Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A detailed Summary of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

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, A Portrait of the Artist 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, Dedalus is mature and worldly; a man who stands tall and who feels confident with "Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead." (238). Through the use of the symbols of woman and earth, and white and purification, Joyce gives his novel depth and wonder. These symbols follow an array of transformations, changing throughout the novel much like Stephen himself.

The figure woman goes from the mother figure, to that of the whore, and finally to the representation of freedom itself. As a child, the imag

This last female has a strong connection with the earth. She is the transition, the link, between secular and saintly, between the artist and his creation. She is described as part of the earth, as part of nature, "Her long slender bare legs were delicate as a crane's and pure save where an emerald trail of seaweed had fashioned itself as a sign upon the flesh." (203) The earth is woman, for as mother is to nature, woman is to man. When in his zealot stage, the earth is seen as a prison, and "In earthly prisons" men must abide by "obedience to His word." (174) However, when Stephen finally comes to himself, discovers the artist within him, the earth is not a prison, it does not stifle, but instead it creates. It is the ultimate mother, the purest woman there is. "A world, a glimmer or a flower?" (205) He had long though of it as a glimmer, to be ignored, he now sees it in its bloom, its wonder and its beauty, the mother of all that is pure and good and beautiful. It is the ultimate creation and yields the greatest beauty.

The figure of the whore physically begins with Stephen's first sexual encounter. From childhood he has heard of women like that of the whore, their names unspeakable at the dinner table, mistresses of highly noted figures. "But what was the name the woman had called Kitty O'Shea that Mr. Casey would not repeat?" (36) Stephen, however, is unaware and unable to comprehend this symbolic image until he reaches the real, physical whore who was "dressed in long vivid gowns" and "traversed the street from house to house." (88) In the actually encounter, Stephen felt "the warm calm rise and fall of her breast, [and] all but burst into hysterical weeping." (90) He feels this out of happiness, but it is also a symbolic loss of innocence, which he later weeps for consciously, because "His childhood was dead or lost and with it his soul capable 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 th

Some common words found in the essay are:
James Joyce, O'Shea Casey, God Due, Stephen Suddenly, Virgin Mary, Stephen Dedalus, image woman, Portrait Artist, figure beginning, novel stephen, kiss mother, loss innocence, secular saintly, innocence lost, mother figure, figure whore, earth nature,

Approximate Word count = 1363
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English