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Critical essay potrait of an artist as a young man
Critical essay potrait of an artist as a young man
Critical essay potrait of an artist as a young man
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James Joyce (1882-1941) is considered the prominent literary craftsman of our time. It is undeniable that James Joyce becomes pre-eminent during the Irish Revival. He has earned a distinctive place and receives the attention of readers. His works have been an endless source of material. Joyce’s main characteristic feature in his writing is the mixture of mythology and places in Ireland. Ireland was his starting and end point in his writings. In the late nineteenth and early 20th century, Ireland experienced a strong demand for restoration and consolidation of its own political and cultural identity. James Joyce tried to fulfill the Irish need for identity. He made an endeavor to provide self-awareness to his people through his works so he blended mythology and realism. He published three important pieces of literature: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegans Wake (1939). It is through …show more content…
His mythological character interweaves classical myths and modern stories. Stephen Dedalus, a significant character in Ulysses and the protagonist in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, are the embodiment of Joyce’s mythological passions. He deliberately chooses this name to link the hero with the most known and captivating mythical Greek hero Daedalus, an architect, a great innovator and an artisan. According to the myth, King Minos requests Daedalus to build a labyrinth on Crete to imprison his enemies and they would be killed by the notorious Minotaur, a half-bull and half-man monster. But King Minos confined Daedalus and his son Icarus, high in a tower in the labyrinth. Daedalus being a creative innovator fashioned wings of wax and feathers to escape from the labyrinth. In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus act as a structuring element whereas Stephen’s aspiration for flight and freedom, his name and his artistic soul all are appropriate to this
Campbell, Joseph. Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.
Few people, if any, in the twentieth century have inspired as much careful study and criticism as James Joyce. His work represents a great labyrinth which many have entered but none have returned from the same. Joyce himself is a paradoxical figure, ever the artist, ever the commoner. He has been called the greatest creative genius of our century and, by some, the smartest person in all of history. His most famous novel, Ulysses, is considered by many to be the greatest novel ever written. Beyond all of these superlatives lies a perfect case study in the creative mind and process.
James Joyce wrote the book Dubliners; Joyce expresses many different types of emotions throughout the book. The emotions portray individuals in society, and light and dark. The emotions of individuals are examined throughout the stories by other members in society. The stories that express the ideas are: “The Encounter,” “Eveline”, and “The Dead.” The symbolism of individuals in society expresses many different situations that are happening in the characters lives. The symbolism of light goes along with the idea of feeling happy and enjoying life. The theme of dark shows the individuals fighting, and having a negative outlook on life.
Fairhall, James. James Joyce and the Question of History. Cambridge University Press. New York, New York: 1993.
In Joyce’s stories “Eveline”, “Counterparts” and the “Dead”, the theme of escape and responsibility is represented by the characters desire to flee their lives. These stories symbolize Joyce’s interpretation of life in Ireland. With careful analysis it can be inferred that the miserable situations portrayed in these stories can be directly tied into how readers may view life in Ireland. Like the characters in Dubliners people desired a better life for themselves in and out of Ireland. The themes common to these stories show an appreciation to opportunity and success in the world. The themes of escape and responsibility present in a readers mind a looking glass for viewing life and society.
In Dubliners, James Joyce tells short stories of individuals struggling with life, in the city of Dublin. “It is a long road that has no turning” (Irish Proverb). Many individuals fight the battle and continue on the road. However, some give up and get left behind. Those who continue to fight the battle, often deal with constant struggle and suffering. A reoccurring theme, in which Joyce places strong emphasis on, is the constant struggle of fulfilling responsibilities. These responsibilities include; work, family and social expectations. Joyce writes about these themes because characters often feel trapped and yearn to escape from these responsibilities. In “The Little Cloud”, “Counterparts”, and “The Dead” characters are often trapped in unhappy living situations, often leading to a desire of escape from reality and daily responsibilities.
What affected James Joyces’ writing most were the events going around him in Europe during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. However, his own experiences had an impact in his style and writing material. Joyce was born in 1882 in Dublin Ireland and lived through reformations, wars, and trails until he died in Zürich in 1941. He was a man much in to politics and was much interested how a country was being led. In the year 1914, James wrote 15 short stories known as Dubliners, which also includes the short story “Araby” (Thomas). “Araby” is a short story in which he writes describing a young lad’s curiosity and naïve experience with love and in which he describes his personal life as a boy . Ireland was not always free and independent as it is now. England had control of Ireland since it took control in 1798 (Allison). This had a big effect in the life of James for all his childhood their country was under the control of a foreign hand. When Joyce first published his short stories, there were uprisings in the countries around since that same year, World War 1 started. Because of the turmoil in the countries about, Joyce had fit these events in with his pieces of fiction.
