Flight in "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"

Paper Summary:

The paper focuses on the motif of birds and their association with flight and explores the use and development of this theme throughout Joyce's novel "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". The paper points out that the prevalent motif of birds and their association with flight directs the reader toward Stephen Dedalus' own artistic flight, which is essentially a mirror for Joyce's own departure from Ireland.

From the Paper:

"The motif of flight is presented to the reader at the novel's outset and is initially communicated through allusion. Joyce, and other writers besides, have used allusion to reference works with which the reader is assumed or expected to be familiar. "By drawing attention to it the author establishes a kind of parallel situation in which both the present work and the work alluded to illuminate each other" (Ramsey 11). The Latin epigraph which follows the book's title, "Et ignotas animum dimittit in Artes" (Joyce 6), is derived from the first century Roman poet, Ovid, and may be translated as "and he sets his mind to work upon unknown arts" (Ramsey 11). The source of the quote, Metamorphoses, is the well-known classical story of Daedalus. Daedalus is a mythological figure, a renowned craftsman who designs the famed Labyrinth of Crete for King Minos."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Anderson, Chester G. Ed. James Joyce. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York: Viking Penguin, 1968.
• Harkness, Marguerite. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Voices of the Text. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990.
• Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Text, Criticism and Notes. Ed. Chester G. Anderson. New York: Viking Penguin, 1968.
• Ramsey, Robin. Engl424: Modern British Fiction. Revised First Ed. Unit Two. Burnaby, BC: Open Learning Agency, 2001.
• Riquelme, John Paul. "Stephen Hero, Dubliners, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Styles of Realism and Fantasy." The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce. Ed. Derek Attridge. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

More papers on Flight in "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man":

• Book Review # 50215 : "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"
• Analytical Essay # 57804 : "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man": A Review"
• Analytical Essay # 31960 : "The Artificer and the Labyrinth"

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