“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is about the evolution of one character as a child to a man. Stephen Dedalus is a boy who is growing up in Ireland. Through his family, Stephen was heavily influence as a young boy in the Catholic faith and Irish nationality. Therefore he went to a religious boarding school called Clongowes Wood College. He never really liked it there; he was bullied by other boys and was always lonely and homesick that made him enjoy his visits home, even though family had conflicted because of the death of the Irish political leader Charles Parnell. His first sexual experience, with a young prostitute, creates a storm of guilt and shame in Stephen, as he tries to reconcile his physical desires with the stern Catholic morality of his surroundings. The experience scarred him for life. In “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce, Joyce uses the theory of the Oedipus complex to show Stephens character evolve by unconsciously yearning for his own mother.
Stephen lives his life “mainly and normally unconscious” (Joyce 262). According to Freud, Stephen’s unconscious desire is to displace his father and take his place in the affection of his mother. Stephen “may fear that his father will castrate him, and he may wish that his mother would return to nursing him” (Joyce 263), Freud called this the Oedipus complex. In the beginning of the first chapter of the book when Stephen is in class, it was the hours for sums. This was a competition between the York and Lancaster where the York wore the red roses and the Lancaster wore the white roses. Joyce describes the roses as a symbol of being enticing, teasing and appealing because “the little silk badge with the white rose on it that was pinned on the breast of his jacket began to flutter” (25). And the White rose also stands for Stephen. Joyce chooses to place the color of the rose white for Stephen because white usually means purity. Stephen is still young and innocent. So Joyce places the red rose on the opposing team of Stephen which is the Lancaster’s. The color red on the rose is very appealing not only is it the opposite of white but the color draws much attention and have many different meaning to it. The color red can mean love, passion, seduction, or the devil. Joyce describes it as “the little silk badge with the red rose on it looked very rich” (25). Basically in this passage Stephen tries very hard to complete the sum before Lawton does until he “felt his own face red too, thinking of all the bets about who would get first place in elements, Jack Lawton of he”(25). Stephen wants to win the competition until his own face turns red which red in this case means embarrass and frustration because he’s not winning and he can’t figure out the problem. It also stands for Jack Lawton because he is Stephens’s rival. But the symbol rose and the color red symbolizes Stephen development in experience is because through this event “his white silk badge fluttered and fluttered as he worked at the next sum” (25). In a sense he is losing his innocence because he wants to win and the red rose is luring him. These symbols represent him gaining experience of being competitive. In the oedipal complex there is a competition between the Stephen and another male. In this case the rose can almost stand for his mother but Lawton is not his competitor but it is Father Arnall. During the math competition when Stephen stop competing it was Father Arnall’s voice that he hears that discourages him, “…he worked at the next sum and heard Father Arnall’s voice. Then all the eagerness passed away and he felt his face quite cool” (Joyce 25). Stephen fears of his father and any threatening males in general because unconsciously he fears of being castrated. Ironically “Father” Arnall is the father figure. Then Stephen gives up the rose and imagine about other roses of all sorts of color such as green. Stephen’s mother would be the rose that he gave up and the imaginary rose would be the girls that he thinks about to replace his mother, such as E-C. After awhile Stephen “longed to…lay his head on his mother’s lap…he longed for the play and study and prayers to be over and to be in bed” (joyce 26). But later that day Wells came over to Stephen and said “ Tell us, Dedalus, do you kiss your mother every night before you go to bed…Stephen answered I do…the other fellows stopped their game and turned round, laughing ” (Joyce 26-27). In this scene Wells is the father figure because he’s is threatening Stephen. Stephen is separated from the other boys by a sense of guilt from the competition that makes him feel threatened by them, and the source of guilt is touched when Wells ask Stephen the question. After Stephen feels miserable from being teased and he thinks of the square ditch. The ditch is significant because it symbolizes the womb. “The cold slimy of the ditch covered his whole body; and, when the bell rang for study and the lines filed out of the play rooms he felt the cold air of the corridor and staircase inside his clothes”(27). Mentally Stephen pulls himself into his own world, this in which is the womb. Stephen starts to alienate himself from other people whenever he feels that he is being threatened by a father figure. He yearns for his mother and whenever he does that is when he isolates himself from the world, it’s as though he is physically going back into his mothers womb. Yet she is his source of comfort and protection from reality. And there he contemplates whether it was right to kiss his mother and thinks of how she’d kiss him good night. Stephen put his “face up like that to say good night and then his mother put her face down. That was a kiss. His mother put her lips on his cheek; her lips were soft and they wetted his cheek; and they made a tiny little noise: kiss” (Joyce 27). Through Stephen’s evolution as a character he is faced with many male interference in this first passage he is scared by Father Arnall’s voice which causes him to stop competing. And then he is teased by Wells who brings out his insecurity of whether it was right to kiss his mother. Stephens unable to change the fact that he is scared of any male figures for he unconsciously fears of being castrated. And whenever he feels lonely from the world he search for his mother’s comfort that’s why he creates and look for women to replace his mother.
