Set in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century, Joyce’s bildungsroman—or coming-of-age novel—contains autobiographical elements and is an early example of stream-of-consciousness narrative.

Told entirely through its protagonist’s thoughts as he ages, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the story of Stephen Dedalus, a young man who struggles to free himself from the constraints imposed by the society in which he and his impoverished Catholic family live in order to devote his life to his writing. Like his mythical counterpart, young Stephen desires to grow figurative wings that will enable him to transcend his mundane existence. Through use of the stream-of-consciousness narrative and a satirical voice, Joyce underscores the difficulty of this journey, the difference in perception between an artist versus a non-artist, and how these viewpoints and impressions, especially when they come in direct conflict with social and familial values and mores, have an alienating effect on the artist.