A Portrait Of The Artist
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Stephen Dedalus is born of a woman, created of the earth; pure in his childhood innocence. From this beginning stems the birth of an artist, and from this the novel, as a Young Man, James Joyce recounts Stephen's story. His journey is followed from childhood to maturity, and thus his transformation from secular to saintly to an awakening of what he truly is. The novel evolves from simple, childlike diction, to sophisticated, higher ideas and thoughts as Dedalus completes his transition into an artist. In the beginning, Dedalus sees the world in an almost sing-song nursery rhyme sense, with a "moocow" coming down the road. By the end of the novel, ...
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As a child, the image of the mother figure is strong. It is nurturing and supportive, that of "a woman standing at the half-door of a cottage with a child in her arms . . ." (10) who shelters and protects and makes Stephen afraid to "think of how it was" to be without a mother. As Stephen grows, however, like any child his dependency of him mother begins to dwindle, as does his awe for her. He begins to question his relationship with her and she is suddenly seen as a dirty figure, beginning the transformation of Stephen's image of women; from that of mother to whore. He first begins to questions the purity of his mother, his creator, his earth, when confronted by class mates, who taunt and confuse the innocent act of kissing his mother. He suddenly wonders, "Was it right to kiss his mother or wrong to kiss his mother? What did that mean, to kiss? You put your face up like that to say good night and then his mother put her face down. That was to kiss." (24) However, later in the ...
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of simple joys and he was drifting amid life and like the barren shell of the moon. The whore is she who takes innocence, she represents not only an evil of the flesh, but that of Eve herself. She was "the weaker vessel" and because of her temptation, Eden fell and the innocence of man was lost. "She ate the apple and give it also to Adam who had not the moral courage to resist her." (124) This scenario parallels Stephen's encounter with the whore. He is caught up in it all, he "weeps" and it helpless against the temptation of the whore, for, though he attempts to resist by not "bend[ing] to kiss her," "it was too much for him" much like it was too much for Adam. Thus the prostitute figure ...
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"A Portrait Of The Artist." Essayworld.com. February 16, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Portrait-Of-The-Artist/22335.
"A Portrait Of The Artist." Essayworld.com. February 16, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Portrait-Of-The-Artist/22335.
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