A Modern-Day Hero, Stephen Dedalus
A life journey to the artistic exile of the artist who gets rid of the labels imposed on him by society.
I wanted my first post on the site to be about a book that is very important to me; A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, as it emphasizes that we are the heroes of our own lives and that we have the power that any tragic hero from mythology can have.
https://www.kobo.com/tr/tr/ebook/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man-63
In the book, we witness the life of the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, from childhood to adulthood as it was written in the tradition of bildungsroman. Throughout the book, our protagonist Stephen, whose surname is linked to Daedalus in Ovid's mythology 'the cunning, skillful artificer' and his son Icarus, who flies too close to the sun, are shown how his culture and in particular the fact that he is a Catholic Irishman, affects his intellectual, moral and spiritual development and how, in his own words, "there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly back from flight" we witness his struggle to overcome these obstacles.
We can say that the myth of Daedalus draws a simple structure in our book. As with Daedalus and his son Icarus, we encounter our protagonist Stephen stuck in his own maze of constricted life as an artist with similar father-son dynamics.
Let me begin my article with a quote from Woody Allen:
In the beginning, there was nothing. Then, there were wings forming gradually; a power of strength. Holding onto that power, a struggle emerged against the grim reality which tries to shatter the power of flying. Together with that power, there came the fluttering of wings; a struggle to “fly” the “nets” towards emancipation. There was still nothing, but an emancipation of life by finding the creation in the power, itself.
We witness the protagonist Stephen Dedalus developing as an artist, his development toward artistic independence from the constraints of the society, of the crosscurrents of Irish nationalism and Catholicism, as he matures and approaches this grand epiphany of emancipation. It is the epiphany of an annunciation to pursue the faith he really believes in, rather than a faith shaped in a religious life structured as a material job.
Just from the beginning, I see a child playing with his affectionate senses building a new world for himself. The repetition of the song his mother sings, pointing to the hotness and coldness after wetting the bed, perceiving a dictation book as a poem… His extreme sensitiveness against the sluggishness of life is a great power to make sense of his world. It is like a piece of music, the apprehension of reality comes alive within his music; a piece of music which is formed through the slipping syllables of the words. Those are the words coming out from a deep desire to be understood by himself, by the world.
This world of words has been his power; his wings.
The world will see him as a
However, as he approaches the grand epiphany of his power, he will stiffly hold onto his power, it will be him who will stiffly flutter his wings wounded from the stones thrown upon him; thus, he “changes the laws of nature” (442).
He is observant, asks questions, judges life; and learned to differentiate nuance at an early age as he was able to distinguish his mother's and father’s smells. We watch him unwillingly playing rugby with his classmates, then we see the petulance to some teasing about kissing his mother before bedtime, then shifting to his classwork. He struggles to figure out who he is and then places himself as a member of the cosmos by giving “the Universe” as part of his home address. It was only a step forward from his rich inner self forcing him to place himself in the external world, itself.
A cornerstone of the novel happens and it affects child Stephen throughout his life. It was the discussion at Christmas dinner. It represents some of the differing political attitudes around Ireland at the time, both for and against the Irish nationalist politician Charles Stewart Parnell, and the Irish independence movement. He died without achieving his goal as he lost his leadership after he was discovered to be an adulterer. He became a symbol of rebellion for the Irish; but also for Stephen, as well. His death became a symbol of his external life, for the grim reality of constraints and the stones thrown up onto his wings. Just like Parnell, he will be overthrown from the leadership of his own life for the sake of the canon of the external powers. He will judge his place in the “Universe”, and he will be directed as he tries not to find his place, but to FIT into the “Universe”. When he realizes who is he, he will be content to leave that place he is TOLD TO BE and SHOULD BE, and with his strengthened wings he will flee to exile, flying the nets from that world to the world of his “art” and “words”, where he can FIND HIS PLACE in the “Universe”.
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/charles-stewart-parnell-jail-kilmainhan-treaty
As Stephen grows older, the ideas of Stephen's teachers, friends, and family on joining the institution of priesthood make sense as his Catholic family would see the life of clergy as a fine vocation. The priesthood would offer stability as well to the problem of his father’s financial irresponsibility, so a steady one might be what Stephen has been looking for in his life. He and his family part company in terms of deciding his future as his family’s situation misleads him to follow and search for his own desires even if he does not realize it at first. So, we have the reasons for Stephen’s decision towards priesthood, but they are not the real reasons which make Stephen understands his road and make him continue on that road. It is not his, but society’s appropriate job. So, throughout the novel, we get insight into a growing conflict between Stephen’s impulse toward the priesthood and his development as an artist. When he realizes his purpose and leaves the priesthood which he does not think is his road, her mother complains about the abandonment of the priesthood. Thus, the difference between his family and himself becomes evident towards the end of the novel.
