ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man explores what it means to become an artist. Stephen’s decision at the end of the novel-to leave his family and friends behind and go into exile in order to become an artist-suggests that Joyce sees the artist as a necessarily isolated figure.

Detailed explanation-2: -The “stream of consciousness” technique was amply used by Modernist writers, particularly by James Joyce who preferred to write about individuality rather than society. By using the interior monologue and the stream of consciousness, James Joyce precedes his later technique in A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man.

Detailed explanation-3: -In A Portrait, the reader learns through the particular experiences of Stephen Dedalus how an artist perceives his surroundings, as well as his views on faith, family, and country, and how these perceptions often conflict with those prescribed for him by society. As a result, the artist feels distanced from the world.

Detailed explanation-4: -A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A Künstlerroman written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, Joyce’s fictional alter ego, whose surname alludes to Daedalus, Greek mythology’s consummate craftsman.