(ENGL5001 ELA4 AP Literature, AP prompt writing)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is a bildungsroman novel that tells a story about the break away from religion, traditions and family fetters and pursuit of art and aesthetics of the protagonist Stephen Dedalus. One pivotal moment in Stephen life is his epiphany in chapter four. The epiphany is an important milestone of Stephen Dedalus’ mental and moral development – a hinge of maturity, self-awareness and an aspiration for his life goal as an artist.
In chapter four Stephen has set a strict discipline for his new religious way of life. Soon the director of the school invited him to him to become a priest, and Stephen was very excited about it because he wanted forgiveness by the god. “No touch of sin would linger upon the hands with which he would elevate and break the host; no touch of sin would linger on his lips in prayer to make him eat and drink dam- nation to himself not discerning the body of the Lord. He would hold his secret knowledge and secret power, being as sinless as the innocent, and he would be a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec.” (Joyce 197) We can discover that Stephen regarded priesthood as his way to purify his sins, and get a hold of the “secret power”, as if a priest is powerful and invincible. However, he soon realized that he didn’t like the life of being a priest. “He would never swing the thurible before the tabernacle as priest. His destiny was to be elusive of social or religious orders. The wisdom of the priest’s appeal did not touch him to the quick. He was destined to learn his own wisdom apart from others or to learn the wisdom of others himself wandering among the snares of the world.” (Joyce 200) In this passage, the narrator Joyce directly addressed Stephen realization of his destiny, which is “to be elusive of social or religious orders” and discover his own wisdom.
For the rest of chapter four we got really detailed and sensual descriptions and imageries about Stephen’s imagination. Stephen was no longer confused about his identity. He was no longer concerned about him being different from other children; no longer troubled by his highly sensitive personality; no longer chained by his religion. Stephen is determined to be an artist, and embracing his own freedom. Actually, we can already see Stephen began to mature in the argument of “Who is the greatest poet?” in chapter two. Stephen claimed his favorite poet to be Byron, who was a romantic and rebellious poet. His peer Heron argued that Tennyson is the greatest poet and accused Stephen to be heretic just like Byron. If Stephen was little, he will not argue back, but as Stephen gets older, he started to embrace himself as being different from his peers and fight for his own opinions. As the novel progresses, his level of maturity and self-recognition reached a peak in this epiphany moment. Later in chapter five we can also see that Stephen developed his own philosophies on aesthetics and had discussions with his teachers and friends, kind of like ancient Greek style philosophy discussion.
The “girl” imagery in Stephen’s imagination is also something worthy for analysis. It embodies the major themes of this novel and Stephen’s thinking, and is finally presented in the form of a fantasized female figure, like a “portrait”.
The girl “seemed like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful seabird. Her long slender bare legs were delicate as a crane’s and pure save where an emerald trail of seaweed had fashioned itself as a sign upon the flesh. Her thighs, fuller and soft-hued as ivory, were bared almost to the hips, where the white fringes of her drawers were like feathering of soft white down. Her slate-blue skirts were kilted boldly about her waist and dovetailed behind her. Her bosom was as a bird’s, soft and slight, slight and soft as the breast of some dark-plumaged dove. But her long fair hair was girlish: and girlish, and touched with the wonder of mortal beauty, her face.” (Joyce 212) Joyce depicted the girl as a bird-like figure, with words such as “crane’s”, “feathering”, “dovetailed”, etc. It echoes with the allusion of Daedalus, the man who built a wax wing to escape a labyrinth and fly towards freedom. The girl was also described as elegant and pure, which is like Stephen’s idea of pure feminine beauty. From Stephen’s love for Mercedes (in The Count of Monte Cristo), affection for Emma, and his sexual experience with the Dublin prostitute, we can see that Stephen is rather interested or active in romance and lust. The girl is his ideal or purest form of feminine beauty. As a conclusion, we can see that the girl herself is a symbol that embodies both Stephen’s journey of breaking away from the traditions and also his aesthetic view, or psychological development. We can even interpret the girl as a portrait, a visualization or a formation painted in Stephen’s mind, which also echoes with the title of this book.
In conclusion, the epiphany in chapter four is a pivotal moment for Stephen Dedalus, and it demonstrates to the reader that Stephen has totally liberated his nature and matured mentally. His decision on not becoming a priest was a trigger, and becoming an artist was a result. The epiphany shapes the whole novel due to its importance in Stephen’s life, and also as I mentioned the “girl” imagery is an expression of the main theme and aesthetic view in this novel.