He does not have considerable friends except Cranly who is more receptive to the differentiated ideas of Stephen and he is the one who maybe knows more than anyone about Stephen. They have a deep bond and he can understand him. And, as he matures, he continues to be an “outsider” in society, both because of his physical appearance and because of his intelligence on vast aesthetic and philosophical issues. For example, he is not taken seriously because he defends what he finds beautiful and stylish in the poems of Byron (regarded as impertinent in society), or when he was schooled for heresy in his essay. It is a great hint for him, as he matures, he starts to question his impulse to create and experience life at its fullest in the face of leading a virtuous life as a model for others.
As he grows older, he romanticizes the significant political figures, also nature, and the sphere of the afterlife. He enjoys the beauty he finds in small things. He finds grandeur of the ethereal and eternity in ordinary life. His tendency to revive the world in words, the quotes he makes from the writers, and how he finds the power through his imagination in the words and means of his external life show the greatness of imagination. As readers, we are captivated by the grandeur of his ordinary world of “words”, in his imagination, in his art.
However, his strong imagination is not peaceful to him under the authority of the grim reality. For example, he suffers greatly only by imagining the afterlife encouraged by the schoolmasters. He has suffered because of the approach of those “authorities” who try to raise a generation appropriate to their world. Again, it has been because of those authorities who try to persuade him to join the priesthood. It makes sense for him because of his family’s situation and can be a relief, however, it will lead to a great conflict inside him.
As he matures, he starts to visit prostitutes which becomes a habit and not appropriate for the priestly mission he tries to achieve. He suffers for what he does and goes to a church for confession. I personally think that the suffering is a sort of identification with the job he does not want to do; both give a sense of burning in flames to the bones. In addition, it is that time when he is about to realize he has no enthusiasm for the religious life and decides to become an artist, instead. It is at those times when the symbolic representation of Parnell comes alive. He would FIT into the “Universe” by joining into the institution of religion shaped by the materialistic structure of faith; however, it was not his place in his world and it is not the power that struggles from the beginning for emancipation. He can understand what he underwent and his inner experience allows him to disregard the world, intellectually. The interpretation was not visible to younger Stephen, however, he was aware of the literal facts about which he does not have the necessary information to read upon them. Now, he can both understand his child’s ignorance and recognize the constraints upon him put on him since his birth. The more his past comes alive in his memories and gets close to his present, the more he struggles to protect his power.
“The past is consumed in the present and the present is living only because it brings forth the future.”
The more he flutters his wings of power, the more he holds onto them and approaches his grand epiphany. The balance of the Satanic figure which he has been turning while trying to protect the religious mission exerted upon him hints at a great point to his grand epiphany.
Towards the end, Stephen sees a woman on the beach who represents art, itself. Later on the streets of Dublin, Stephen encounters again a woman he loves and declares his intentions to her.
He vows “to forge the uncreated conscience of his race”, and express to the world his sense of beauty and truth in the way he knows best: through his power, through his art. Following this revelation, he flees to exile to his world of “art”.
“To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life.”
The power with which he was born has been serving a high purpose in his soul. He has chosen to hold onto his power stiffly, fly the nets of the constraints of society, and has found his place in the world. He carved his eternity in between the lines by creating his ethereal life in his language refined from the political structure as a whole. He has reached the highest and most nearly perfect form where
“He becomes the first priest of Art, …while he points that he is still a “young man” at the end of the novel…He simplifies his priestly experience which creates a clash between Stephen’s assumed presence in the society and his actual relationship with life” (79).
Throughout his life, he attempted to grasp the true integrity of external life and internal life. We do not usually concentrate on what a person is saying or meaning in reality, we do not pay attention to the objects around us, nor do we listen to ourselves, and try to understand what they really evoke in our inner world. It has been Stephen’s power just from the beginning, and art does this job for us and has taught us to do so. As an artist, he has always had the same power and he is the
His surname “Dedalus” bears the importance of his experience, itself. He was not a big epic hero like Daedalus and his tragic son Icarus, but he has the same wings of power that they have. He was the contemporary Stephen Hero of his own life by choosing to hold onto that power and emancipate himself to the highness of his Art, to the eternity in between the lines.