A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Book summary

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was the debut novel of the celebrated modernist Irish writer, James Joyce. The book was first published serially in the magazine The Egoist with the help of Joyce’s contemporary modernist writer, Ezra Pound. James Joyce built a foothold for himself in the literary world by breaking away from long-held literary traditions and striking out to create new forms of storytelling. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man makes use of the stream-of-consciousness style to take readers through the life of an artist in the making. The book is categorized as a Künstlerroman, a form of Bildungsroman: a coming-of-age story. Künstlerroman novels focus on the development of an artist, accordingly, this book goes over Joyce’s journey to being an artist. The author combined two different manuscripts to create this novel, one of these was called Stephen Hero, and was completely biographically in nature while the other manuscript was focused on a discussion of aesthetics. 

Stephen is an impressionable individual since his childhood, which is set in Ireland at the close of the 19th century. He comes from a wealthy catholic family and is raised by a particularly devout governess, who feels that Stephen ought to be punished for his childish desire to marry Eileen, a Protestant girl from their neighborhood. He attends Clongowes Wood School and initially has trouble making friends. Stephen is pushed into a cesspool by one of the boys and suffers from a severe fever that worries the medical officer at his school. Stephen returns home for Christmas dinner, but the pleasant affair is interrupted by an ugly argument on Charles Parnell between Stephen’s governess and one of his father’s friends. He returns to Clongowes and has an easier time assimilating with his peers. Stephen impresses his classmates by getting the rector to side with him against a prefect who had punished him for not having his glasses.

In the summer, Stephen’s family suffers financial losses that force them to leave their home. Stephen spends a little time with his Uncle Charles, and immerses himself in the world of The Count of Monte Cristo, to keep from thinking about his family’s problems. Their family relocates to a poor section of Dublin, and Stephen meets a young girl named Emma, who incites romantic feelings in him. At the end of the summer, Stephen learns that he will not be able to return to Clongowes since his father can no longer afford to pay for the tuition. Stephen begins to attend Belvedere College in Ireland and builds a reputation for himself as a quiet, studious, and pious student. He is still an outsider amongst his peers, but his reason for exile is now his choice of English poets. Stephen is particularly alienated from his father, who Stephen has come to recognize as a lecherous alcoholic and a poor businessman. Stephen wins an essay competition that supplies him with a large sum of money, but he spends that money very quickly. On one of his nights of wandering through the streets of Dublin, Stephen finds himself in the quarters of a prostitute.

He continues to visit prostitutes and tries to separate himself from the sinful nature of his acts by creating an abstraction within himself. However, Stephen is forced to confront the immorality of his actions during a religious retreat that is organized by his school. He attends the sermons of a Jesuit priest who talks at length of death, judgment, and particularly hell. Stephen’s imagination runs rampant with the idea that he has doomed himself to hell by being with prostitutes. He has a nightmare about hell and decides to confess and set his life in a new direction. Stephen’s confession is rather underwhelming, but he immerses himself completely in religious doctrine. He spends all of his time praying and attempting to mortify his senses so that they do not stray toward temptation. His religious piety becomes blatantly clear to the authorities at his school, and his rector asks him to consider a future as a priest. At first, Stephen is seduced by the idea of priesthood, which would solve a lot of his family’s problems and give him a position of power. However, Stephen realizes that he cannot live a life so tightly bound and instead decides to pursue a future in academia. Stephen learns from his siblings that his family is being evicted yet again. He sees a girl in the water on a beach and experiences deep and reverential appreciation for her beauty.

Stephen is soon disillusioned from academia, but he goes through profound personal changes during his education at the university. He stops being socially awkward and quiet around his peers. He becomes more confident about expressing his personal views even when they run contrary to the status quo. His newly acquired ability to express himself allows Stephen to create a circle of intimate friends that include a young man called Cranly. Stephen can explore his feelings of love for Emma, and compose a poem for her that he is confident enough to share in the narrative. Eventually, Stephen comes to realize that he is seeking complete independence from the institutes that had ruled his life so far. This occurs in a conversation with Cranly as Stephen is discussing how upset his mother became when he told her that he would not attend the Easter service at church. Stephen realizes that he can no longer be held down by his family, Irish politics, and religion. He drops out of university and begins to pursue the life of an artist.