A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man

The portrayal of Stephen Dedalus's Dublin childhood and youth, his quest for identity through art and his gradual emancipation from the claims of family, religion and Ireland itself, is also an oblique self-portrait of the young James Joyce and a universal testament to the artist's 'eternal imagination'. Joyce expertly encapsulates the development of individual consciousness and the role of the artist in society in what is considered one of his greatest works.