A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man details events which closely correspond with those of Joyce's first twenty years. According to Joyce's celebrated biographer, Richard Ellman, Joyce hoped that his Portrait would be an autobiographical novel, "turning his life into fiction." While scholars disagree on the extent to which Joyce's life affected his fictional narrative in the novel, most of them concur that Stephen Dedalus is both the protagonist of the novel, as well as the persona (Latin, meaning "mask") behind which Joyce paints his fictional "portrait" of the "artist" and of the "young man."
A close examination of these obvious clues in the title reveals to readers that the novel can be classified as both a Kunstlerroman (German, meaning a novel about an artist) and a Bildungsroman (German, meaning a novel of development or education). If we understand these terms, we can more clearly understand Joyce's primary purpose for writing the novel.
We must keep in mind, however, that many of the people and the situations of the novel have been presented in the form of satire. We must also be aware that the author selected this technique to emphasize how the life of an artist differs from that of others who share his world.
In A Portrait, the reader learns through the particular experiences of Stephen Dedalus how an artist perceives his surroundings, as well as his views on faith, family, and country, and how these perceptions often conflict with those prescribed for him by society. As a result, the artist feels distanced from the world. Unfortunately, this feeling of distance and detachment is misconstrued by others to be the prideful attitude of an egoist. Thus the artist, already feeling isolated, is increasingly aware of a certain growing, painful social alienation.
