This paper shows how Stephen Dedalus, the main character in James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", has a remarkable similarity to Holden Caulfield of J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye".
Abstract An exploration of the similar characteristics and personalities of Stephen Dedalus and Holden Caulfield. The writer shows that this similarity is not just in terms of the situations and incidents that occur in their respective novels, but also in the way both personalities are characterized. Both of these characters have the same outlook on life, the same voice and style, and the same attitude or temperament. Because of the authors? ability to portray characters so clearly, it is possible to draw some significant comparisons between the two protagonists.
From the Paper "Neither stephen Dedalus nor Holden Caulfield know exactly what to do with themselves in their respective futures, and both are extremely unsatisfied with their present circumstances. The only major difference between their characters is that although each of them are faced with similar problems and challenges, their reactions to these challenges vary significantly. This may be due to external circumstances, however, and not because of basic differences in the characters themselves."
Tags: style, voice, outlook, challenge, literature
Abstract This paper studies James Joyce's autobiographical tale of Stephen Dedalus. It discusses Stephen's growing self-awareness as a person and as an artist which causes him to dismiss the nationalism and Catholicism and to go to Paris to become a writer. It is a tale of the author's description's of Dedalus's history and what became of him. It includes several excerpts from the book which are analyzed.
From the Paper "If we were to concern ourselves strictly with plot, we might well say of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man that there is none there. Not a great deal actually happens in this essentially autobiographical tale of Stephen Dedalus, and the narrative follows no clear single trajectory of cause and effect. Rather, in one of the first important uses of stream of consciousness, Joyce tells us in this short novel about Stephen's growing self-awareness as a person and as an artist, a growing self-awareness that will cause him by the end of the book to cast off the nationalism, the Catholicism and the sense of clannishness that defines other members of his father and to set off to Paris to become a writer."
Abstract The paper explores how, through deep analogy and metaphor, James Joyce allegorizes a paternal relationship between Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom in his novel, "Ulysses". It shows that, strained by both of their insecurities, Dedalus and Bloom never bathe in the warm glory of a true father-son relationship. The paper discusses how throughout "Ulysses", Joyce presents, through his characters and to his readers, the question: What is love? More importantly, are humans capable of attaining and expressing love? It shows that with a series of relationships between son and mother, son and father, husband and wife, friend and friend, country and citizen, colony and "mother" country, Joyce demonstrates the simultaneous longing for and failure of human affection.
From the Paper "Bloom at his most pathetic woos Stephen Dedalus, even idolizes him. Continually deferring to his intellectualism and multilingualism, Bloom symbolically kisses Stephen's behind. They urinate together and the slightly compulsive and neat Bloom waves off Stephen's lack of concern for hygiene to the necessities of creative energy. Creative energy is one of the major things Bloom finds compelling about the younger Dedalus. Bloom offers Dedalus the space of silence with which to cultivate his thoughts, just as Bloom is concerned with delineating, describing, and dissecting every move. Ironically, Bloom's analyses seem scientific even as they lack empiricism. His attempt to reduce life to formulas is in direct contrast to Dedalus's attempt to unify life with poetic, sensual ties. The two opposites attract."
Comparative study of Stephen Dedalus from James Joyce's "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" to Felicitas Taylor from Mary Gordon's "The Company of Women".
Abstract Stephen Dedalus, the hero in "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce, is very similar to Felicitas Maria Taylor, the heroine in "The Company of Women" by Mary Gordon. The paper explores these novels which shows how the protagonists in both track their journey from adolescence into adulthood. This paper explores the characters of Stephen Dedalus and Felicitas Taylor in terms of how they cope with their teenage years and how their experiences and encounters influence how they turn out as adults.
From the Paper "Prior to undertaking an in-depth look into the nature of these two main characters of their respective books, it is important to provide a summary of the story each character is involved in and, thus, shaped by. "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" relates the adventures of Stephen Dedalus, growing up in Ireland towards the close of the 1800s. He eventually decides to throw off all his social, familial, and religious restrictions to live a life dedicated to writing (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/portraitartist/summary.html). Each chapter reflects the advancing, internal conflict Stephen experiences in maturing to adulthood (http://www.geocities.com/nickdanger74/joyce1.html)."
