An Analysis of "A Portrait of the Artist as a young man" by James Joyce
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while writing Ulysses. It was also here that he got acquainted with the English feminist and publisher Harriet Shaw Weaver, who would become Joyces patron, providing him thousands of pounds over the next 25 years and relieving him of the burden of teaching in order to focus on his writing. In Zurich he published A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man.during the war was a home for exiles and artists from the whole Europe, and its bohemian, multilingual atmosphere suited him. Nevertheless, after four years he became restless, and after the war he returned to Trieste. His relations with his brother became more strained than ever. Joyce headed to Paris in 1920 at an invitation from Ezra Pound, supposedly for a week, but he ended up living there for the next twenty years. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joyce )set himself in Paris. A further grant from Miss Shaw Weaver meant he could devote himself full-time to writing again. During that time, Joyces eyes began to give him more and more problems. He was treated by Dr. Louis Borsch in Paris, receiving nine surgeries from him until Borschs death in 1929. Throughout the 1930s he frequently traveled to Switzerland for eye surgeries and treatments for Lucia, who suffered from schizophrenia. Lucia was analyzed by Carl Jung at the time, who after reading Ulysses, concluded that her father had schizophrenia too. Jung said she and her father were two people sinking in a river, except that he was diving and she was falling.Paris, Maria and Eugene Jolas nursed Joyce during his long years of writing. He returned to Zurich in late 1940, fleeing the Nazi occupation of France.11 January 1941, he underwent surgery for a perforated ulcer. While at first improved, he had a relapse the following day, and despite several transfusions, fell into a coma. He awoke at 2 a.m. on 13 January 1941, and asked for a nurse to call his wife and son before losing consciousness again. They were still on their way when he died 15 minutes later. He is buried in the Fluntern Cemetery within earshot of the lions in the Zurich Zoo.Irish government subsequently declined Noras offer to permit the repatriation of Joyces remains. Nora, whom Joyce had finally married in London in 1931, survived him by 10 years. She is buried now by his side, as is their son George.
Joyce as a Novelist
most widespread books by James Joyce are Dubliners, Ulysses and The portrait of an Artist as a Young man.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a nearly complete rewrite of the abandoned novel Stephen Hero. Joyce attempted to burn the original manuscript in a fit of rage during an argument with Nora, though to his subsequent relief it was rescued by his sister. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joyce )
"Ulysses" and Joyces last novel, "Finnegans Wake" for a long time moved "The portrait of the Artist as a Young man" aside, becoming the main theme of researchers.should not, however, think that "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man" was not an event in literature. Ezra Pound, Virginia Woolf and H. G. Wells agreed that this is a work of genius, and said that it isnt less flattering than "Ulysses."
The first friendly critics, which appeared immediately after the publication of "Portrait…" received a deserved sequel only in the postwar period, when the interest in the product revived. It was the time when critics began to attempt a thorough analysis of this deserved work. Simplicity of language and expressive means of traditional forms didnt allow to appreciate this work: the fullness and richness of its colors, advances in techniques of narration, mythological elements, changes in the structure of the autobiographical novel and the novel of education.
In a letter to the editor Joyce wrote: "I am deeply convinced that you will hold the development of civilization in Ireland, if you hinder ensuring of the Irish people to look at themselves in my well-polished mirror ". The writer follows formulated plan of his book: "My intention was to write a chapter of the spiritual history of the country, and I chose Dublin as a scene for this chapter because the city seems to me the center of paralysis. I tried to produce its life on the court of impartial reader in four aspects: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and public life. The stories are shown exactly in this order. I wrote this book in the most part in the style of extremely unvarnished, in the belief that only a very confident and daring artist can afford to change his narration (what is more to distort ) what he saw and heard. "Joyce describes the lonely and miserable existence of people who are dragged into a quagmire of general platitude and vanity. (www.dissercat.com/content/)used method of the stream of consciousness. The term reflected a common view of reality: anything and everything had to be new: new people, new women and new spirit. "The people, who lived in a transient period, had a feeling that they are indeed entering a new era where there will be a different morality, different philosophy and different religion." Active rejection of the outside world and find ways of escaping from reality, especially the laws of modern life cause a desire to penetrate into the inner world. Full concentration on the inner life of the hero leads to the creation of the method of "stream of consciousness" the only correct way to understand and capture the personality. This method made it possible penetrate deeply into the soul of man, carefully analyze and reveal the different shades of thoughts and feelings. Stream of consciousness - came to the literature in XX century. The term "stream of consciousness" belongs to the American idealist philosopher William James: Consciousness is a stream, river, where thoughts, feelings, memories, flash associations constantly interrupting each other, and bizarrely, "illogical" are intertwined. Stream of consciousness creates the impression that the reader "eavesdrops" his experience in the minds of the characters. Ortega y Gasset said: "The best way to overcome the realism, to bring it to an extreme example, take a magnifying glass and examine it through life with a microscope, as Joyce did." James Joyce is one of the keys and most ambitious figures in the literary process of the XX century drew in his works a new picture of the relationships between man and the world. (www.dissercat.com/content )
The formation of Stephen
. Kenner and R. Reef are among the first who considered that "The Portrait" isnt a ground for "Ulysses," but offers a key to understand the rest of the works of Joyce.
We should pay attention on the fact that for each period of Stephens life Joyce uses different styles of writing. At the same time, different parts of the book flow into another smoothly, without abrupt transitions. This gives the illusion of a natural process of growing up, which is always invisible until the moment of dramatic changes. (www.gumer.info/bogoslov_Buks)"space of his home becomes a guideline, a harmonious space that initially enters the world of the boy, existing as an indivisible unity of the positive. The transference of space from positive to negative occurs when the hero in the out-of-home area, where there are no positive characteristics, inherent in his home. When comparing home and college there is always a positive correlation with home, but college takes the features of hostile space. At the end of the novel identity of these spaces can be expressed in combining these associations. Thus, negative space, was completely absent at the beginning of the novel. But the world around him caused complete rejection. Stephen Dedalus believes, deliberately breaking all the threads that connect it with these spaces, it could create "a new soaring impalpable immortal" consciousness of its people. He, like the author wonders about the existence of God. Not seeing the presence of God in his created world, Stephen comes to the inner conviction that the heavens are empty, and that perfection must be sought only in him.
In a letter to his friend Joyce wrote: "Ten years of my life I spent in correspondence and litigation of my book "Dubliners" which was rejected it in 40 publishing houses, once was burned. My expenses for postage, travel and honoraria to lawyers have exceeded the amount of 3000 franks, besides I had corresponded with 7 lawyers and 3 communities, 40 publishers and many writers. My novel "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man" was rejected by every London publishment, whom I offered it, rejected with insulting comments".
Parallels between J. Joyce and Stephen
hero of the novel, a young Irish artist, has quite unusual for the Irish name - Stephen Dedalus. The name is a reference to the ancient Greek myth of Dedalus, from early childhood to late adolescence, showing the reader the process of establishing his religious and philosophical views in details. The author discusses many of the morals of contemporary Ireland, fully disclosing to the reader images of this country and its people. If we take into account the fact that the prototype of the hero himself is Joyce, and the novel has many autobiographical moments, it turns out that the book allows the reader trace simultaneously the development of personality of the creator and the story of the writer.
In addition, the name of the hero - Stephen - carries additional connotations: it resembles the Christian protomartyr Stephan and, accordingly, shows that the destiny of the artist is to be misunderstood and persecuted. It is also an indication of the crown of glory