South Pasadena High School / The English SeminarAP

James Joyce:  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Some Stuff

TEST 1


_____ 1. The Christmas dinner scene shows Stephen 
that
 A. life is cruel and unfair
 B. Dante sides with the Church against Parnell
 C. Parnell was a wicked man

_____ 2. John Casey spits in an old woman's eye 
because she
 A. called Kitty O'Shea a bad name
 B. was drunk and disorderly
 C. reviled Parnell

_____ 3. Heron and his classmates who harass Stephen 
represent
 I. the forces of evil
 II. the bigotry of the Church
 III. the pressures of conformity
 A. I and II only
 B. II and III only
 C. I and III only

_____ 4. Father Dolan pandybats Stephen because
 A. Stephen has written a bad Latin theme
 B. the pages of his theme are marred by inkblots
 C. Stephen appears not to be working

_____ 5. A religious retreat is
 A. a confession of guilt to a priest
 B. prayers to a patron saint
 C. an interval of religious reflection

_____ 6. Stephen runs off after the Whitsuntide play 
because
 A. his parents aren't waiting for him
 B. the girl he likes hasn't shown up
 C. he has offended his teachers

_____ 7. Davin calls Stephen a "terrible man" because 
he
 A. will not join the Gaelic League
 B. refuses to sign a petition for world peace
 C. talks against Ireland

_____ 8. Stephen's friend Lynch serves as
 A. a father confessor to Stephen
 B. comic relief as Stephen lectures on his art theory
 C. a political agitator who tries to arouse Stephen's
 national pride

_____ 9. Major themes in this novel are
 I. revolt against parental authority
 II. doubts about religion
 III. the role of poverty in the making of an artist
 A. I and II only
 B. I and III only
 C. I, II, and III

_____ 10. Stephen's experience with Father Conmee 
develops the
 themes of
 I. the false father
 II. egotism
 III. revolt against religion
 A. I and II only
 B. II and III only
 C. I and III only

_____ 11. As a schoolboy, Stephen is puzzled by
 I. where the universe ends
 II. who his father is
 III. what politics mean
 A. I only
 B. I and II only
 C. I, II, and III

_____ 12. Stephen pours his emotions into a poem after 
the
 I. Christmas dinner
 II. tram ride with E. C.
 III. trip to Cork with his father
 A. I and II only
 B. II and III only
 C. I, II, and III

_____13. Stephen and his father go to Cork for the 
purpose of
 A. having a holiday together
 B. selling the remaining family property
 C. visiting his father's old friends

_____ 14. The word "foetus" carved on the anatomy 
theater desk
 startles Stephen because
 A. he suspects his father may have carved it
 B. it expresses his latent sexual longings
 C. it suggests a world of science alien to him

_____ 15. The mutton stew Stephen's belly craves refers 
to his
 A. earthy life in the brothels
 B. family's poverty
 C. favorite Irish dish

_____ 16. The main theme of Father Arnall's sermons is 
the
 A. life of St. Francis Xavier
 B. fall of Adam and Eve
 C. "four last things"

_____ 17. The "old sow that eats her farrow" is
 A. Ireland
 B. the Church
 C. Woman
_____1 8. Stephen echoes Lucifer when he asserts:
 A. "Non serviam."
 B. "I am not afraid to make a mistake."
 C. "Welcome, O life!"

_____ 19. The symbol of Stephen's vocation as an artist 
is the
 A. flight of the swallows
 B. girl on the beach
 C. temptress of the villanelle

_____ 20. An important theme in the book is the
 I. temptations of the flesh
 II. dullness of Dublin
 III. effect of education on friendship
 A. I only
 B. I and II only
 C. I and III only



21. Discuss the novel's comic and satirical aspects.
22. Explain Joyce's choice of the name "Dedalus" for his 
hero.
23 Why is Stephen tempted to become a priest? Why 
does he decide against it?
24 Discuss bird imagery in the novel, from the opening 
scene to the final diary.
25. Compare the roles of Davin, MacCann, and Cranly 
in Stephen's life.
26. Discuss Stephen's relationship with his mother.
27. Discuss the importance of words and wordplay for 
Stephen.
28. What is the symbolic role of the girl on the beach in 
Chapter Five?

