The motif in the portrait is about a man, the main character called Stephen Dedaus whose life unfolds as a young obedient boy living with his parents in a Christian setting to an independent man who learns what he wants in life and goes ahead to follow his dream as a man. Leaving behind his parents and the expectations of his community towards, him he flees to Dublin. The portrait of an artist is brought out by Stephens’s character in following his dream of being an artist and the portrait as a man is explained throughout his life as he meets the women he loves and some he has escapades with.
Stephen Dedalus is the central character in the portrait of an artist as a young man as explained by James Joyce .Raised in Ireland in a strictly Irish catholic family he is taught catholic ways by the governess Dante. We are introduced to a number of ladies in Stephens’s life from the time he lives with the family in Ireland to the time he flees to another land to pursue his life as a writer. The motif of woman is seen to be the dominant theme in the play as we get to see how the women in his life have an impact on his final flight.
First we are introduced to Stephens’s mother who taught him his Catholic ways as a young kid and wanted him to be a priest. She believed that Stephens’s happiness could only be found in church. Stephen followed his parent’s words as law until he grows to adulthood and questions the concepts that define him. The desire inside him overpowers her Mothers wish for him and he decides not to be a priest but a writer. Although this breaks his mother’s heart, he moves on to another life to pursue his dreams. This is relative to James Joyce real life when he flee his home due to the customs that bound him there only to come back a year later after the death of his mother
After their withdrawal from Clongowes to Dublin, Stephen meets a new lady in his life that as we see is the object of admiration in his life. Ellen Mere inspires Stephen to accept the beauty he sees in the world and he vows to marry her despite Ellen being a protestant. This would however result into amoral punishment to the stern and Catholic members of his family; he therefore retrieves to his loneliness. His father moves him to a private Jesuits school where he becomes a success in essay writing and leadership.
His sexual urges increases and one night in a brothel he goes with a prostitute. The habit becomes more often .He questions his spiritual purity although he is not willing to let go off the sinful life. He repents one point in his life, after a sermon and his influence of the Virgin Mary in church but becomes tired of the Christian doctrines he follows. He feels trapped in a cage in which he earnestly wants to free himself .The prostitutes in his life represent his portrait as a young man.
One day as he is resting on the beach, he sees a beautiful lady and is overcome by the magnificence of the beauty. He is no longer afraid to appreciate the aesthetic nature of the world and he decides to commit his life to expressing the beauty through art. Ireland had always been like a cage to Stephen so he contemplates on travelling abroad away from his cultures to pursue his art. Stephen takes to do more writings to help ease his integrity and conscience. Writing replaced confession as acknowledgement for his sin. Rather than seeking ladies for physical satisfaction, he also pleased himself to observe, watch and write more about them. .
Stephen flees to another land to continue his writing away from Ireland where he is contented by the freedom he gets .The doctrines and all the Christian practices he has had to follow is dropped and his hope of being a priest redefined.
Work Cited
Project Gutenberg's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce.
Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4217/4217-h/4217-h.htm
