The Portrait of a Maestro. Review on Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A - James Joyce

Hi Friends, Let me first tell you something interesting about this novel that it is synonymous with the life and times of James Joyce himself and was termed as his autobiography.

This novel depicts the story of a young man “Stephen Dedalus” staying in Ireland. It explores his life journey through various stages of his development interlinked with various phases of his life which leads him to eventually becoming an artist. It shows the struggle of Stephen in his growing up years, his stints while fitting appropriately in to the society and also about religion. It starts with Stephen reciting his early stage of life at the age of six when he is studying in an esteemed boarding School. Stephen’s parents are not in a position to afford the expenditure of this boarding School and thereafter Stephen moves over to another less prestigious institution. He excels there in his acting and writing skills. He doesn’t possess the religious intenseness like his mother nor is he inclined to politics like his father. He is in search of some one who perfectly complements and understands him. He desperately wants to create an individual identity of his on his own. He doesn’t have many friends and one fine day he comes across a prostitute and goes through his first sexual convergence with her. Thereafter he feels remorse for the sins that he has committed till now and hence due to it adopts Catholicism momentarily and seeks forgiveness of his sins during a church retreat for his School. The priest over there preaches in general about the eternal damnation of the hell and penance. At that stage Stephen feels that these discourses are targeted towards him and the sins that he has committed till now and then he approaches the priest and confesses. He attends the mass religiously every day and once he feels that whatever he had confessed to the priest was not that licit enough. Another priest of his school observes the newly found piety of Stephen and asks him whether he would consider becoming a priest. Stephen wants to think over it and later goes to a beach where his subconscious mind is deeply pondering over the action of becoming a priest where he observes a lovely girl standing inside the water and as he starts moving away from her, he substantiates that it is certainly not bad to want all the lovely and beautiful things in life. Every thing in his country Ireland is now tormenting him and hence he adjudicates that the only way that he can be happy is to leave Ireland and become an artist.

There is apt symbolization of birds used in the novel which complements the life journey of Stephen at times. Joyce has used symbolism, syntax as well as complex jargon language, which can be very tough at times for the simple reader. It would test all your decoding skills. Regarding the surname of Stephen which is Dedalus, let me point out that Dedalus, in Greek mythology is a person whose father made wings for him to fly and Stephen was just like that, wanting to fly away from all his troubles and things that tormented him and he also was pretty desperate to free himself as a person that he once used to be in the past.

This book is not an easy read at all. There is no specific plot line available for the reader which may hamper his interest a little bit if he is conscious in that regard. You have to get completely engrossed while reading it and may be it may happen that the meaning of some parts will only be understood after you read it two or three times, but once you catch hold of it, believe me, you will definitely love the uncanny and masterly command of the language and symbols used by Joyce in it.

I personally loved this book. It shows that how certain people are bothered and disturbed over certain things that happen in their life. It is nice to see that Stephen is happy in the end with his life even though he has to leave his country in pursuit of happiness and he finds it eventually after becoming an artist.He felt released from a lifetime of confusion and restraint and started feeling good about his life thereafter.

I would definitely recommend this novel for lovers of philosophy and also for those who love to take on the challenges of reading regardless of the subject.” A portrait of the artist as a young man” is a fascinating read for book lovers who are ready to take on the challenge of understanding the hardcore and sometimes inexplicable stuff mixed with strange and weird human emotions depicted by Joyce in it. It’s not the usual run of the mill stuff that you simply read and enjoy. It’s far above exceptional. It’s a brain wrencher at times, but if you have the inclination, interest and the will to overcome complexity with flair, then you are welcome aboard to witness a gripping, intensifying and entrancing saga depicted in it through the masterful eyes and skillful and philosophical writing of the unmatched maestro, James Joyce.