ANSWERS: TEST 1
1. B 2. A 3. B 4. C 5. C 6. B 7. B 8. B 9. A 10. C 11. C 
12. B 13. B 14. B 15. A 16. C 17. A 18. B 19. A 20. C
21. Joyce has been described as an introspective man who 
had flashes of gaiety and humor. He could always see the 
droll side of a serious situation.
The story of Stephen's painful development as an artist also 
has comic moments. It is enlivened from the first chapter to 
the last with humorous character sketches and dialogues. 
Even situations that are distressing to Stephen have their 
comic aspects. The Christmas dinner scene has moments of 
lusty laughter between Mr. Casey and Mr. Dedalus as they 
mock churchmen and goad Mrs. Riordan. In contrast to 
Stephen's gloomy mood during the trip to Cork, his father 
trades stories and boasts with his cronies in grand Irish 
style.
You probably chuckled at Uncle Charles in the outhouse 
scene in Chapter Two and at the grand way he offered the 
greengrocer's apples to his nephew for his bowels. Joyce's 
keen ear for dialogue and his mocking wit bring to life the 
student circle at the university in Chapter Five. Also note 
the comic aspects of his sketches of Glynn, Goggins, and 
other students cavorting outside the library.
22. Joyce had signed some of his early pieces "Stephen 
Daedalus," feeling some closeness with Daedalus, the 
"fabulous artificer"- skilled craftsman- of Greek legend. He 
simplified the spelling to "Dedalus" in A Portrait of the 
Artist because it would be more commonplace and 
believable. (See section on the Daedalus myth.)
Stephen has in common with his namesake a need to find a 
way out of the labyrinth (maze) of life and to fashion his 
own means of escape. It is a good metaphor (comparison) 
for a young man trying to free himself from the restraints of 
his environment. There are two approaches to the question. 
Some people restrict the story of Stephen's growing up to 
the framework of the Daedalus legend. (See the section on 
Structure.) Others see Stephen more broadly as 
representing the human race trying to find a way out of 
life's mazes and mysteries. Joyce does not use the word 
"labyrinth" in Portrait of the Artist, but some readers find 
the image from the Daedalus legend present in the frequent 
mention of roads, streets, paths, and corridors. The school 
corridors are long and dark at Clongowes (Chapter One). 
In Chapter Two, Stephen wanders through the roads of 
Blackrock, sorting out his emotions and in Dublin through 
a "maze of narrow and dirty streets" in search of sexual 
adventure. In the third chapter, he wanders through the "ill 
lit streets" at random, searching for a confessor. You will 
be able to find many other references to reality as a maze.
23. What tempts Stephen most about the priesthood is its 
secret knowledge and power. He is aware of "the awful 
power of which angels and saints stood in reverence" 
(Chapter Four). The director of Belvedere makes this 
power very clear, pointing out that not even the "Blessed 
Virgin herself" has the power of the priest to absolve from 
sin or to make God take the form of bread and wine in the 
sacrament of Communion.
Stephen has imagined himself as a priest hearing 
confession and saying Mass. He is intrigued with the 
dignity of the ritual and of the ceremonial robes. But he is 
also aware of the contrast between the chilly, ordered, 
sheltered life of a priest and the warmth of ordinary 
existence. He chooses the "disorder, the misrule and 
confusion of his father's house" over the power of the 
priesthood. You'll find evidence of Stephen's struggle in his 
interview with the director and his thoughts as he walks 
home in Chapter Four.
24. The references to birds and bird flight fall into two 
general categories. Until the retreat in Chapter Three, birds 
are linked with an element of threat. Note (1) the 
threatening eagles of the prelude, (2) the football, which is 
like a "heavy bird" in the Clongowes playground, and (3) 
the threatening character Heron, with the bird name and 
the birdlike face, who, like the eagles, demands submission 
to authority.
After the retreat, during which Stephen sees himself as 
Lucifer, the fallen angel (an angel has wings like a bird), 
the bird imagery changes in tone. Wings and birds become 
images of flight and freedom. The hawklike man flying 
above the sea in Chapter Four is the symbol of the artist 
forging a new vision. The girl on the beach is described as 
a seabird (and angel) with the plumage of a dove. In 
Chapter Five, immediately following the villanelle passage, 
birds and bird flight foretell Stephen's own flight to lonely 
freedom. The message comes "from his heart like a bird 
from a turret, quietly and swiftly."
25.  In Chapter Five, Davin, MacCann, and Cranly act as 
devices for revealing Stephen's deeply held opinions. His 
interaction with them also calls attention to Stephen's 
difficulty with friendship and love.
The peasant Davin represents the Irish effort to draw new 
strength from its past ("the sorrowful legend of Ireland") 
and to rekindle national pride. He is interested in sports, an 
