A Portrait Of The Artist As a Young Man Analysis

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James Joyce’s Development of a Young Artist As an account of the formative years of ambitious author Stephen Dedalus, James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man suggests by the title that the focus covers events in Stephen’s life relevant to his development as an artist. On a moral spectrum, Stephen’s development ranges from devout Catholicism to the depths of sin, and as the driving forces behind this moral ambiguity shift him between the two; Stephen eventually puts himself in the center of the spectrum, independent of both. Joyce’s meaning in the artistic development process of self-definition and epiphany is a culmination of the sexual, religious and mythological inspiration that becomes Stephen’s art as he derives knowledge and experience from these driving forces. The influence of women and sexual emotions drives Stephen to develop artistically to use women and sexuality as inspiration. One of the most prominent examples of the ability women have to influence Stephen’s art is found in chapter 2. While on a tram home, Stephen finds a girl attractive, and his sexual drive transforms Stephen into a romantic. “-She too wants me to catch hold of her, he thought. That’s why she came with me to the tram. I could easily catch hold of her when she comes up to my step: nobody is looking. I could hold her and kiss her” (70). Stephen is frustrated as he is unable find the audacity to do as he fanaticizes; instead this girl’s physical beauty and Stephen’s imagined romance inspire him to write a poem about his imagined romance. Usually quiet, timid, and lacking confidence, Stephen “by dint of brooding on the incident, he thought himself into confidence” (70). As this incident suggests, Stephen must be influenced by a real event, but more so influenced by his feelings and fantasies. These feelings and fantasies give Stephen the inspiration to create art, and in

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