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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

by James Joyce

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The use of "epiphany" in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Summary:

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce uses "epiphany" to depict moments of sudden insight or revelation experienced by the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus. These moments are crucial for Stephen's intellectual and artistic development, marking significant points in his journey toward self-awareness and independence.

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How is epiphany used in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?

Epiphany is traditionally a manifestation of God’s presence in the world. The literary device was originally used by Christian writers and philosophers to demonstrate how people were enlightened by sudden revelations consistent with religious doctrine. Author James Joyce in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man adapted the concept of epiphany to secular rather than religious experiences.

Protagonist Stephen Daedalus is a young Irish would-be writer. His quest is to gain the knowledge and independence he desires in order to achieve his literary goals. Joyce uses the “stream-of-consciousness” technique to relate the story to his readers. The narrator is an omniscient third party who rambles randomly through the minds of the novel’s characters in order to show readers the “truth” as perceived by the protagonist. The effect allows readers to see Stephen’s thoughts as they flow from one idea to the next. This style is perfect for the...

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use of epiphany to demonstrate when Stephen has a sudden radiance and revelation as he perceives common scenes and objects.

Stephen has lived as a youngster in an overly religious environment and family setting. He attends a strict religious boarding academy and eventually a prestigious school where he excels as a writer. He desires to choose writing as a profession, but he is so pious that his school director pushes him toward the priesthood. On one occasion, he encounters a prostitute in Dublin and after engaging with her feels deeply troubled because he cannot reconcile his sexual desires with his religious faith, morality, and family upbringing. During a walk on a beach, he sees a young girl walking in the shallow water. The beach scene is a perfect example of Joyce’s use of epiphany to advance his story:

A girl stood before him in midstream, alone and still, gazing out to sea. She 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 softhued as ivory, were bared almost to the hips, where the white fringes of her drawers were like feathering of soft white down. Her slateblue 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 darkplumaged dove. But her long fair hair was girlish: and girlish, and touched with the wonder of mortal beauty, her face.

She was alone and still, gazing out to sea; and when she felt his presence and the worship of his eyes her eyes turned to him in quiet sufferance of his gaze, without shame or wantonness. Long, long she suffered his gaze and then quietly withdrew her eyes from his and bent them towards the stream, gently stirring the water with her foot hither and thither. The first faint noise of gently moving water broke the silence, low and faint and whispering, faint as the bells of sleep; hither and thither, hither and thither; and a faint flame trembled on her cheek.

—Heavenly God! cried Stephen’s soul, in an outburst of profane joy.

Stephen has an epiphany. He admires the girl’s beauty and reasons that the love of such a beautiful girl should not cause him shame. It is at this point when the protagonist frees himself from his religious constraints. He is now determined to pursue his writing career and thereafter devotes his life to his art.

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In A Portrait of The Artist as A Young Man, James Joyce uses moments of clarity and a recognition of another perspective as "epiphanies." The reader becomes aware of the change in Stephen's character, however momentary, and this drives the plot of the novel. In Stephen Hero, an earlier version of A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man, Stephen is referring to the clock at the Ballast Office, a seemingly insignificant building and clock but capable of making Stephen think because, "all at once I see it and I know at once what it is: epiphany." 

Stephen will face many challenges and his self-development and sense of awareness will reflect the impact of life and the economic hardships that he and his family must confront. This ensures that "epiphany' is a very personal experience. Having felt "small and weak" throughout the first chapter due to his own shortcomings, Stephen, at the conclusion of chapter one, comes to a realization that he is in a position to embarrass Father Dolan but, in a schoolboy version of humility, despite being justified in bringing Father Dolan to account, he vows that he will not.

After his sexual encounter and his epiphany at the end of chapter two; "surrendering himself;" he becomes weighed down by his own sinful acts which "kill(s) the body and (it) kill(s) the soul." By the end of chapter three, he revels in the life-changing potential that he now faces and the power and potential of "Another life! A life of grace and virtue and happiness!" As Stephen takes Communion, he feels the real power of the act of Holy Communion as he accepts that "Past is past." His feelings are very real and immediate, even if by the end of chapter four he chooses one path and then a different path. Life and experience goes "on and on and on and on."

By the end of the novel, Stephen has realized the power of his own contribution, not only to his self-development, but in promoting "the uncreated conscience of my race." James Joyce ensures continuity through the use of  epiphany because all of the revelations and realizations provide Stephen with guidance and acknowledge the contribution of each and every experience in developing Stephen's character and his ability to make a difference. 

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Why does James Joyce use epiphany in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce portrays the creative awakening of Stephen Dedalus, often regarded as Joyce’s alter-ego.