Irish passion. He tries to teach Gaelic to Stephen and to 
involve him in national matters. Stephen likes Davin but 
rejects his efforts to involve him in Irish matters. In doing 
so, he has a chance to air his criticisms of Ireland.
MacCann is the humanitarian involved in international 
causes. He believes in universal brotherhood and works 
hard to improve man's lot. Stephen's refusal to sign 
MacCann's petitions proves again that he rejects "all 
enthusiasms." As an artist, he wants to remain uninvolved 
with causes. By contrast, MacCann's activism serves to 
underline Stephen's self-absorption.
Cranly serves as neutral listener to Stephen's innermost 
thoughts. He mainly listens in his role of confessor-analyst. 
But he too challenges Stephen about his behavior to his 
mother and his inability to feel the emotion of love.
26. Stephen is profoundly attached to his mother until she 
objects to his attending the university. Early glimpses of 
his "nice mother" of the prelude are of a gentle, 
peacemaking woman. This is her chief role in the 
Christmas dinner scene. You know how attached Stephen 
is to her by his fusion of the mother figure with the Blessed 
Virgin and with his romanticized ideal women. Davin's 
peasant woman in Chapter Five is a motherly figure 
(probably pregnant). Even the first prostitute to whom he 
yields has a motherly aura.
It is Stephen's choice of a university education over a 
priest's life that causes the "first noiseless sundering" of his 
attachment to his mother. He feels her faith is getting 
stronger as his own wanes. It makes her hostile to his 
university career, which is so exciting for him. In Chapter 
Five, the burden of his admission to Cranly is that he has 
refused to do his Easter duty of going to confession before 
Mass, causing her deep grief. He evades Cranly's question 
about loving his mother. Yet at the end she is folding her 
son's clothes, helping to prepare for his departure, which 
may be a sign that her love for her son exceeds her 
devotion to religion. Stephen's evasion of Cranly's question 
suggests that his devotion to his literary destiny exceeds 
his love for his mother.
27. Words represent power for Stephen. They are the 
threads that guide him through the maze of his youth. They 
play an active role; they reveal to Stephen that his destiny 
is to be a writer.
The first hint of the importance of language is in the 
childish wordplay of the prelude: "Apologise,/Pull out his 
eyes." In the first scene at Clongowes, Stephen plays with 
the words: "belt," "suck." He admires God for being a 
linguist and understanding all the languages of his flock. 
Even ordinary sentences from his spelling book sound like 
poetry. Words can be riddles (Athy's name) and yet solve 
riddles. They can bring on epiphanies (moments of 
revelation)- for example, "foetus" in the visit to Cork.
You'll find many instances of the importance of words and 
wordplay scattered through the book. A key passage in 
Chapter Four describes the role that words play as a 
window to the real world. The phrase "a day of dappled 
seaborne clouds" sets off the moment of revelation in 
which Stephen sees that his destiny lies in the art of words. 
He perceives the world of emotion can best be expressed 
through "a lucid supple periodic prose." On his way to the 
university, words frolic in his head in whimsical "wayward 
rhythms." Words fill him with "a soft liquid joy."
28. The girl on the beach is nameless. She is both real and 
a symbol. Stephen describes her as "the angel of mortal 
youth." She belongs both to heaven (angel) and to earth 
(mortal). Stephen will never see her again, but she has 
marked his life.
The mortal girl is healthy and beautiful. She is feminine 
without being provocative. She is firm-fleshed and 
rounded, like a woman, but her face and hair are "girlish." 
Stephen feels "profane joy" at her sight, but he compares 
her to a seabird, his new symbol of freedom.
Joyce has scattered symbolic details in his description of 
the girl, but what she stands for is open to interpretation. Is 
she a siren (temptress) with a green trail of seaweed, luring 
Stephen back to a green Ireland? Does green seaweed 
make her the symbol of Irish womanhood? Her ivory-hued 
thighs and her slate blue skirts are the colors of the statue 
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. ("Ivory" also recalls virginal 
Eileen (Vance) of the pale hands.) The comparison with 
the dove is thought by some to refer to the dove as symbol 
of the Holy Ghost that appeared in the sky when Christ 
was baptized by St. John the Baptist. They see the girl as a 
heavenly messenger approving Stephen's baptism into the 
religion of art. Or perhaps she is meant to represent 
Stephen's muse, the classical, pagan source of artistic 
inspiration.
You might argue that the girl on the beach represents all of 
these meanings- the sacred and profane, the real and the 
romantic, the religious and artistic- since she seems to 
represent a vision of perfect unity for Stephen.


