Essay: Identity: Choices of Stephen and Paul in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Sons and Lovers

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Essay: Identity: Choices of Stephen and Paul in A Portrait of the Art…

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저자 : 이풍호 Paul Lee     시집명 : Collected Essays
출판(발표)연도 : 1991. 9. 4     출판사 : Eastwind Press, Los Angeles, California
Paul Lee
English 320
Professor David Carroll
September 4, 1991
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Identity: Choices of Stephen and Paul in A Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man and Sons and Lovers


Stephen Dedalus, in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man, and Paul Morel, in D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, are both young artists who become the maturing men from their early childhood. The stories of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Sons and Lovers show the readers processes of "growing into manhood - identities" of Stephen and Paul through the relationships in their families and with the societies. What points can be described for "growing into the identities" Stephen and Paul finally choose for themselves? For the answer of this question, I analyze, in this writing, some points about the authors, James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence, and Stephen and Paul as the major characters of the novels.

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A Portrait of the Artist as young Man and Sons and Lovers are the autobiographical works of James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence. James Joyce, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, attempts to describe his real life into a fiction. Most of the characters in the novel are based on people who actually existed in Joyce's life. In almost every episode, he portrays the characters as fictional representations of religious, social, and cultural elements of Ireland as they influence a maturing, sensitive young artist Stephen Dedalus.
Stephen Dedalus is portrayed as "hero of Catholic artist" in the novel and Joyce, in order to highlight the importance of Stephen's aesthetic experiences, borrows a word from the Catholic faith. Stephen's thoughts, associations, feelings, and language in the novel serve as the primary vehicles by the reader sharing the pain and pleasures of adolescence with Stephen, as well as the stimulating experiences of intellectual, sexual, and spiritual discoveries.
As Joyce's real life, Stephen needs to escape the bonds of Irish nationalism and Catholicism, both of which seemed to threaten his pursuit of a literary career. Symbolically, Stephen, like Daedalus in the Greek myth, feels compelling to find a means of escape from the

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labyrinth of Dublin which threatens him with spiritual, cultural, and artistic restraints. Similarly, Stephen, like Icarus in the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus, ignores the warnings of family and clergy and is symbolically drawn toward a philosophical illumination which ultimately casts him into sin and leads him to renounce his Catholic faith.
As D. H. Lawrence's great autobiographical novel, Sons and Lovers is a provocative portrait of an artist Paul Morel who is torn between love for his possessive mother and desire for two young beautiful women. Set in the Nottinghamshire coal fields of Lawrence's own boyhood for 21 years, the story of young Paul's growing into manhood in a British working-class family life with conflict reveals both an inner and an outer world seething with intense emotions.
Paul is delicate and quiet after his mother Gertrude Morel like a shadow as he grows up. Usually active and interested, he sometimes is in depression. As he grows older, he cries, not often, but often enough to concern his mother so that she always treats Paul a little differently from the other children. As he grows up, Paul particularly hates his father Walter Morel. He hates seeing his father's beating and quarrelling with his

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mother. As a young boy, his greatest joy is to please his mother. After William's death, Paul becomes to keep a close relationship with his mother. In the relationship with Miriam and Clara, there is always, at the back of Paul's conscience, the spirit of his mother and her domination of him. Finally, Paul cannot fulfill his needs from the relationship with Miriam and Clara because of his mother's jealousy.
Mrs. Morel arouses sexual emotions in Paul and by her intense possessiveness, she makes it impossible for Paul to feel a normal, sexual desire for women. Acknowledging this problem, Paul feels it is impossible for him to love and marry another woman while his mother is alive. We can see Mrs. Morel, when she is seriously ill and draws nearer to death, seems to become more and more, the young, tender girl, in love with Paul. Now she knows of the love she dreamed of and can never have with Paul. She finally realizes she must leave her son Paul. Stephen, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, develops an early, introspective, intellectual curiosity. Like many sensitive young men, Stephen is ashamed of his family's ever-tight finances. Later, he is troubled when he realizes the ineffectiveness and emptiness of both Irish nationalism and Catholicism. Eventually, Stephen

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feels himself becoming increasingly isolated from others. Finally, he vows to escapes all forms of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual repression. At the end of novel, Stephen, with his mythic name like Daedalus, leaves Ireland for the Continent, in searching of his artistic soul - freedom by succeeding in escaping the labyrinth of cultural restraints.
In conclusion, Stephen, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, "chooses" to forge his future - "identity" by first testing his new philosophy against the established customs and restrictions of Dublin society. Almost systematically, he interacts with his family and his friends, and one by one, he alienates himself from them, as well as from the values that they represent. Although we might not agree that it is necessary for Stephen to break free of all the bonds tying him to his disappointing and unfulfilled past, we acknowledge that he alone must make the decision about leaving Ireland. Noting Stephen's departing from his homeland, in search of himself - his "identity", we can be sure that he possesses the confidence, the egocentrism. Also, we can realize it is clear that Stephen's lessons in his life have only begun, but he will stand up for his art, freedom, and sexuality while

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he is dedicating himself to the pursuit of such a life.
In D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, Paul is a lone man, the artist, searching for "identity" and meaning in his life. He must find his answers by himself, like Stephen, from his background (boyhood) of the mining community, industrial England, and from the strong influence of his mother. When his mother dies, Paul feels his soul can only leave his mother's soul with his death. But some remaining spirit in him persuades him to turn away from death (darkness) and walk towards the town (brightness) "choosing" a new beginning - "identity."

-Paul Lee 이풍호
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