Analysis Of A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

RESEARCH PAPER ON “A POTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN”

Over period of last hundred years, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man has attracted a multiplicity of interpretations. At times, critics have tended to focus primarily on the stylistic distinctions of this novel over the richness of plot and thematic significances. Harry Leviniiisees ‘A Portrait’ in the tradition of Kiinstlerroman. Others have attempted to find a close relationship between this novel and Joyce’s attempts to justify his own past. Reflecting this view, Richard Elmann writes, “To write A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Joyce plunged back into his own past, mainly to justify, but also to expose it”. IV Partially amplifying similar view, J.I.M Stewart sees ‘A

Departing from such critical perspectives, the following analysis of the novel in reference hopes to establish that the central theme of ‘A Portrait’ is the development and unfolding (assertion) of the identity of Stephen Dedalus, its central protagonist. Further, we hope to establish this affirmation is not super-imposed by the novelist, rather it is achieved through the experiential technique of narration; not by intellectual analysis alone, but through an active and spontaneous engagements with various aspects of life which enable Stephen to make his final choice. The title of the novel under analysis plays an important part in foregrounding this central theme of the development of Stephen’s identity, the key words being ‘young man’ and ‘artist’. Elmann rightly observes that it is not clear whether the title refers to the growth of ‘an artist’ or in general of a particular ‘artist’. But the story that unfolds makes it clear that the novel is the ‘portrait’ of a particular artist, James Joyce the various stages of this growth being problemmatized through the experiences of Stephen Dedalus. This peculiar name of the protagonist, Dedalusvi further re-enforces the theme of identity of the artist ,but also reminds us of Stephen, the first Christian martyr who was stoned to