A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(James Joyce)

Art

True to the title of the novel, art is a principal driving force behind Stephen’s character. As he grows up, he realizes he is different from everyone else, and that the pursuit of beauty is his calling. This pursuit turns into art when he goes to University. Stephen’s view of art is heavily influenced by the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. He believes that art is the intangible nature of the soul made tangible, and shared with others. Something only becomes true art when it has been transferred into the minds of the audience, and the artist is merely the tool for that to happen.

Beauty

Even as a child, Stephen was drawn to beauty in all forms. After attempting to live a life devoid of beauty as a priest, he realizes that it is a part of his nature and that he can’t be separated from it. After he turns down the opportunity join the brotherhood, Stephen has an epiphany when he sees a beautiful, bird-like girl standing in the sea. Her beauty affects his soul, and her image is burned into his mind forever. At that instant, he realizes that he must live his life in pursuit of beauty.

Freedom

Much of Stephen’s struggles focus on freeing himself from his society, his religion, his family, and even his nationality. During his childhood days, the struggle between freedom and bondage is etched into Stephen’s mind as he picks up on Ireland’s struggle to free itself from Great Britain. These same sorts of struggles follow Stephen as he grows up, and when he gets to University he is mocked for not siding with the nationalists. He doesn’t side with them because he is focused on finding his own freedom and forging his own path.

Religion

Growing up in a highly religious household, Stephen is indoctrinated into Catholicism from a young age. Even when he gets older and frees himself from the confines of the religion, he still holds his taught prejudice against Protestants. Stephen’s relationship with Catholicism is emotional and tumultuous. After he hits puberty, he attempts to control his sexual urges by throwing himself into religious discipline. He wracks himself with guilt over his “sinful” thoughts and feelings and becomes addicted to confessionals. After he breaks free of Catholicism, he attempts to go as far away from it as possible, entering instead the realm of the intellectual.

Loss of Innocence

At its core, Portrait of the Artist is a story about growing up and becoming self-aware. Over the course of the novel, Stephen goes from an innocent toddler to a fully-fledged intellectual, with a solid philosophy and knowledge of what he wants out of life. At first, it is hard for Stephen to come to grips with the fact that his childhood innocence is gone, and he often makes references to the innocence and guile of others, especially younger women. When he decides to become an intellectual, however, he consciously abandons his childhood and his innocence.

The Nature of Sin

When Stephen hits puberty, he begins feeling extremely guilty about sins he commits, sins he can’t control. He starts thinking of his body as a constant temptation, and even attempts to numb himself to all sensation to prevent sinning. He spends a lot of time wondering about the nature of specific sins, or whether or not something counts as a sin. Catholicism doesn’t provide him with all the answers, and so he must decipher the actions of others for himself. During his paranoid phase, he is worried that he is constantly sinning and that even going to confessional all the time doesn’t purify his soul.

Politics

Stephen as a young boy is curious about politics. He feels inadequate when he realizes he doesn’t have enough knowledge to follow the conversations of the adults around him. He eagerly tries to make sense of the political conversation, which climaxes at the Christmas dinner scene. Stephen does not have any dialogue, but the adults spend the entire chapter yelling at each other. He doesn’t understand why everyone is so angry. By the time he goes to University, he is knowledgeable enough about the world to participate in political conversation of his own.

Being Different

When Stephen first goes to school, he feels alienated from the other boys his age. He admires the boys that are strong and fast, and that can joke around with each other. By comparison, he feels small and weak. The summer before he attends Belvedere, he openly acknowledges to himself that he doesn’t think the same way that other children his age do. The sound of children playing annoys him and he is moody and sensitive. Because he views the world in such a totally different way from others, he doesn’t develop close friends until he goes to University, where he can engage in intellectual conversation with others who can follow him.

Words and Accents

As a budding poet, the nature and meaning of words and speech fascinates Stephen. Words trigger in his mind extremely vivid images, fantasies, and even sensations. Thinking of one word often leads to another, and he becomes distracted by engaging words people say. Sometimes it is his way of coping with the boredom around him. As he gets older, he begins noticing speech patterns and lyricism. He notices the accents of almost everyone he meets at University, from the genteel to the simple. He even openly berates himself by judging others based solely on the way they talk.

Sensory Images

Before Stephen has an outlet for all his “artistic energy”, the only way he can cope is by sensing the world around him. He is obsessed with the way things sound, feel, smell, and look. During the childhood portion of the novel, the descriptions in Stephen’s stream of consciousness often take up entire pages. When he tries to cut off his pursuit of beauty, he attempts to cut off his senses as a way of keeping him away from that world. He numbs his sense of smell, sits uncomfortably in chairs, and won’t even sit by the fire when it’s cold. This isn’t something he can keep up for good, and soon realizes that he is going to fall. Often, certain smells or sounds bring Stephen back to reality or send him into his own mind.