The Revelation of the Artist's Self in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Abstract

This study on James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man focuses on the revelation of the artist's self. When Stephen becomes an artist, he can reconcile all of his disorder, alienation and loneliness through his aesthetic revelation. Before he becomes an artist, he is divided into multiple selves, such as family, school, nation and church. He raises some of the fundamental questions of life that constitute his major argument or point of departure from the mainstream society. His contemplations of such thoughts isolate him from mainstream thoughts. This makes him displaced rebel. So, in charting out his own course of principles and searching for his distinct identity, he ends up becoming a social and artistic rebel.