Virginia Woolf's a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
In his novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce employs symbols and motifs to illustrate Stephen's maturity and growth. Joyce brings to mind the myth of Icarus and Daedalus, which help us understand Stephen's thoughts and actions. Joyce also includes such symbols as color and water to demonstrate the Stephen's development. In addition, Joyce utilizes motifs such as fire, prayer, and religion to emphasize the incredible impact religion makes on Stephen as a young boy and how it influences his decisions as a young adult.
One significant use of symbolism in "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is the myth of Icarus and Daedalus. Like Icarus and Daedalus, Stephen is wandering and seeking his identity. Because he is on a path to self-discovery, Joyce has Stephen walk the path of many roads. For instance, Stephen is wandering the streets when he happens upon his first sexual encounter. We are told that he "wandered into a maze of narrow and dirty streets" (100). Stephen also wanders "swiftly throughout he dark streets" (139) when he is struggling with his sin. He "walked on and on through illicit streets, fearing to stand still for a moment lest it might seem that he held back from what awaited him" (140). After his confession, we are told the "muddy streets were grey" as a purified Stephen made his way home. Stephen must balance his desire to leave his country with his own abilities. To avoid making a bad decision such as Icarus did, Stephen decides to spend more time at the university and develops his craft of writing.
Stephen is also like Icarus in that he wishes...
Mr. Forster, it seems, has a strong impulse to belong to both camps at once. He has many of the instincts and aptitudes of the pure artist (to adopt the old classification) -- an exquisite prose style, an acute sense of comedy, a power of creating characters in a few strokes which live in an atmosphere of their own; but he is at the same time highly conscious of
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