprised by his friend reaction says that cannot understand him (Joyce, 1916), “One time I hear

you talk against English literature. Now you talk against the Irish informers” (p.250)

Here Stephen came to a point by realizing that English language and literature, also Ireland

informers are preventing him from continuing his journey of becoming free, independent.

7.1 Catholicism in Ireland

The book itself is a story of education, so far it is “the most living and convincing picture that exist

in an Irish Catholic upbringing” (Fragnoli & Gillespie, 2006, p.150)

Joyce put all his dissatisfaction into his writings. Starting from the very beginning of A Portrait of

an Artist as a young man, in the first Chapter, on Christmas dinner, political issues are present.

They are involved in a very difficult way, including leaders of the country, as well as leaders of

Church. The conflict on the Christmas dinner about religion and country was strong. It became a

battlefield with two sides, pro religion, against the country, and the other side pro-country against

the religion:

“God and religion before everything! God and religion before the world” (Joyce, 1916, p.44)

and Casey says:

“No God for Ireland! We have had too much God In Ireland. Away with God!” (Joyce, 1916, p.44)

According to Norris (2016), the process of dividing Catholic Church and Irish Nationalism was

heavy struggle for Joyce. He was an Irish man but still did not agree with the politics of Irish

leaders of the time.

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7.2 Exile

It is known the fact that Joyce and his contemporary writers are called voluntary exiles. And based

on the fact that Joyce/Stephen decides to leave Ireland at the end of the novel A Portrait of the

Artist as a Young Man, Joyce is considered to head this list.

Once, in November 1906, Joyce wrote a letter to his brother Stanislaus, (as cited in Norris, 2016,

p.3), “If the Irish programme did not insist on the Irish language I suppose I could call myself a

nationalist. As it is, I am content to recognize myself an exile”

After leaving Ireland, Joyce made three short trips to Ireland, and aware of the fact that in order to

become a real artist, a life of voluntary exile was a necessity. After that Joyce lived his life as a

true exile, even though he continued writing about its politics, geography, culture and for people

for the rest of its life.

7.3 Dublin

After publication of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, it somehow caused a scandal in

Dublin. Because Joyce used real names of people into the novel, and the image of Dublin was not

flattering. Joyce’s studies were the human of Dublin. Independent Dublin was Joyce’s dream. But

Joyce did not hesitate to write about all negative sides of Irish people.

Joyce’s concern about social problems starts from what concerned him the most.

I find interesting how Joyce changes the perception for Dublin, a city in which Joyce/Stephen

grows up. Dublin streets once very quiet, while walking by, gradually became noisy for Stephen,

poverty, monuments of Irish heroes became worthless in Stephen’s eyes.

Disappointed with the irremediable situation of Ireland, monuments of the honorable heroes of

Ireland seemed worthless to him. Even Dublin streets as Joyce explains in the novel, in the sight

of Stephen’s is in poverty,

“Dublin was a new and complex sensation.... In the beginning he contended himself with circling

timidly round the neighbouring square or, at most, going half way down one of the side streets:

but when he had made a skeleton map of the city in his mind he followed badly one of its central

lines until he reached the customhouse” (Joyce, 1916, p.127)

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According to Tindall (1959), Stephen’s escape has three meanings: negative, positive and

romantic:

a) Negative – The unbearable political situation of Ireland. Stephen could not stand the political

situation of Ireland, it made him leave his country. This is the negative concept why Stephen left.

b) Positive – Stephen hoped for freedom. It’s positive side is that Stephen hoped that being a free

person could help him to create, to write and to express himself in every possible way, and

c) Romantic – explored enlargement. Being far away from his country and family, it woke

romantic feelings to Stephen.

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8. Paternity

At the time the novel was written, Modernism, paternity was a central theme. The pressure of

tradition was very present in society. The pressure that a father, uncle had over young boys was

considerable. Fathers expect their sons to be their image, to fulfill what they could not while young.