TOPICS FOR WRITING 


1. 

 THEMES
1. What does the pandying episode contribute to 
Stephen's view of life? Of priests?
2. Why is Stephen critical of Ireland? Why does he 
choose to live in continental Europe?
3. Explain the meaning of Stephen's choice of "the 
misrule and confusion of his father's house" over the 
orderly life of a priest.
4. Discuss the relationship between the pagan myth of 
Daedalus and the Christian version of the fall of both 
Adam and Lucifer.
5. How do the commands to "apologise," "confess," and 
"admit," work throughout Portrait of the Artist to 
express different kinds of conformity?
 CHARACTERS
6. What is Heron's role in Stephen's life?
7. Are Stephen's growing pains different from the usual 
ones of adolescence? If so, how do they differ?
8. What kind of man is Simon Dedalus, and why does 
Stephen feel alienated from him?
9. Discuss Portrait of the Artist as a negative portrait of 
Stephen.
 LITERARY TOPICS
10. What did Joyce admire about Henrik Ibsen? How 
does Portrait of the Artist reflect Ibsen's influence?
11. Compare Portrait of the Artist with either Somerset 
Maugham's Of Human Bondage or with D. H. 
Lawrence's Sons and Lovers.
12. Discuss Joyce's attitude toward W. B. Yeats and the 
Irish literary revival movement as reflected in 
Portrait Of the Artist.
 LITERARY TECHNIQUE
13. How does the style of Portrait of the Artist change 
during the stages of Stephen's growing up?
14. Discuss Joyce's use of language to break down the 
traditional barriers among the five senses.
15. How does Joyce adapt his style to his subject matter 
in contrasting Stephen's view of reality with his 
romantic dreams?
16. How is the image of water and wetness used to reveal 
aspects of Stephen's character?
17. What does the structure of Portrait of the Artist have 
in common with the classical drama of ancient Greece 
or with the typical nineteenth-century symphony?
18. Discuss the way Joyce uses the rose as a motif.


 The Critics


PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
All these ironies, mild as they are, remind us again that 
Stephen is not Joyce and that there is a comic dimension 
to the Portrait, all the stronger because Stephen is 
unaware of it. Stephen's life resembles Joyce's but he is 
displaced, living in a different and more sombre 
environment. He is less happy, more troubled, than Joyce; 
he is surrounded by people less substantial than Joyce's 
associates were and consequently seems less intellectually 
agile and more isolated. The world mocks his attempts to 
attain maturity and individuality. Joyce presents Stephen's 
ideas seriously enough but undercuts them by showing 
their limitations, questioning whether Stephen 
understands their full meaning and partly avoiding them 
while writing the novel in which they appear.
 -David G. Wright, Characters of Joyce, 1983

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST vs. STEPHEN 
HERO
Had Joyce died after writing A Portrait of the Artist as a 
Young Man his reputation as a novelist of stature could 
have rested on that one work alone. Its flaws... are faults 
which a long work in prose may override as a poem may 
not; and the Portrait does, triumphantly. Yet it has rarely 
received its due. Interest in it as a novel has been 
dissipated by its obvious autobiographical content.... Of 
all Joyce's works the Portrait has suffered most from this 
distrust of the constructive intellect in art. The existence 
of an earlier version, Stephen Hero, undisciplined and 
extravagant of detail, has induced a general easy 
acquiescence in the view that the Portrait is by 
comparison, deliberate, artificial and cold-blooded. It does 
not in fact lack feeling. Its inspiration is to be traced to far 
more profound and integrated experiences than anything 
behind the adolescent Stephen Hero....
The earlier novel is a straightforward naturalistic 
narrative, comprehensive, frank, humorous and partisan.... 
Stephen Hero does present a picture of the hero and his 
notions on art, but it is set against a very rich background 
of family, friends, city and religion- a family consisting of 
father, mother, a brother who is a close friend, a sister and 
minor relatives, friends who have distinct personalities 
and whose opinions are not only independent of Stephen 
but important to him; Dublin, which is both a city and a 
language; and Catholicism as religion and the channel of 
education.... [T]he earlier draft is a study of a son and a 
brother, of a very human though consciously clever and 
eccentric student, at once painfully and happily growing 
into a writer. The Portrait, on the other hand, is the work 
of an accomplished artist creating directly out of the 
experiences and responsibilities of his calling.
 -Jane H. Jack, "Art and A Portrait of the Artist," 1955;  
reprinted in Thomas Connolly, Joyce's Portrait, 1962.

