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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
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Shmoop: Classics

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) (edit title/settings)

by James Joyce (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man portrays Stephen Dedalus's Dublin childhood and youth, providing an oblique self-portrait of the young James Joyce. At its center are questions of origin and source, authority and authorship, and the relationship of an artist to his family, culture, and... read more

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Mary Dedalus: Stephen's mother
  • Stephen Daedalus: Protagonist and Joyce's persona
  • Cranly: Stephen's best friend at the university, in whom he confides his thoughts and feelings.
  • Mr. John Casey: Simon Dedalus's friend, who attends the Christmas dinner at which young Stephen is allowed to sit with the adults for the first time.
  • Davin: Another of Stephen's friends at the university.
  • Uncle Charles: Stephen's lively great uncle.
  • Dixon: Stephen's friend
  • Vincent Heron: A rival of Stephen's at Belvedere
  • Dolan: Stephen's friend
  • Fleming: Friend of the main character, Stephen.
  • John: Stephen's Grandfather
  • Stevie: Stephen Dedalus protagonist
  • Moonan: Stephen's friend
  • Arnall: Stephen's classmate
  • Moynihan: Stephen's classmate
  • Lynch: Stephen's friend
  • Simon Moonan: Stephen's classmate
  • Wells: Stephen's friend
  • Roche: Stephen's friend
  • Parnell: Stephen's friend
  • Brother Michael: Stephen's teacher, a Jesuit.
  • Mary: Classmate
  • Nash: Writer who wrote works Stephen has read
  • Francis Xavier: St. Francis patron saint of the Jesuits
  • Mr Gleeson: Stephen's teacher
  • Father Dolan: The cruel prefect of studies at Clongowes Wood College
  • Glynn: Stephen's friend
  • Dante (Mrs. Riordan): The extremely fervent and piously Catholic governess of the Dedalus children.
  • Aquinas: Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism
  • Cecil Thunder: Stephen's friend
  • Jack Lawton: Stephen's friend
  • Adam: Stephen's friend
  • Corrigan: Stephen's friend
  • Wallis: Stephen's friend
  • Donovan: Stephen's friend
  • Byron: Stephen's friend
  • Mr Tate: Stephen's teacher
  • Temple: Stephen's friend
  • Mike Flynn: Stephen's friend
  • Eileen Vance: A young girl who lives near Stephen when he is a young boy.
  • Boland: Stephen's friend
  • Newman: Stephen's friend
  • Goggins: Stephen's friend
  • Simon Dedalus: Stephen's father, an impoverished former medical student with a strong sense of Irish patriotism.
  • Emma Clery: Stephen's beloved, the young girl to whom he is fiercely attracted over the course of many years.
Show all 45 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “It shocked him to find in the outer world a trace of what he had deemed till then a brutish and individual malady of his own mind.”
    Stephen Dedalus
  • “Pride and hope and desire like crushed herbs in his heart sent up vapours of maddening incense before the eyes of his mind.”
  • “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Make up your minds for that.”
  • “He was destined to learn his own wisdom apart from others or to learn the wisdom of others himself wandering among the snares of the world.”
  • “Per aspera ad astra.”
  • “Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.”
  • “He was alone. He was unheeded, happy and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight and gayclad lightclad figures of children and girls and voices childish and girlish in the air.”
  • “Minor poets, I suppose, are above such trivial questions as the questions of universal peace.”
    Mac Cann
  • “You have yet to learn the dignity of altruism and the responsibility of the human individual.”
  • “This race and this country produced me. I shall express myself as I am.”
    Stephen Daedalus

First Sentence edit see section history

ONCE UPON A TIME and a very good time it was there was a moo-cow coming down along the road and this moocow that was down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo... His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a glass: he had a hairy face.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Shmoop: Classics. (publisher series)
This is book 3 of 93 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: The Board's List. (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Great Gatsby, and followed by Lolita.

This is book 57 of 98 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: Reader's List. (authoritative list)

Preceded by On the Beach, and followed by Greenmantle.

This is book 95 of 113 in Book Smart Reading List. (community list)

Preceded by The Go-Between, and followed by To Kill a Mockingbird.

This is book 37 of 91 in The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time, 2004. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Le Père Goriot, and followed by Wuthering Heights.

This is book 736 of 1272 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Bunner Sisters, and followed by Under Fire.

This is book 15 of 214 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)

Preceded by To Kill a Mockingbird, and followed by The Color Purple.

This book is in Kunstlerroman. (community list)
This book is in Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century. (edition-based publisher list)
This is book 21 of 100 in 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction. (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Sun Also Rises, and followed by The Great Gatsby.

This book is in Penguin Classics. (edition-based publisher list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This book is in Bildungsroman. (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. James Joyce (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 1916
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 253

Classification edit see section history

Movie Connections edit see section history

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