Abstract This paper discusses how the opening chapters of novels are always crucial components, not usually because they deal with major events, but because they introduce the elements that the remainder of the novel will build on and how James Joyce's "Ulysses" is no exception to this. It looks at how the first chapter introduces the major elements that the rest of the novel will build on by presenting material that raises questions and how these questions then become the driving force for the remainder of the novel, where the reader seeks answers to them. It analyzes how the major elements introduced in the first chapter are the characters of Buck Mulligan and Stephen Dedalus, the major problem of Stephen Dedalus, and the setting. It also shows how the first chapter establishes the style of the novel, which sets the tone for the remainder of the novel, and how it also contributes to establishing the themes of the novel. The most important style elements in the first chapter are language, imagery, and mood.
From the Paper "While no major events take place in the opening chapters, it remains an important one because it introduces the elements that will play out as the novel continues. In relation to the rest of the novel, the opening chapter raises a series of questions that the reader expects the remainder of the novel to build on. The full significance of many of these events are not apparent in the opening chapter, but they reveal their importance as the novel progresses. These elements introduced include the characters of Buck Mulligan and Stephen Dedalus, the major problem of Stephen Dedalus, and the setting. Each of these will now be considered in turn, both describing how they are presented in the opening chapter, and how this links to the remainder of the novel."
Abstract This essay depicts Joyce's rejection of religious dogmas in favor of self discovery. It provides much literal supporting evidence for its claim that the main character, Stephen Dedalus must lose his religious shackles in order to truly find himself as a person.
From the Paper "In his A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce continually and actively seeks to chronicle his protagonist's struggle to discover the truth of life, and his rebellion from politics and religion. It is his struggle to emancipate his mind from the ingrained religious ideals of Catholicism that stifles and frustrates Stephen Dedalus in his quest to "forge" in his soul his own ?uncreated conscience.? Joyce attempts to argue for the artist's quest for existential truth through many different literary devices; the most important of these being the limited omniscience of the narrator."
Abstract This paper examines the main character Stephen Dedalus, in James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", struggle with sin and society. The paper describes the main character's childhood and religious upbringing, and later his emergence into independent adulthood. The author writes that after a battle with sin followed by a religious rebirth that he can find a level of peace within himself.
From the Paper "Stephen Dedalus, in the book "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce is forced throughout his life to deal with the issue of sin. Early in his childhood he is taught the basics of right and wrong by his parents. This matter becomes complicated and fearsome under the influence of the Catholic Church, and Stephen, despite his desire to be pious, begins to question it."
Abstract This paper examines James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" as it attempts to answer the question of why the young Stephen Dedalus, the book's protagonist, abandons religion. It traces Stephen's development, which is influenced strongly by his notion of his own individuality and the tension between this individuality and the communal nature of Catholicism.
From the Paper "James Joyce's semi-autobiographical work, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", chronicles the religious, sexual, and ideological development of its troubled and sensitive protagonist, Stephen Dedalus. Stephen is presented as a very detached, brooding youth who is perpetually troubled by the need to understand the past and constantly worried about the future, while desperately clinging to the sensory experiences of his present. The story's climax, in fact, is reached when Stephen must make the ultimate decision about his future, deciding whether to devote his life to God or to himself. Through his refusal "to serve" God (as well as country, as we later discover), Stephen awakens his artistic conscience, discarding the security of well-formed and established ideologies to embrace the uncertainties of the world of experience and sin that will serve as the raw substance of his art. His refusal to enter the priesthood, to serve, is a reclamation of his independence and will, a decision colored by his awareness of his individuality. The decision is extremely difficult for Stephen, who must finally face what he's sensed throughout his life; that while individuality may be essential to the artist, it is also alienating."
Abstract This paper examines how James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is a modern novel that can be interpreted in any number of ways. It looks at how the story is centered on Stephen Dedalus's search for himself, in general, or specifically, how to become an artist by his own definition. It explores how the inward analysis that he wallows in does not imply self-consciousness, but rather the belief in the significance of living as an individual. It also discusses whether or not the protagonist is able to become an individual by embracing the "either/or" nature of himself and the world or if he must rebel against social rules.