STEPHEN THE EGOTIST
Confronted with these responses and questions, one would 
have to admit that the Stephen Dedalus who sets forth in 
the novel's last lines "to forge in the smithy of my soul the 
uncreated conscience of my race" is a preposterous egotist 
who has little to show for all the extravagance of his 
ambition. Stephen has not developed an aesthetic 
philosophy. Had he done so, one would have to insist that 
Joyce had created the most untypical brilliant 
undergraduate of the world's literature. As it is, one can 
grant that, out of need and largely to justify himself, 
Stephen has expressed some brilliant but not necessarily 
consistent insights. Stephen may have enrolled in the 
priesthood of art, but, again, one must admit that it would 
be difficult to describe him as a poet on the basis of his 
villanelle. On the other hand, granting every irony that has 
been claimed for the way Joyce depicts the composition of 
the poem and every criticism that has been made of its fin 
de siecle affectation, it can be affirmed that the villanelle 
is the work of an undergraduate of undeniable talent.
 -Zack Bowen and James F. Carens, eds.
 A Companion to Joyce Studies, 1984

STEPHEN'S PROMISE AS A WRITER
...the Portrait is surely meant to leave us with equivocal 
feelings about its hero's potentialities. For much of the 
time Stephen embodies an aspect of Joyce's nature that he 
repeatedly punished in his books but that he could never 
finally quell: the egoarch, the poseur with a smack of 
Hamlet, the narcissist who dedicated his first extended 
work (a play written at the age of eighteen and 
subsequently lost) "to My own Soul." But he also 
represents Joyce by virtue of his unaccommodating ideals 
and his restless imagination: even the purple patches hold 
out the promise of a more authentic, more distinctive 
lyricism. And he has the courage of his immaturity, which 
means having the capacity to grow and change, of not 
being afraid of a plunge into the unknown. Whether he 
will ultimately justify his presumptuousness and succeed 
in writing his masterpiece is an open question as the book 
ends.
 -John Gross, James Joyce, 1970

JOYCE'S VISUAL SENSE
Harry Levin has characterized Joyce's writing as being of 
"low visibility," his imagination as being auditory rather 
than visual, and his most direct concern being with the ear 
rather than the eye....
No one would deny that Joyce had poor eyesight, keen 
ears, was preoccupied with language, and frequently used 
musical forms and effects in his writing. But the premise 
that poor eyesight inevitably results in writing strong in 
auditory imagery and weak in visual imagery does not 
prove itself. The impairment of one sense does not 
necessarily result in a diminished artistic representation of 
that sense. Beethoven is an obvious example.... The 
demonstrable fact is that Joyce was thoroughly at home 
with the visual, and relied on it to achieve some of his 
most telling and important effects. In the Portrait we have 
on the one hand the images clustering around the 
conformity-authority-punishment axis- the moocow, 
eagles pulling out eyes, the pandybat. Then there are the 
images that represent the wooing and winning of Stephen 
to a life of artistic creativity- the intricate pattern of hand-
and-arm imagery, the apparition of the hawklike man 
flying sunward over the sea, the girl on the beach, and 
Stephen's vision of the unfolding flower. This is only a 
brief listing of the motifs or images that address 
themselves directly to the eye. Clearly, they indicate a 
visual imagination on the part of their creator. The failure 
to appreciate this fact inevitably robs the reader, and 
results in an unbalanced or one-dimensional view of 
Joyce.
 -Robert S. Ryf, A New Approach to Joyce, 1964

JOYCE'S LANGUAGE
Joyce's own contribution to English prose is to provide a 
more fluid medium for refracting sensations and 
impressions through the author's mind- to facilitate the 
transition from photographic realism to esthetic 
impressionism. In the introductory pages of the Portrait of 
the Artist, the reader is faced with nothing less than the 
primary impact of life itself, a presentational continuum of 
the tastes and smells and sights and sounds of earliest 
infancy. Emotion is integrated, from first to last, by words. 
Feelings, as they filter through Stephen's sensory 
apparatus, become associated with phrases. His 
conditioned reflexes are literary....
This is the state of mind that confers upon language a 
magical potency. It exalts the habit of verbal association 
into a principle for the arrangement of experience. You 
gain power over a thing by naming it; you become master 
of a situation by putting it into words. It is psychological 
need, and not hyperfastidious taste, that goads the writer 
on to search for the mot juste, to loot the thesaurus.
 -Harry Levin, James Joyce: A Critical Introduction, 1960



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