Several figures that past into Stephen’s life throughout the novel plays the role of the father: his

own father, priests, and deans.

8.1 Biological father

As an answer for this, youth, young boys made kind of rebellion. According to Tindall (1959), the

revolt against the father was considered as a process of growing up. The same case with Stephan

Dedalus and his father Simon Dedalus, who revolts against his father in order to become Stephen

Dedalus, a better figure than his father’s. Stephen Dedalus while trying to create a better figure for

himself, at the end of the novel ends up becoming like his father Simon Dedalus. Taken in

consideration that novel describes more or less autobiographic events with Joyce himself, the

similarity of Joyce’s and Stephan’s home are obvious, as well as Joyce’s father and Stephan’s

father. According to Tindall (1959), Joyce’s father was a loving person, where Stephen’s father

was irresponsible. Simon Dedalus has a very strong sense about patriotism, and so he wants

Stephen to be a patriot, a good Catholic, and a gentleman. His continuous memories about his

youth made his character very sensitive one.

While in Cork, Simon Dedalus tries to impress his son, by recalling youth memories, but it has the

opposite effect. Stephen feels humiliated by his father’s actions. Stephen does not want to become

like his father. His presence makes Stephen feel uncomfortable:

“I am Stephen Dedalus. I am walking beside my father whose name is Simon Dedalus. We are in

Cork, in Ireland. Cork is a city. Our room is in the Victoria Hotel. Victoria and Stephen and Simon.

Simon and Stephen and Victoria. Names” (Joyce, 1916, pp.112,113)

Also, Simon Dedalus, has different expectation from Stephen, he kept telling his son to become a

gentleman, and in Stephen’s diary, he notes that his father expects from him to read the law.

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Stephen always obeyed his father and master’s voice to be a gentleman, a patriot and among all a

good Christian, (Tindall, 1959).

At Stephen’s boyhood, Simon Dedalus is a model role of a father. But while growing, these

thoughts gradually shade for Stephan.

Back when they are in Cork, Stephen hears his father talking without interest:

“He listened without sympathy to his father’s evocation of Cork and of scenes of his youth, a tale

broken by sighs or draughts from his pocket flask whenever the image of some dead friend

appeared in it or whenever the evoker remembered suddenly the purpose of his actual visit.”

(Joyce, 1916, p.105)

Stephen in the last Chapter describes his father to his fellow, Cranly with these words:

“A medical student, an oarsman, a tenor, an amateur actor, a shouting politician, a small landlord,

a small investor, a drinker, a good fellow, a story-teller, somebody’s secretary, something in a

distillery, a tax-gatherer, a bankrupt and at present a praiser of his own past” (Joyce,1916, p. 301)

8.2 Soul father

Stephen needs someone to lead, to understand and to help him grow as an artist. Because of

Simon’s failures to play his role as a model father, then Joyce replaced him (Simon Dedalus) with

another one - soul father, Father Arnall, (Stephen’s master from Clongowes College). If we refer

to a father as a leader, figure, and not only biological father, then Father Arnall plays this role

figures, his sermons strongly affected Stephen, and after a night of hell, Stephen decides to confess

his sins.

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9. Artist Development

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man took ten years to be written, but it took a lifetime for Joyce

to became an artist. The same is the case with Stephen, Joyce’s inner self character. From the

beginning of the novel, from baby tuckoo fairytale, with different struggles, torments, sins and

everything Stephen managed to take a decision to leave Dublin in order to become an artist. With

this decision Stephen appears mature in his actions, Joyce wants to let the reader understand that

his main character is able to decide what is good for him. A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man as

a Buldingsroman, it follows step by step development of Stephen’s both linguistic and internal

intellectual, which characteristics led to artistic development. The experience of epiphany and the

realization of aesthetics are two major events that changed Stephen’s life profoundly.

Firt, the educated in Jesuit College, helps Stephen to receive knowledge about classical and

medieval thinkers.