From the Paper "In looking at the passage from chapter five, Henke would view Dedalus as once again fleeing from his own need for balance. It is significant that the woman in his example must die ? just as the need for others must die in order for him to feel autonomous. Henke sees this as depending on binary ("either, or") logic that presents one term over the other as more important. She provides examples such as "active/passive, masculine/feminine, father/mother, head/heart, son/daughter, intelligent/sensitive, brother/sister, form/matter, phallus/vagina, reason/emotion" (296) and argues that the feminine perspective has been lost in many writings."
A look at the importance of art in the literature of the modernist period, concentrating on Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse", D.H. Lawrence's "Women in Love" and James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."
Abstract This paper looks at the treatment of art in Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse", D.H. Lawrence's "Women in Love" and James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by examining the way in which Gudrun, Stephen Dedalus, Lily Briscoe and other characters in the novels view art. It discusses whether art is truly the central priority of the modernist era by looking at it as a means of making life eternal and explores how art is used to "capture the moment" forever and how this is one of the main themes of modernism.
From the Paper "What comes across most strongly in To the Lighthouse is its attempt at permanence, or the character's struggle for permanence. As Mrs. Ramsay watches the sea beat at the rocks, prompting her to think that "It was all ephemeral as a rainbow" (20) and her husband paces to and fro, musing on the nature of fame and immortality, and conceding in anguish that ?...the very stone one kicks with one's boot will outlast Shakespeare? (41), we think of Woolf herself. Was the author using this, her most autobiographical work, as an attempt to make life (which is transitory) eternal, or crystallised through art?"
Abstract This paper discusses the events that led to the spiritual evolution of Stephen Dedalus in James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". The paper examines the significant events that mark moments in Stephen's life when he realizes that life is complex and that following one's dreams is not always as easy as it seems. The paper describes how Stephen develops and matures throughout the novel, evolving from a young, quiet boy into the spiritually aware artist that we see at the end of the novel.
From the Paper "One early event in Stephen's life that leaves a significant impression of Stephen is the confrontation in the schoolyard. When his schoolmates ask him whether he kisses his mother at night or not, Stephen becomes aware of a difference between them. Tracey Schwarze, in her article, "Silencing Stephen: colonial pathologies in Victorian Dublin," states that "Stephen's need for an exalted place in the school yard hierarchy is a direct result of the oppression he experiences there" (Schwarze). Stephen struggles and feels "his whole body hot and confused" (Joyce 14) because he does now the answer to the question. Both replies to this question cause the other to laugh at Stephen. As a result, Stephen tries to figure out "what was the right answer."
Abstract The paper describes the main theme of the book, which is about a boy growing up in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century and his decision to dedicate his life to writing. The writer explains how the main character, Stephen Dedalus, is limited by his Irish Catholic upbringing and environment. The writer shows how, as Stephen grows, he begins to express his individuality. In conclusion, the writer states that in the end of the novel, Stephen's struggle for independent artistic identity remains unfulfilled and compares his expressive stance as one that has so deep an investment in the linguistic formulations of a Catholic confessional, so as to be indivisible from them.
From the Paper "Joyce's portrayal of Stephen Dedalus dramatizes for readers how the young artist's insufficiently sophisticated dependence on an inherited mode of subjectivity prevents his achieving precisely this kind of critical aesthetic consciousness. Only when the Irish writer's words exposed themselves as a nexus of cultural interplay would Ireland begin to emerge from its self-imposed cultural tutelage. By fashioning his text to reveal the irreducible complexity of Irish social and cultural life, Joyce interprets the fallacy that any singular discourse can wholly and completely embody Irish culture. The stylistic and narrative shifts that characterize A Portrait symbolizes to the novel's audience a fuller understanding of Ireland's uniqueness than had previously been attempted in Irish literature, and seek nothing less than a revolution of the national mind."
