A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Characters)

Characters

Father Arnall

Father Arnall is a Jesuit priest who teaches at Clongowes Wood College, the first school that Stephen Dedalus attends.

Mr. John Casey

Mr. Casey is a friend of Stephen Dedalus's father, Simon Dedalus, in Chapter One. When Mr. Casey visits, young Stephen likes to sit near him and look at "his dark fierce face." Stephen notices that "his dark eyes were never fierce and his slow voice was good to listen to." He gets into the argument with Dante on Christmas, asserting that the Church should stay out of politics and leave Charles Stuart Parnell alone.

Uncle Charles

Charles is Stephen Dedalus's great-uncle. He is present at the family's Christmas dinner in Chapter One but does not take part in the argument. Indeed, he seems somewhat bewildered and only mutters a few vague comments to try to calm things down. Uncle Charles is kindly but slightly eccentric and ineffectual. Later in the chapter readers learn that he has died.

Father Conmee

A Jesuit priest who is the rector (principal) of Clongowes Wood College, the first school that Stephen Dedalus attends. In Chapter One, after Father Dolan pandies Stephen (punishes him by hitting his hands with a stick known as a pandybat), Stephen's friends urge him to go to Father Conmee and report Father Dolan. Although he is afraid to do so, Stephen works up the necessary courage and goes to Father Conmee's room. Although Stephen (and the reader) expects that Father Conmee will react angrily, he in fact receives Stephen in a kindly manner and listens to his complaint sympathetically. Stephen's visit to the rector is his first act of independence and self-determination. Stephen'sfather later reveals that Father Conmee has told him about this incident, and that the rector and Father Dolan had a good laugh over it.

Cranly

A friend of Stephen Dedalus at University College, Dublin, Cranly appears in Chapter Five and is one of the four friends who tries to tempt Stephen. The opposite of Davin in many respects, Cranly is sophisticated and irreverent. Stephen finds Cranly's accent and use of language dull; it reminds him of "an echo of the quays of Dublin given back by a bleak decaying seaport" and its energy "an echo of the sacred eloquence of Dublin given back flatly by a Wicklow pulpit." He represents expedience, compromise, and hypocrisy. Beneath his bluster, Stephen also perceives a form of despair in him.

Davin

Davin is a friend of Stephen Dedalus and a student at University College, Dublin. Davin appears in Chapter Five and is one of the four friends who tries to tempt Stephen. He is from the Irish countryside and is described as a peasant. His speech has both "rare phrases of Elizabethan English" and "quaintly turned versions of Irish idioms." Strong and athletic, Davin is honest, straightforward, and without guile. He calls Stephen "Stevie." In the book, he represents Irish nationalism, a viewpoint that Stephen rejects. Davin is a member of the Gaelic League, an organization that advocates a return to the Irish language and traditional Irish sports.

Dean of Studies

Stephen Dedalus discusses his ideas of art and beauty with the unnamed Dean of Studies at University College, Dublin. The Dean, a Jesuit priest and an Englishman, is kindly and approachable. He also displays a dry sense of humor, remarking that "We have the liberal arts and we have the useful arts." The Dean acknowledges that Stephen is an artist. He tells Stephen that "the object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is is another question."

Mrs. Dedalus

Stephen's mother's first name is never given, and although she appears on several occasions she remains a more shadowy character than her husband, Simon Dedalus, Stephen's father. Like most of the other characters, she seems to exist only in relation to Stephen. The character is based largely on Joyce's mother, Mary Jane Murray.

Mr. Simon Dedalus

Simon is Stephen's father. Based on Joyce's own father, John, Mr. Dedalus appears in only a few scenes, but his presence is omnipresent. He is generally portrayed as an amiable man, but there is also a sense of failure about him. He is known as a storyteller. During the novel, Mr. Dedalus suffers some financial misfortune; to save money he has to take Stephen out of Clongowes Wood College and move the family to a smaller house. When he takes Stephen to visit his hometown, Cork, in southwest Ireland, he regales Stephen with tales that Stephen has heard before. In an attempt at a heart-to-heart talk, he advises Stephen to "mix with gentlemen."

As Stephen grows older, he regards his father with some embarrassment and distances himself from the older man. In Chapter Five, while talking to his friend Cranly, Stephen "glibly" describes his father as "a medical student, an oarsman, a tenor, an amateur actor, a shouting politician, a small landlord, a small investor, a drinker, a good fellow, a storyteller, somebody's secretary, something in a distillery, a taxgatherer, a bankrupt, and at present a praiser of his own past." There is the implication that in rejecting Ireland and deciding to pursue a course of creative independence, Stephen is also rejecting his father and his father's failure.

Stephen Dedalus

Stephen Dedalus is the "artist" and "young man" of the title. It is impossible to consider him in the way that a reader would consider most characters in fiction, for his roles goes far beyond that merely of central character. He is the sole focus of the book, and the events of the novel are filtered through his consciousness. His presence is felt on every page.

The character is based largely on Joyce himself. The name "Stephen Dedalus" itself has symbolic significance. Saint Stephen was the first Christian martyr, put to death for professing his beliefs. In Greek mythology, Dedalus was an inventor who escaped from the island of Crete using wings that he had made; however, his son Icarus flew too near the sun, melting the waxen wings and crashing into the sea. From the novel's opening page, it is clear that Stephen is sensitive, perceptive, intelligent, and curious. He also proves to be aloof and at times arrogant and self-important. Moreover, despite his intelligence, he is often the victim of his own self-deception.