As Stephen’s grows older, he observes the world around him differently, and starts being more

responsible for his actions. His interest for language arises a high level. During a conversation with

the dean, Stephen starts to think about that Irish language belongs to the English language. For

Stephen language and nationality are the same, but when realizing that his country’s language is

not independent, is not his own, then there starts the isolation of him from Ireland.

A big turn of Stephen is noticed in the last Chapter. Stephen does not find fancy jokes, he speaks

only when he is sure for what he is going to say, and strongly believes in his own words.

Every situation in the book is clearly understandable because of Stephen’s thought, places and

people around him, political and social situation they are all illustrated very well to understand.

Through these thoughts, is easy to notice that nothing can fulfill Stephen’s inner world, something

is missing: Art.

9.1 Bird Girl

The crucial event considering Stephen’s artistic development is when he was proposed to enter

priesthood in Chapter IV, and when he asked for some time to think about the choice he will make.

Stephen took a walk at the beach shore, and while walking he experienced a moment of epiphany

(first realization of something) when he saw a “Bird Girl”, a very beautiful girl playing with the

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waves, in the shore of the Irish sea. He loved that moment. Stephen was amazed by her beauty,

with her eyes, “Her eyes had called him and his soul had leaped at the call. To live, to err, to fall,

to triumph, to recreate life out of life! A wild angel had appeared to him, the angel of mortal youth

and beauty, an envoy from the fair courts of life, to throw open before him in an instant of ecstasy

the gates of all the ways of error and glory” (Joyce, 1916, p.213). This scene touched his soul “no

word had broken the holy silence of his ecstasy”(Joyce, 1916, p.213). He realized how beautiful

that atmosphere looked like, and eventually he found out that he longs for the beautiful, and

actually lives for moments that look as beautiful as that one. This moment of epiphany is

considered as a pure act of art. According to Bulson (2006), Stephen by rejecting entering into the

priesthood “has accepted the fact that he will serve as an artist” (p.57)

So, eventually, he decided to leave the priesthood and enter a new phase in his life, which was the

pursuit of aesthetics (beauty). In the fifth Chapter, Stephen’s conversations with the dean, and his

fellows Davin, Lynch and Cranly, provide to us that Stephen’s development has already taken a

shape. The center of these conversations is an aesthetic theory, religion, nation and art.

9.2 Four crucial Conversations

Joyce based his theories on Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. In a conversation about philosophy

with the dean, mature and grown Stephen is able to make a grown up conversation. In this point,

Stephen makes clear his thoughts for Aristotle’s aesthetic theory. “For my purpose I can work on

at present by the light of one or two ideas of Aristotle and Aquinas . . . I need them only for my

own use and guidance until I have done something for myself by their light” (Joyce, 1916, p.231).

Here Joyce presents his attitude toward modernist literature by mixing classic and traditional

perspectives in order to create a new one.

This level of conversation between them made the dean to make a rhetorical question to Stephen

“You are an artist, are you not?”(Joyce, 1916, p.229)

The dean continues his dialogue with Stephen for art, considering him as an artist, “The object of

the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is is another question”(Joyce, 1916,

p.229)

Stephen’s rebellion against Ireland is clearly obvious while in a conversation with Davin, his

college’s friend, who is an Irish patriot and encourages Stephen to be the same. Stephen sees

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Ireland as “the old sow that eats her farrow” (Joyce, 1916, p.252). Stephen continuous telling

Davin that “When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back

from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets”(Joyce,

1916, p.252)

While walking Dublin’s streets, Stephen exposes his aesthetic theory of art and beauty to Lynch.