Abstract The paper contrasts different critics' approaches to analyzing the book and its protagonist. The paper works its way through Stephen's life, at each stage offering the opinions of contrasting critics and reviewers of the book, such as Walton A. Litz, John V. Kelleher and Robert Adams. The paper also analyzes the novel's structure, again comparing different critics' opinions, in this case Harry Levin's division of the book into three sections with William T. Noon's separation of the book into five parts, along the lines of Joyce's five chapters. Finally, the paper contrasts Joyce's style and structure with Stephen's aesthetic theory: Stephen's destiny seeks wholeness, his personality desires harmony, and Joyce strives for clarity. In conclusion, the writer speculates that if Thomas Aquinas was alive in 1914, he probably would have enjoyed meeting James Joyce.
From the Paper "Another turning point for Stephen's development occurs during his studying of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. Stephen reads the words that he has read many times, but this time he examines the words for their actual meaning (Zimbaro 31). When Stephen begins to evaluate words for their meaning, he opens up a whole new world of symbolism. The repeated use of words like "dark," "cold," "pale," and "strange" to describe Clongowes Wood College represents Stephen's true feelings. Stephen even recalls words from his past, like the childhood poem "O, the wild rose blossoms/ On the little green place" (Joyce 19), and brings them into his world of imagery: "Perhaps a wild rose might be like those colours and he remembered the song about the wild rose blossoms on the little green place. But you could not have a green rose. But perhaps somewhere in the world you could" (Joyce 24). Stephen's imagination allows him to deal with reality in a way that he can accept. Words and symbolism become the key to all of Stephen's experiences. For example, when Father Dolan hits Stephen with the pandybat, the words "hot," "burning," "stinging," "tingling," "crumpled," "flaming," "livid," "scalding," "maimed," "quivering," "fierce," and "maddening" all occur in less than half a page (Adams 235)."
This paper discusses the themes of history and identity in the quoted dialogue between the characters Mr. Deasy and Stephen Dedalus from James Joyce's "Ulysses".
Abstract This paper explains that the dialogue quoted in the paper from James Joyce's "Ulysses", between Mr. Deasy and Stephen Dedalus, illustrates the manner in which two distinct characters of the novel conceptualize the impact of history upon identity. The author points out that, as the dialogue of these two characters shifts between two extremes, Stephen serves to contrast the views personified in Deasy. The paper suggests that, whereas Deasy constructs an inaccurate world history infused with religious certainty upon which to construct his identity, Stephen discovers only abstractions, which fail to define him. The paper states that the reference to Parnell concludes Deasy's comments on the dangers of women, which projects this theme of the novel that is expressed in the central conflict of another character in the novel, Bloom.
From the Paper "Living without Deasy's reconstructed history, Stephen is unable to find any certainty by which to define himself. "[I]n this episode Stephen moves from a questioning of the veracity and solidity of world history to similar questions about his own personal history, oscillating between a realization that the past is real and inescapable ("And yet it was in some way") and a desire to escape the past his memory has fabled." Stephen's constant questioning of the nature of history sets him up in opposition to Deasy's convenient rationalizations, yet leaves him equally unable to actualize himself."
Abstract This paper explains that James Joyce's semi-autobiographical rendering of Joyce's fully autobiographical conception of himself "Stephen Hero" can be found in both "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and "Ulysses". The author relates that the hero of these tales, Stephen Dedalus, serves as the focal point of both novels and should be viewed as the abridged version of "Stephen Hero", an almost allegorical tale of an artist besieged by his surroundings. The paper points out that, at the heart of the idea that Stephen Dedalus can represent the universal modern man is Joyce's struggle with himself to convey his own life into words, concluding that the best possible representation of himself that can be conveyed is one in which he is a character lost in a world he cannot hope to understand.
From the Paper "Joyce uses the imagery with the fox again towards the end of Ulysses. A hallucination that brings his riddle back to the surface: "A stout fox drawn from a covert, brush pointed, having buried his grandmother, runs swift for the open, brighteyed, seeking badger earth, under the leaves." This is the physical and relatable explanation of the events that could have linearly led to the formulation of the riddle; however, it is presented in this reverse fashion. "The foxhunt represents the absolute disjoining of Stephen's two selves." The trouble is that Joyce, through the progression of Stephen from Portrait into, and eventually, out of Ulysses, has gradually brought about the loss of his hero's sovereignty."