Through his experiences with family, education, and conversations with friends, Stephen liberates himself from the confines of his traditional Irish Catholic background to claim his individuality and seek a life built on an artistic vision. His last name references the master craftsman from Greek mythology Daedalus, signaling the character’s drive to create and craft his life. Throughout the story, Stephen experiences a series of insights that lead to his major epiphany at Dollymount.

The epiphany, a flash of insight, an “aha” moment, is a necessary step to look beyond the mundane and awaken the creative side of the self. Joyce’s contemporaries such as Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung and German physicist Albert Einstein also noted the necessity for new ways of thinking to solve problems.

Stephen experiences both personal and political epiphanies, going so far as to question the political and moral authority of Ireland. When his friend Davin tells Stephen to put his dreams in second place to the country, he receives the following response: “Do you know what Ireland is? asked Stephen with cold violence. Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow.” In this passage, Stephen realizes that the restriction placed on young people in Ireland threatens to devour their potential and the necessity to liberate himself.

Stephen’s mother Mary, his governess Mrs. Riordan (Dante), and his girlfriend Emma all represent traditional views of women, of Ireland, and what is permitted in terms of social and creative license. During an argument about the Irish politician Charles Stuart Parnell, Dante as defender of the faith reacts vehemently to Mr. Casey when he declares, “We have had too much God in Ireland!” The described repression indicates the need for an epiphany to break through its hold on the mind. Stephen’s character development shows how all of these concepts are connected and then questioned during his experience at Dollymount in chapter 4.

At Dollymount, Stephen first encounters a “squad of Christian Brothers” marching across the bridge. He turns away from them, feeling a mix of “personal shame and commiseration,” illustrating his struggle between his upbringing and his ongoing awakening. Once Stephen crosses the bridge, he sees the world in a new light. As his classmates swim and call out to him in a series of wordplay on his name, he hears a greater call, “the call of life to his soul not the dull gross voice of the world of duties and despair, not the inhuman voice that had called him to the pale service of the altar.” As he listens, he realizes that “his soul had arisen from the grave of boyhood, spurning her graveclothes.”

Then he sees a young woman standing in the water. She is “a strange and beautiful seabird,” a siren, a “wild angel,” and a guide to his creative and aesthetic self. She doesn’t appear to suffer from either shame or pride, but simply lives in a natural, fulfilled state of being at one with nature. Stephen’s response evokes both heaven and earth, as he experiences his epiphany, the merging between the conscious and subconscious parts of himself that will be needed for creative expression.

With its shifts in style, passages based on the author’s own experiences, and the development of the main character’s consciousness, A Portrait of an Artist of a Young Man endures as a document of artistic awakening.

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An epiphany is a sudden, unpremeditated insight into the essential meaning of an object. The observer perceives in a whole new way extraordinary beauty and unity in an otherwise ordinary thing. When such an experience appears in a work of literature, the artist presents it in a symbolic way.

It is his aesthetic belief which prompts Joyce to use the technique of epiphany in his written work, particularly in The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Joyce believed that it was the obligation of an author to record these fleeting moments of metaphysical beauty. In Stephen Hero, the first draft of the novel, Stephen explains the occurence of it thus: Its soul, its whatness, leaps to us from the vestment of its appearance. The soul of the commonest object...seems to us radiant. The object achieves its epiphany."

Epiphanies in the novel include Stephen's otherworldly perception of the young girl wading "in midstream, alone and still, gazing out to sea...like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful sea creature," and the swallows seen from the steps of the library.

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Where is the word "epiphany" used in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?

Oddly enough, I don't recall ever seeing the word "epiphany" in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. His work is famous for its epiphanies, as is Dubliners, but I don't believe he actually uses the word.

That being said, Joyce writes epiphanies into many of his stories and Portrait is no exception. If you look closely, you will find that Stephen has an epiphany as each chapter closes. The epiphany is subtle and difficult to verbalize and there are many interpretations of these epiphanies, but they are most certainly there.

For example, at the end of Chapter 4, Stephen runs into a young woman on the beach. He doesn't talk to her, but he watches her and realizes a lot about his own life. He mind cries out:

To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life! A wild angel had appeared to him, the angel of mortal youth and beauty, an envoy from the fair courts of life, to throw open before him in an instant of ecstasy the gates of all the ways of error and glory. On and on and on and on!

Here, Stephen is realizing that he wants to be an artist and that he doesn't want to dedicate his life falsely to the Catholic church. He doesn't actually say this, but that is the result. This is his epiphany at the end of Chapter 4. Look at the ends of the other chapters for more!

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