Essay on Art in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -- Portrait Ar

Art in A Portrait of the operative as a little Man Stephen Dedalus philosophy of art, expressed in his discussion with Lynch in Chapter Five, seems basically romantic, yet the novel is create verbally in a very realistic mode typical of the 20th century. This apparent inconsistency may direct us to one government agency of interpreting this novel. Dedalus idea of art may be Romantic, but beca manipulation his dry land is no longer the world of the Romantics he has to see art to a greater extent as a fundamental validation of his own being than as a communication of a special vision. Two aspects of Romanticism prognosticate into this analysis of A Portrait of the Artist as a youth Man. First, the Romantics defining belief in some connection between the valet spirit and some higher purpose, and their belief in arts capacity to advert as the vehicle to connect the human with the divine, is the philosophical underpinning of Dedalus esthetic theory. Second, however, the Romant ics overly believed that they were communicating in the words of the people, to the hearts of the people, and this Dedalus cannot quite believe he can do. He senses inchoately that communication of the Romantic vision to a innovational world is impossible. Therefore, Dedalus difficult coming of age as an artist, and perhaps Joyces, records the essentially romantic, Platonic soul, struggling to emerge from the oppressive realities of the mundane world. The Platonic soul has to reject that world because it is not divine, as the Romantics rejected the Enlightenment scientific worldview, but whereas the Romantics of Wordsworths age could believe their role was to communicate this truth by means of poetry to the people, Stephen Dedalus can only withdraw from the world into abstruse theory, or a l... ...religion, its politics, its poverty, its people. Conclusion So when Dedalus finally pronounces his break from his whole upbringing, it is for this movement his Romantic soul doesnt c omport very well with his realists understanding of the world. Since he cannot believe, as Wordsworth did, that the spiritually starved masses were waiting out on that point for his pronouncement of a Grand Vision, he does the only thing he can&emdashhe opts out I will not do that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my native land or my church and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use&emdashsilence, exile, and cunning. (247) Works CitedJoyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York NewAmerican Library, 1991.