Consequently Stephen is lead into his greatest sin. As Stephen is wandering from street to street through that autumnal evening along Blackrock,
in the pause of his desire…the image of Mercedes traversed the background of his memory. He saw again the small white house and the garden of rosebushes on the road that led to the mountains and he remembered the sadly proud gesture of refusal which he was to make there, standing with her in her moonlit garden after years of estrangement and adventure (Joyce 97).
In this quote the rose represents a woman; usually a rose is associated with a woman’s beauty. When he sees any woman, rose is always brought up. The beauty of the rose or woman attracts him, like wanting a woman. Then he thinks at that moment “the soft speeches of Claude Melnotte rose to his lips and eased his unrest” (97). Stephen associates his lust and desire for a woman to Claude Melnotte, a hero of The Lady of Lyons. But the symbol rose is used in a different term where it means to gain experience. In this case he wants to complete his desire and lust for a woman and that woman would be his mother. Once again Stephen is imagining another woman to replace his mother he yearns for her touch. Therefore, after his imagination drifts off he walks into a “maze of narrow dirty street…women and girls dressed in long vivid gowns”(Joyce 98), Stephen stayed with a prostitute that night and slept with her .
Give me a kiss…his lips would not bend to kiss her. He wanted to be held firmly in her arms, to be caressed slowly, slowly, slowly. In her arms he felt that he had suddenly become strong and fearless and sure of himself. But his lips would not bend to kiss her (Joyce 99).
Stephen takes his desire for his mother to reality, he thinks of the prostitute more like his mother, that’s why he’s reluctant to kiss her. He only wants to be held in her arms because he feels fearless. Stephen is reluctant to kiss her because of the scene where Well’s teases him if he kisses his mother or not. Stephen can’t stop but surrender to his unconscious fate. Stephen pushes himself to alienate everyone else because unconsciously all he needs is his mother. He depends on other to make himself happy.
Through Stephens’s evolution as a character he faces Emma in the last chapter. They both had a conversation. Stephen says things such as “ Asked me was I writing a poem...about whom...I asked her…this confused her more and I felt sorry and mean…I made a sudden gesture…I must have looked like a fellow throwing a handful of peas up into the air” (Joyce 223) and left. He finally meets the woman that he loves but can’t talk to her. Because Stephen became so alienated from the rest of the world that he has a hard time communicating to people, he does the wrong gesture and gives people the wrong impression. Stephen has always been hiding himself. He’s always been lonely and feels a sense of insecurity. And that’s why he needs his mother so much. But the Oedipal complex is a major part of his unconscious psyche. Basically this theory shaped him.
So therefore, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce, Joyce uses the theory of the Oedipal complex to show Stephens character evolve by unconsciously yearning for his own mother which pushes him to become an artist. Stephen’s “feeling that he is destined to become an artist is viewed to as just another myth “generated by his “neurotic need” (Joyce 271).
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