James Joyce's Alter Ego in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

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James Joyce's Alter Ego in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

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In James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen

Dedalus, a young man growing up, has many of the same traits of the

young James Joyce. For example, "On 1 September 1888, at the age of

'half-past-six', Joyce was taken by his parents to be enrolled in the

finest Catholic preparatory school in Ireland, Clongowes Wood College,

situated about twenty miles west of Dublin in the countryside near

Clane"(Anderson, James Joyce 15). This is the same school Stephen

Dedalus attends in the novel. This is one of the many ways James Joyce

uses this novel to portray his life. James Joyce's A Portrait of the

Artist as a Young Man can be read autobiographically.

According to David Daiches, James Joyce "...transmuted autobiography

into objective action..."(Daiches). James Joyce wrote an account of

his life and turned it into an interesting story, and also one of the

greatest books ever written. Joyce is letting the reader know all

about himself through this book. Harold Bloom notes " 'A Portrait of

the Artist as a Young Man,' of course, is autobiography…Joyce is

turning himself inside out, spilling forth all the jangled moods that

lie deep in artistic consciousness"(Bloom 38). Joyce brings himself

out in Stephen. Instead of letting the reader know all about himself

through an original autobiography, he simply lets Stephen be his alter

ego and tells his life through Stephen. He lets all his thoughts and

ideas go through Stephen.

It was a troubling time for Joyce when he first tried to write his

life story....

... middle of paper ...

..., one of the most drastic changes of Stephen's

life took place when he met a prostitute. This was the beginning of

the artist's emergence in the novel. Anderson writes about Joyce's

life saying "That spring, at the age of fourteen, walking home from

the theatre along the tree-lined path beside the Royal Canal, he met a

prostitute and began his adult sexual life" (Anderson, James Joyce

24).

There are many similarities in the lives of Stephen Dedalus and James

Joyce. These occurrences are related so closely that it proves Joyce

must have written this novel as an autobiography, and titled it A

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Perhaps this was his way of

showing his flaws and his heroic acts without bragging or being

embarrassed. His objective autobiography truly is one of the great

works in English literature.

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