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In his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Joyce uses
water-sea-liquid imagery to show that a person who desires to become an
artist must first achieve a complete understanding of himself and
personal circumstances before he can reject old conventions of thought
and custom and finally realize a unique perception of the world.
In the first part of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce
portrays the young Stephen Dedalus as an insecure and confused young
man. Throughout his early adolescence Stephen suffers through many
identity crises. For a time he was a whoremonger, later he wanted to
become a priest, finally he thought about becoming a teacher. All the
while he seemed to be in a stagnant cycle of routine, indeed his life
seemed to have "a smell of stale water"(ch.1) because it was going
nowhere in poverty stricken Dublin. The stale water represented
Stephen’s static self image. He was perpetually confused and never
really knew what direction he wanted to go in life, hence, for a time
he went nowhere. As the first part of the story continued and Stephen
dabbled in one thing or another, but continued to have trouble figuring
out his own goals for life. He experimented a lot, but all of his
searching lacked depth, instead it was as if he was a submarine
"bobbing on the surface of the water"(ch.2) unable to commit to any
real meaningful voyage into the sea; or in Stephen’s case, to look
inward and realize his true purpose in life. Bobbing on top of the
surface indicates that instead of diving and exploring, Stephen instead
drifts aimlessly and without purpose. As the first part of the story
winds down, Stephen begins to feel uneasy and apprehensive about his
current situation. Here, Stephen begins to cultivate an understanding
of himself and what he wants to accomplish in life; like a rising tide
in which "the water rises inch by inch"(ch.3) Stephen’s self-awareness
was growing and he came to the threshold of comprehending what he had
to do in the second part of the story. The rising water correlates to
Stephen’s rising confidence and ability to form a positive self-image.
As the second part of the story commences, Joyce uses Dublin and a
perceived common Irish culture to show that Stephen must escape old
cultural idioms of thought and custom in order to form a novel
cognition of the world in which he lives. The Ireland Stephen tries to
escape from imposes many intellectual and behavioral expectations upon
Stephen, who feels smothered in the intellectually stultifying
environment. Stephen feels that many of his peers are no more than
"jelly like masses of liquid" (ch.3) unable to think independently of
the expected Irish way of thinking. Stephen likens his peers to
jellyfish like beings because he sees in them a doctrine of ingrained
behavior, not people who constantly make free decisions. Hence, due to
their closed minds, his views as an artist will not be taken seriously,
and that is exactly what Stephen tries to avoid. An artist relies on an
audience being open to new ideas and new ways of thinking, if they are
not then art will not thrive, which is why Stephen finds so much fault
with the people of Ireland. Later Stephen again takes a potshot at the
intellectual and cultural sophistication of Ireland, he believes it is
more like a bucket of "sluggish turf colored water" where new ideas and
voices are not greeted with open arms. The ‘sluggish’ and ‘turf
colored’ labels represent the lack of progress Ireland has made
culturally and the way many of its’ people are tied to the land in an
archaic and outdated way. Nearing the end of the middle part of the
story Stephen wishes to escape Ireland, and its suffocating culture.
Stephen imagines the old legend of his namesake, the ancient Greek
figure Dedalus, who "flies sunward above the sea"(ch.4) avoiding the
perils of the open ocean and trying to attain a glorious goal. Flying
above the ‘sea’ or Ireland towards the ‘sun’ which is really a shining
goal, becomes Stephen’s chief aim for a time. He struggles with
escaping the land of his birth, but knows he must in order to realize
his dreams.
As Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man draws to a close Joyce uses
Stephen’s newfound identity to show that Stephen has finally overcome
his own internal problems and the struggles associated with growing up
in Ireland to realize a new persona with a novel perspective on life.
After his long battle with Ireland and himself Stephen’s mind is now
like a "grey sheet of water…lit up by sunlight"(ch.4) now open for new
ideas and means of expression. The old ‘grey water’ was now broken by
the sunlight and illuminated, representing a different level of thought
and creativity. Stephen’s goal is almost actualized. Stephen’s new
invigorating state of mind fills him with happiness and a sense of
purity as "pure as the purest water"(ch.5), which is a departure from
his earlier thought of himself as a ‘bucket of stale water’ earlier in
chapter one. His newfound confidence he feels will lead him to the path
he has now chosen. The pure water is almost like a religious feeling
for him. He feels like his soul is cleansed now that he continue; he
has found experience a "new world, fantastic, dim, uncertain as the
sea"(ch.5) where his art can flourish in an environment free of
inhibitions. This brave new world Stephen is about to enter offers
untold possibilities for learning and self-improvement…which have been
Stephen’s goal from the start.knows the true direction his life will
take. As the story draws to a close Stephen’s triumphant feelings the
strength to battle personal demons, escaped Ireland’s grasp and is now
ready to.
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