Joyce's narrative is not continuous, and there is no "plot" as such. Rather, the book is a series of "portraits" of Stephen at various important moments in his young life, from his introduction as an infant ("baby tuckoo") through selected schoolboy experiences to his declaration of artistic independence as a student at University College, Dublin. The process of Stephen's maturation is registered in his expanding awareness of the world and in the novel's increasingly sophisticated use of language. His relationship to his family, schoolmates, teachers, friends, religion, and country as well as to his own language form the essence of this novel.

In a series of epiphanies and corresponding anti-epiphanies, Stephen alternately affirms and rejects different aspects of his existence. In so doing, he makes difficult moral and aesthetic choices that help to define his character. Perhaps the most telling characterization of him occurs during the episode set in Cork. Here, Joyce describes Stephen as "proud and sensitive and suspicious, battling against the squalor of his life and against the riot of his mind." In the final chapter Stephen confides to his friend Cranly that he will henceforth rely on "the only arms I allow myself to use — silence, exile, and cunning." Given the originality of James Joyce's conception of this character, it is significant to note that the book ends not with Stephen himself but with excerpts from his diary that indicate his intention to "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."

Father Dolan

Father Dolan is a Jesuit priest who is the prefect of studies at Clongowes Wood College, the first school that Stephen Dedalus attends. He punishes Stephen. Believing he has been punished unfairly, Stephen later goes to see the rector, Father Conmee, and reports this injustice. Father Conmee listens sympathetically and promises that he will speak to Father Dolan. Stephen's defiance of Father Dolan earns him the acclaim of his schoolmates and is seen as his first assertion of his independence. Later in the book, Stephen's father reveals that Father Conmee and Father Dolan had a good laugh over this incident.

Vincent Heron

Heron is a boy who is a friend of Stephen Dedalus and a fellow student at Belvedere College. The relationship between the boys is uneasy: as two of the top boys at the school, they are as much rivals as friends. There is a disturbing edge to Heron's mockery of Stephen. Heron criticizes Stephen for saying that Byron is the greatest poet of all. Heron and his friends verbally and physically abuse Stephen, but Stephen refuses to give in to Heron's insistence that Tennyson is the best poet. Heron also strikes Stephen twice on the leg with his cane to make him admit that he is interested in a particular girl. Stephen notices that Heron's face is "beaked like a bird's. He had often thought it strange that Vincent Heron had a bird's face as well as a bird's name."

Lynch

Lynch is a friend of Stephen Dedalus and a fellow student at University College, Dublin. Described by Joyce as appearing reptilian, he argues with Stephen about art and aesthetics. In this respect, he represents a foil for Stephen, allowing him (and, by extension, Joyce himself) to expound his own theory of art and beauty. Although he seems to be interested in Stephen's long intellectual talk, Lynch is really unable to appreciate Stephen's ideas or to contribute to the conversation on Stephen's level. Whereas Stephen has high artistic aspirations, Lynch's personal goals are much narrower. He will be satisfied with a job and a conventional life.

Mrs. Dante Riordan

Dante is introduced on the first page of the novel, when she and Uncle Charles applaud young Stephen's dancing. Dante introduces the theme of the Church and politics. Stephen is conscious of the fact that Dante has two brushes: "The brush with the maroon velvet back was for Michael Davitt and the brush with the green velvet back was for Par-nell." (The two brushes have symbolic significance.)

Dante later appears at Christmas dinner at the Dedaluses, where she has a furious argument with Mr. Casey. The argument centers around the Church's denunciation of the Irish nationalist politician Charles Stuart Parnell, who had an affair with a married woman, Kitty O'Shea. Dante, a devout Catholic, argues that it was right for the Church to denounce the sinful Parnell, who she calls "a traitor, an adulterer!" She says that the Irish people should submit to the authority of the bishops and priests, even if this means losing a chance for independence. Mr. Casey, who is also a Catholic, bitterly resents the Church's actions in the Parnell case. He argues that the clergy should stay out of politics. The argument escalates, and the chapter ends as Dante flies out of the room in a rage, slamming the door behind her. Stephen does not understand why Dante is against Parnell, but he has heard his father say that she was "a spoiled nun."

Temple

Temple is a friend of Stephen Dedalus at University College, Dublin. Temple appears in Chapter Five and is one of the four friends who tries to tempt Stephen. Described by Joyce as a "gypsy student with olive skin and lank black hair," he professes to be a socialist and to believe in universal brotherhood, but he does not present a strong intellectual argument for his beliefs. Temple admits that he is "an emotional man. And I'm proud that I'm an emotionalist."

Eileen Vance

Eileen is the first girl Stephen knows. In his early childhood, Stephen imagines that "when they were grown up he was going to marry Eileen." He particularly notices her "long white hands," which feel cool to his touch and which he likens to ivory. Dante does not want Stephen to play with Eileen because she is a Protestant.

Media Adaptations

• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was adapted as a feature film by Judith Rascoe, directed by Joseph Strick, and starring Bosco Hogan, T. P. McKenna, Rosaleen Linehan, John Gielgud, Maureen Potter, Brian Murray, and Luke Johnson, Ulysse, 1979. Available from Howard Mahler. Distributed by Instructional Video.
• The book was also recorded, unabridged, in a series of eight sound cassettes, read by Donal Donnelly. Available from Recorded Books, Prince Frederick, MD, 1991. The publisher's catalogue number is 91106.