A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

by James Joyce

Review of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

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         This book was truly a masterpiece in writing in my opinion. It's centred around the life of the main character Stephen Dedalus. It begins with him as a child in school and ends with him as a 20 year old just finished college. Throughout the book we see Stephen trying to escape the constraints of society and assert a sense of individuality in himself. Many obstacles stand in his way such as religion, family, friends, politics and love, and as he progresses we find him temporarily escape one problem only for him to confront another. Joyces style of writing is genius. These obstacles and progressions occur in order to symbolise Stephen's inability to find solace and escape in the world and in his mind. But Joyce goes further and at various points inserts symbols and hints connecting the failures with achivements at varying points in the book just to remind us there's always light at the end of the tunnel. There are many more fantastic techniques at work in this book and these combined with Joyces highlighting of societal issues at the time makes for intriguing reading; all the while your kept wondering will Stephen finally escape the labyrinth that is Dublin to find his desired place and exist in a world that has left him paralysed.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce was reviewed by Derek Monaghan

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