James Joyce :: essays papers

James Joyce In the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce creates a deeply personal and emotional portrait to every man. Joyces main character, Stephen Dedalus, encounters universal feelings of detachment, guilt, and awakening. Rather than stepping back and remembering the characteristics of infancy and childhood from and adult perspective, Joyce uses the speech the infant was enveloped in. Joyce also uses baby Stephens viewpoint to reproduce features of infancy. In Joyces prototypal chapter, crucial characteristics of Stephens individuality are established. Stephens first memory as a child begins with storytelling. Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming discomfit along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named tuckoo (Portrait, 7). From the start, Stephens lines are riddled with poetic sound and rhythm. Joyce demonstrates Stephens control over words with the babys first stream of consciousness. As Stephens thoughts continue, Joyce inflects the babys relationship to each of his parents through imagery. His get looked at him through a glass. His start out had a hairy face (Portrait, 7). The glass that the father uses to look at baby Stephen is the very glass that keeps the father and son separate throughout the novel. Although the glass should aid Mr. Dedalus to see Stephen more clearly, closer up, the glass limits the fathers mind and perceptions. As Stephen grows older, the two literally view each other through the beer glass raised above Mr. Dedaluss chin. Similarly, his fathers hairy face visibly separates the two. Mr. Dedalus exemplifies the standard man, one(a) who loves sports, drink and women. Stephens enjoyment of words and wish of facial hair help him later understand how foreign and different he is from his father. Despite the lack of affection between Stephen and his father, Stephen shares a fondness for his mother. His mother had a nicer sm ell than his father. She played on the pianohe danced (Portrait, 7). When Stephen wet the bed she even piece on the oil-sheet. That had a queer smell (Portrait, 7). Because of the affinity Stephen developed for his mother as an infant, the queer smell of urine brings Stephen comfort. This comforting, childhood association is attributed to the Freudian possibleness developed prior to the novel.