The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is widely recognized by New Critics as one of the greatest novels of its age for its aesthetic artistry. In the Portrait, a powerful autobiographical novel of bildungsroman, commonly known as a coming-of-age story, that follows the life of Irish protagonist Stephen Dedalus, Joyce portraits his momentous transition to adulthood as a passage of psychological struggle towards his ultimate philosophical awakening and his spiritual rebirth as an artist. Most visibly in Chapter Four of the novel, Stephen Dedalus, after the denial of his own priesthood, goes on to seek his artistic personality through his secluded journey amongst a myriad of natural elements. Dramatizing the Stephen’s progression towards his artistic revelation, Joyce deployed numerous image patterns that together insinuate the spiritual transformation of Stephen Dedalus into an “impalpable imperishable being” out of the earthly body of which he is composed of (Joyce 108). Specifically, Stephen’s intellectual transfiguration is largely connected with the symbolic connotations of the clouds depicted throughout his journey, which alludes to his transcending soul, wafting across the celestial heaven yet hovering intimately close to the earth that he belongs.
Joyce, James, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The Viking Press: New York, 1916.
Joyce, James. Dubliners. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The Portable James Joyce. Harry Levin, ed. Penguin. 1976, New York. Ulysses. Vintage, New York. 1961.
James Joyce began his writing career in 1914 with a series of realistic stories published in a collection called The Dubliners. These short literary pieces are a glimpse into the ‘paralysis’ that those who lived in the turn of the century Ireland and its capital experienced at various points in life (Greenblatt, 2277). Two of the selections, “Araby” and “The Dead” are examples of Joyce’s ability to tell a story with precise details while remaining a detached third person narrator. “Araby” is centered on the main character experiencing an epiphany while “The Dead” is Joyce’s experiment with trying to remain objective. One might assume Joyce had trouble with objectivity when it concerned the setting of Ireland because Dublin would prove to be his only topic. According the editors of the Norton Anthology of Literature, “No writer has ever been more soaked in Dublin, its atmosphere, its history, its topography. He devised ways of expanding his account of the Irish capital, however, so that they became microcosms of human history, geography, and experience.” (Greenblatt, 2277) In both “Araby” and “The Dead” the climax reveals an epiphany of sorts that the main characters experience and each realize his actual position in life and its ultimate permanency.
Peake, C.H. James Joyce: The Citizen and The Artist. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1977. 56-109.
The most obvious aspect of these opposing ideals is in Stephen Dedalus's name. His first name, rooted in religion, is that of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. His last name comes from the pagan and Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus. The myth of Daedalus centres on the theme of freedom, which coincides with Stephen's journey of self-discovery. However, is he Daedalus, the great architect and inventor, or is he Daedalus's prideful and rebellious son Icarus? Certainly, Stephen embodies aspects of both mythological figures. He is both the intellectual Daedalus, and the rebel Icarus. From the very beginning, the two names are separate from one another. Stephen's parents call him Stephen - "Goodbye, Stephen, goodbye!" (5). This is ironic as sending Stephen to the convent exposes him further to the hypocrisy that he will see in the priests at the convent and in Catholicism as a whole. Thus, they are saying goodbye to "Stephen", the name rooted in religious tradition as he will become "Dedalus", the man who seeks his own freedom. On the other hand, Stephen's classmates call him "Dedalus". Stephen is not one of "them". Stephen is set aside as intellectual and moral - "Dedalus is a model youth. He doesn't smoke and he doesn't go to bazaars and he doesn't flirt and he doesn't damn anything or damn all (71)." Indeed, "Dedalus" is not one of the hypocrites. He is labelled as a "heretic" as he refuses to conform to ideals which are not his own (76). At first, he merely defends poets (i.e. Byron), but soon he is defending his entire way of life and his views thereof. "Dedalus" is the individual.
In Ovid’s “The Story of Daedalus and Icarus”, Ovid uses characterization to make the characters realistic and vivid and to reveal plot through the characters’ actions, thoughts, speech and physical appearance. Without the characterization of Daedalus and Icarus, understanding “The Story of Daedalus and Icarus” completely is not possible. Ovid hides important pieces of the plot in the text, and wants the readers to reveal the true meaning of the story by looking into the characteristics of the main characters, Daedalus and Icarus. With the view of their wants and responsibilities, the story becomes clear to the reader and the purpose of this story in a poem is revealed.
Stephen's Journey to Maturation in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce