What is the connection between the "artist" and "young man" of Stephen Dedalus' character in A Portrait of the artist as a young man? * How does Stephen make difficult moral and aesthetic choices that help to define his character?

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Stephen's Character and Aesthetic Theory in “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”

Submitted to:

Aroop Saha

Assistant Professor

Department of English

Stamford University Bangladesh

                                                                                                 Submitted by:

                                                                                                 Halima Tabassum

                                                                                                 ID: ENG 063-07441

                                                                                                 Department of English

                                                                                                 Stamford University Bangladesh

                                                                   

                                                                    Dedication

I would like to dedicate my thesis to my Supervisor—

Aroop Saha

whose love, affection, encouragement, and blessings of days and nights have always been a source of inspiration for me.

Declaration

I certify that the work presented in this dissertation is my original work to the best of my knowledge and belief. The contributions of other sources and information have been acknowledged wherever they have been used. I, hereby, declare that I have not submitted this material, either in a whole or part, previously or concurrently in this or any other institution.

                                                                                Signature:

Halima Tabassum

ID: ENG 06307441

                                                                                                                        November, 2021

Acknowledgement

First, I would like to thank almighty Allah for completing my Thesis paper on time and for giving me the physical and mental strength. I immensely thank my thesis supervisor Mr. Aroop Saha for her supportive guidance and precise responses. Without her support and guidance, it would have been very difficult for me to complete the thesis on time. I would like to thank my friend Shamima Sultana for helping me out spontaneously, especially for the progression of this paper. I would like to thank some of my closest friends: Farzana Miti, Asma Ul Hosna, Sharoar Hossain, and many more for their mental support. I want to thank the participants who took part in my research section. I would also like to show my respect and love towards my parents and cousins for their support and encouragement.

Abstract

Stephen Dedalus showed that Joyce tried to capture the insufficiency of self-awareness and freedom in his life, which comes into contact with universal feelings of detachment, guilt, and awakening. The result's the relationships that are supported wrong factors and consequently rather than shaping a brand new possibilities, results in loss, failure, and destruction. Through the novel, by close looking, it becomes obvious that reality is totally different from what appears within the story and therefore the mind of Stephen. Stephen chooses to be an artist because he wants to be free from all the foundations and regulations. He escapes from this material world by using wax wings, which is symbol of his free soul. We will see all of that despair, loneliness, and feeling of guilt, which happen to him, because he's ineffectual to just accept others. So he tortures himself by exile and jailing within an imaginary fence so as to be off from others. He experiences a form of exile, silence, and cunning which shows nationality and non secular of him.

Keywords: James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus, Stephen's aesthetic theory, exile, loneliness, guilt.

Table of Contents

Stephen's Character and Aesthetic Theory in “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”

Halima Tabassum

Stamford University Bangladesh


Chapter 1

Introduction

              James Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882, became one all told the foremost important writers that we've ever known. He was the son of a genius but an incompetent father who is described exactly by "Stephen Dedalus" in an exceedingly Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, as someone who is appeared within the story because the protagonist and antihero, who is " the chief person in the modern novel whose character is widely discrepant from that of traditional protagonist or hero. instead of manifesting largeness, dignity, power or heroism, the antihero, like Stephen Dedalus in Joyce's work, is petty, ignominious, passive, clownish, or dishonest" (Abrams, 2009, p. 10).

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            As we see during the story that how he becomes petty by the words of his College friends in chapter one, because of his name and rank. When Joyce was a baby, Ireland had been under British rule since the sixteenth century, and tension between Ireland and Britain had been high. Additionally to political strife, there was religious tension between Catholics, the majority of Irish, and Protestants. James Joyce's whole education from age six to nine was at Clongowes Wood College and from age eleven to the age sixteen at Belvedere College in Dublin ...

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