James Joyce - 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' Rebellion and Release
James Joyce’s novel 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' is a 'bildungsroman', concerned with the development of its main character, Stephen Dedalus. By comparison with Joyce's earlier version, 'Stephen Hero', we see that he has cut out all extraneous material concerning other characters, and presented a close and detailed account of the development of Stephen's character from infancy to young manhood, the ground previously covered in 'Stephen Hero' being compressed into Chapter 5 of 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'. The most important aspects of Stephen's early development go on internally, and Joyce takes us right inside his mind so that we can see the intellectual and emotional development going on behind the surface. The first chapter portrays Stephen as an individual alienated from his social environment, and experiencing encounters with authorities which will reappear in various guises throughout the book. We see the beginnings of this process in the first page and a half, and the patterns of behaviour and relationships shown here are repeated throughout the chapter. The opening section is almost a microcosm of the chapter and perhaps of the whole novel. Stephen has an intuitive drive towards rebellion. As a young child he plans to marry a Protestant girl from his neighbourhood, and when his mother and Aunt Dante scold him for this he defiantly hides under the table. This instinctive drive stays with him throughout the book, until, in the fifth and final chapter, he presents his defiant attitude in mature intellectual terms with his definitive statement beginning 'I will not serve'. The opening paragraphs, written in child-like language to reproduce Stephen's experience at the time, represents one of Stephen's earliest memories. It is a memory of a story his father told him. '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' The story represents the image of life his father gives him: that Ireland, the church, and home are peaceful and plentiful like a cow. Father says the moocow 'met a nicens little boy', i.e. that Ireland and the church are favourably disposed towards Stephen, and this is what Stephen believes in at this stage. In contrast to the benevolent world-picture presented by his father, Stephen is subjected to threats, particularly from his Aunt, Dante, against which he has to adopt a defensive position. 'He hid under the table. His mother said
O Stephen will apologize
Dante said.
O if not the eagle will come and pull out his eyes.' Stephen's first conscious step towards rebellion is taken at school when he confronts rector Conmee to complain of his unjust punishment, an act which sets him apart from his fellow pupils. Here Stephen is portrayed as a martyr in the cause of justice. Chapter 1 ends with Stephen feeling he has triumphed in his cause of getting the school to admit to its injustice, but he has not really succeeded. All Conmee will admit to is that a mistake has been made, and when he suggests that it was largely Stephen's fault for not telling Dolan about the letter he wrote home to his parents, Stephen readily agrees. In this way Stephen has re-accepted the order and security of the church/school authority, which, at this stage in his development, he needs. Chapter 3 continues the theme of rebellion against authority, and as in Chapter 1, Stephen experiences a great deal of fear. The authority is God and the Church, and the fear is of Hell as punishment for sin. The overall pattern of chapter 1; detachment and questioning, followed by a gesture towards rebellion, followed by fear and acceptance of authority, is repeated. The chapter opens with Stephen undergoing experiences which the church identifies as deadly sins. Stephen is leading a double life, one as a young man visiting prostitutes, and one as a prefect in the ‘Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary’. He is detachedly exploring the dilemma he is in, unconsciously pushing himself towards a resolution of his conflicting needs. Intellectually he can challenge, the petty logic of the church. This does not constitute an attempt at rebellion, but rather an acceptance because he is arguing on the church’s own ground. But after the sermon on the horrors of Hell Stephen experiences unbearable terror. The only escape from the torments is an ‘apology’; confession and repentance. 'God had promised to forgive him if he was sorry. He was sorry . . . Sorry! Sorry! O sorry!' Hell in Chapter 3 is equivalent to the eagle in Chapter 1, and with these words Stephen is apologising, just as his mother and Dante said he would. He is not yet ready to risk eternal damnation for his acts of rebellion, as he is by the end of Chapter 5. While Stephen thinks his acceptance of the church will be permanent, his motivation is purely emotional, and his will power is not involved. His emotional state is transitory, and once his fear has subsided he will no longer need the church. Throughout the book each chapter ends with Stephen feeling himself to be on the threshold of a 'new dawn', and that the next chapter begins with a demonstration that the 'new dawn' was largely self-delusion. We see Stephen stumbling through his childhood by a series of painfully misjudged but unavoidable steps. At the end he may not achieve full maturity, but he does achieve a degree of freedom from what he sees as the 'nets' cast by society and its authorities. '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 flight by those nets.' At the end of Chapter 4, at what is really the climax of the novel, Stephen has a vision of becoming an artist. Joyce presents this vision in a way which clearly associates it with the Icarus myth, and which shows Stephen’s ideas to have the usual mixture of insight and misconception. His ideal vision is associated with calm, beautiful images of water. His real life of home and Dublin is associated with dirty stagnant water. His feeling of disgust for Dublin is made apparent in many other ways, for example the deformed characters, static clocks, and the pathway of rubbish, with the result that he eventually calls Ireland ‘the old sow that eats her farrow.’ In Chapter 5 we get a picture of the kind of person Stephen has become by following him through a series of dialogues with his college friends. These friends are not filled out as characters in themselves but serve as a means of drawing out Stephen's ideas and challenging them for the benefit of the reader. In the last of Stephen's dialogues Stephen makes clear his hopes, doubts and ambitions. Here we have the clearest and most mature statement from Stephen in the whole novel. '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 for 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.' He chooses silence, exile, and cunning, to counteract language, nationality, and religion. He has to exile himself from Ireland not only to avoid the 'nets', but also because of the Irish people's hostility towards their artists. No matter how much we might criticise Stephen for his priggishness, immaturity or coldness, we must admire his unyielding independence of spirit as he has the last, unanswerable word: 'And I am not afraid to make a mistake, even a great mistake, a lifelong mistake, and perhaps as long as eternity too.' Here, by his inclusion of 'eternity' we see that, although he claims that he no longer believes, he does not firmly disbelieve. It seems the shadow of the eagle will haunt him forever. Read the full version of this essay at: http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/james-joyce.html Ian Mackean runs the sites http://www.literature-study-online.com, which features a substantial collection of Resources and Essays, (and where his site on Short Story Writing can also be found,) and http://www.Booksmadeintomovies.com. He is the editor of The Essentials of Literature in English post-1914, ISBN 0340882689, which was published by Hodder Arnold in 2005. When not writing about literature or short story writing he is a keen amateur photographer, and has made a site of his photography at http://www.photo-zen.com |
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