Essays on A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man

James Joyce’s novel, “A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man,” chronicles the adventures of Stephen Daedalus as he navigated adolescence in and around the Irish city of Dublin during the late 19th century. He uses his experiences with religion, family, and sexuality to try and figure out his place in the world. Stephen starts the novel in a prestigious boarding school where he learns of God and the raging political turmoil around him. What frightens him is how little he care about either ...

In Book V of A Portrait of A Young Artist, Stephen Daedalus decides to explain his personal theory of esthetics to his friend Lynch, analyzing perception (primarily sight, but including hearing and touch)and articulating the elements which form a perceptual experience. He then explicates the modes of expression through which the individual responds to his or her experiences. “Experience” is here understood to include affect and how emotion (or ‘feeling’) is formed within the subject who ...

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is a semi-autobiographical account of Joyce’s childhood and upbringing. The novel is heavily involved in the character study of Stephen Daedalus, a young Irishman whose struggles with growing up are portrayed in the novel. There are many large events that shape Stephen’s life, many of which occur in the closing section of each of the novel’s five chapters. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a story of Stephen Dedalus’ quest for ...

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the character of Dante Riordan can be likened to the figure of the devouring, consuming female which is seen in her outburst at the dinner table. Keane says of Dante: ‘Destructive from the outset, Dante represents, like the 'old lady' of Mr. Casey's more than amusing anecdote, Ireland at her worst'. Dante attacks the memory of Irish political leader, Charles Stewart Parnell, glorying his destruction shouting ‘Devil out of hell! We won! We crushed him ...