Stephen in A Portrait of the Artist by James Joyce Essay -- James Joyc

Stephen in A Portrait of the Artist by James JoyceStephen Dedalus, the main section in most of James Joyces writings, is said to be a reflection of Joyce himself. In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the reader follows Stephen as he develops from a young child into a young artist, overcoming many conflicts both internally and externally, and narrowly escaping a life long fealty to the clergy. Through Joyces drug abuse of free indirect style, all of Stephens speech, actions, and thoughts are filtered through the narrator of the story. However, since Joyce so strongly identifies with Stephen, his characters style and personality greatly influence the narrator. This use of free indirect style and stylistic contagion makes Joyces use of descriptive language one of his most valuable tools in accurately depicting Stephen Dedaluss development ideals of feminine beauty.As a very young child Stephen is taught to idealize the Virgin Mary for her purity and holiness. She is des cribed to Stephen as a tower of os and a House of Gold (p.35). Stephen takes this literally and becomes confused as to how these beautiful elements of ivory and gold could make up a human being. This confusion is big in that it shows Stephens inability to grasp abstraction. He is a young child who does not nevertheless understand how someone earth-closet say one social function and mean something else. This also explains his trouble in the future with solving the riddles and puzzles presented to him by his classmates at Clongowes. Stephen is very thoughtful and observant and looks for his own way to explain or rationalize the things that he does not understand. In this manner he domiciliate find those traits that he associates with the Blessed Mary in his pro... ...human desires and realizes how beautiful love, passion, and devotion can be from an artists perspective. Stephan Dedaluss transformation into a priest of the arts is parallel to the early life of James Joyce . Both struggle to deal with the conflicts of childhood and adolescence to find a balance in which they can happily live. Since A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is written in third person, yet employs the characteristics of the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, the use of descriptive language is essential to the readers understanding of the novel as a whole. James Joyce excellently uses his talent to successfully communicate Stephens feelings so that we, the reader, can understand the development of his attitudes and ideals about feminine beauty.Works CitedJoyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York Penguin Group,1977.