Autobiographical Elements in A Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Introduction:
In some novels the author or narrator records or narrates his own experiences
of life by adding fictional elements. These are known as autobiographical novel.
There are some elements of an autobiographical novel. They are characters,
setting, details, chronological order, point of view, author’s purpose etc. In
this type of novel the characters, themes and incidents are taken from the
author’s real life, but they are presented in an imaginary way. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
is an autobiographical novel. Start with the name. The name of the novel
carries a sign. The phrase “A Portrait of the Artist” seems a symbol of the
self-portraiture of James Joyce. Stephen Dedalus is the protagonist of the
novel. He is a young Irishman. The description of education of Stephen Dedalus
is quite similar to that of James Joyce’s. His background has much similarity
with Joyce’s. The novel covers the first twenty years of Joyce’s life through
Stephen. The characteristics of the protagonist are similar to the life of
Joyce. But it is a bit artistic or fictional than the biography of the author.
The autobiographical elements in this novel are as follows:
1.
Characters:
Some major characters of this novel are Stephen Dedalus, his father who has
failed in various works and barely can support his family financially, his
mother who is dominated by the Catholic church, siblings of Stephen, Mr. Casey,
aunt Dante, Parnel etc. We know that Stephen is a portrait of Joyce. From the
reading of biography of Joyce we know that father of Joyce was just like that
of Stephen in the novel. Joyce’s mother was also very loyal to the Catholic
church. There are some other characters which are similar to the novel. Now if
we focus on the central character of the novel, we see Stephen with the same
intellectuality what is seen in Joyce. Stephen’s thoughts, associations,
feelings and language serve as the primary medium by which the readers can
discover Stephen’s pain, pleasure, experiences of intellectual, sexual and
spiritual elements which actually portray Joyce’s feelings at his time.
2.
Setting:
The novel starts in Dublin which can be considered as the backdrop of the
novel. It is also a symbol of discontentment of Stephen. The time is nearly the
last part of the nineteenth century. We see the sufferings from poverty and
frequent changes of houses of Dedalus family. The rule of Irish Catholicism and
Irish nationalist movement is also included in the settings of the novel. All
the things are just similar to the reading of Joyce’s biography. As Stephen,
Joyce also was born and brought up in Dublin, suffered from poverty and changed
their houses for several times. Not different from Stephen, Dublin was a place
of discontentment to Joyce and the streets of Dublin seemed maze to him from
where he wanted to fly away.
3.
Details:
This element of an autobiographical novel is interesting. Writers of this type
of novel generally use objective and subjective details and fictions to
illustrate their life stories. Objective details can be proved. In this novel objective
details are – birth details, education, religious views, family, love,
emotions, intellectual etc of Stephen. These details are real and are similar
to that of James Joyce. Fictional description is also present there. The name
of the protagonist Stephen Dedalus has a mythical value. The last name Dedalus
was taken from a Latin myth. The myth was about Icarus and his father. Dedalus
was taken from their name. They were jailed and they flew away from there.
Stephen in the novel and Joyce in his real life flew away from their birth
place to fulfill their dream. That is why Joyce used this name of the central
character of his autobiographical novel.
4.
Chronological Order: It is the order in which the life events of the protagonist
occur in which the writers tell their stories. Often events are arranged from
childhood to adulthood. In the novel, through the life events of Stephen, Joyce
actually told his story. He arranged the novel from childhood to adulthood. The
novel tells the story of Stephen Dedalus from his childhood to his young age.
Here we see him to study in the school, his study in the college, see the
development of his character, development of his thought, his intellectual
development etc. All the things are well arranged. So, chronological order an
element of an autobiographical novel is also present in the novel.
5.
Point of View: Point
of view is the perspective from which an autobiography is written. In an
autobiography, story is told from first person point of view where the pronouns
I, me, mine are used. The story is narrated from the point of view of the
author. In the novel the narrator is anonymous, but speaks with the same voice
and tone that Stephen might. Though most of A
portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is in third person, the point of view
is Stephen’s. As Stephen develops as a person, the use of language and
narrating style also develops with him. At the end of the novel we see a
section in which the story is told from Stephen’s diary. This section is in
first person. This discussion shows that this requirement of being an
autobiographical novel is fulfilled.
Conclusion: The above discussion indicates that the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
is an autobiographical novel by James Joyce. The characters, settings, details,
chronological order, point of view etc are some of the elements of an
autobiographical novel. All these elements are present in the novel. In spite
of many similarities Stephen Dedalus is grave, serious but Joyce was witty and
cheerful. On the other hand like Stephen Joyce was self-centered. In fact Stephen
sometimes seems Joyce and sometimes not, it seems clear that Joyce has
portrayed himself through Stephen.
The End