Stephen claims to Lynch that pity and terror are not defined by Aristotle, but by him. According

to Stephen pity is “the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and

constant in human sufferings and unites it with the human sufferer” (Joyce, 1916, p.254)

While Stephen claims that terror is “the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of

whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the secret cause” (Joyce,

1916, p.254)

During the walk, Stephen asked by Lynch gives his definition of art. According to Stephen (Joyce,

2016) “Art is the human disposition of sensible or intelligible matter for an esthetic end”(p.257)

Later on, in a conversation with Cranly, Stephen’s tone of voice against Ireland is stronger and

wilder. Here Stephen elaborates his version of new credo:

“I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland or

my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as

wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use—silence, exile, and

cunning”(Joyce, 1916, p.309)

With these lines it is made obvious that Stephen has reached his own independence, free from

Ireland and Religion and, that he is not fear of staying alone, he tells Cranly that he:

“…do not fear. I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or to leave whatever I have

to leave. And I am not afraid to make a mistake, even a great mistake, a lifelong mistake, and

perhaps as long as eternity too”(Joyce, 1916, p.309)

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Conclusion

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man the novel, itself it is quite intriguing, from the beginning

of it a reader can easily get attached to various topics considered throughout the novel, that connect

perfectly even with today’s life. A lot of unfamiliar words, a very dense structure of sentences,

requires reading again and again in order to understand the deep meaning. Wells (as cited in

Fragnoli & Gillespie, 2006) “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a book to buy and read

and lock up, but it is not a book to miss”(p.149)

More intriguing for me after analyzing this novel became the fact of different critics finding literary

similarities between Joyce’s and Shakespeare’s works. The fact that the author used this novel

which easily can be considered a fiction, to express his own autobiographical events and this two

characteristics were shaped so well together that for someone who had no information of Joyce’s

life would be hard to notice. The use of language was another fascinating thing, same as

Shakespeare, Joyce used “labyrinth” words, phrases and meanings.

According to Tindall (1959), Joyce appears to be a difficult writer, because of Joyce was a going

out person he saw a lot and as much as he saw more different ways of writings he used to explain

what he experienced. These factors enriched his vocabulary and his use of language and made the

shift between his life and the narrator’s event almost invisible. Joyce formulates a story for a young

Catholic artist, who needs to be free from religion, social institutions and politics in order to gain

the autonomy as an artist.

Joyce involved in his works themes that made significant changes during the twentieth century.

His personal feelings and emotions, revolting against particular society feature, etc. Joyce put them

in his writings in a highly sophisticated way. Considering this, and the fact that this novel took ten

years of different periods, different circumstances, emotions, and environment to be written, I can

easily say that this is a completed art work, both literary and naturally.

The process that shaped Joyce as a writer, is the same process that gave inspiration to this novel.

Ireland, his birth city – Dublin were strong parts of Joyce’s life. From his early childhood days,

Stephen was told to be a patriot and a gentleman. Later on, was Dublin that prevented Stephen to

become an artist, and he did not hide this fact. Moving to Paris, in order to reflect on his ideas and

leaving Dublin behind is a prove.

The exile was one of the most used topics of Irish writers of that time, but Joyce melted it with the

love and hate for his country, with his wishes and fears for his city, he made the exile theme as

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part of his growth, not only literary but as a person. As Stephen said “This race and this country

and this life produced me” (James Joyce, 1916, p.251)

How can a writer be an excellent writer, if he does not go through a lot in his life? He went from

the prayers at night, the fear of punishment, to pleasing his body needs, to sins and disbelief on

God. Stephan was the typic Irish man, who took the wrong shift in life, just so he can come back

to find that Love and God is the way.

His rebellion for the way Christianity was, the way that Ireland was still ruled by Britain, the way

that Dublin changed from a lively place to a noisy playground, his devotion to flesh and blood

needs that led him to committing numerous sins, and finding happiness on prostitutes, which he

felt bad time after time for making them sin too, into the confession transformation, were all part

of his journey, and in a way or another are part of the life journey of each one of us.

I think the reason why this literary work was studied, analyzed, and is liked and people still read

it nowadays, is because of its themes that were and always will be part of everyone’s life. The

constant fight between the good and the bad, love and hate, prayers and sins, is a battlefield no one

can escape in his or her life, the outcome that we make from it, how we choose to react to it, and

how we grow from it, is what makes us who we really are, and what determines our value as human

beings.

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