Although several themes such as alienation and betrayal exist in the novel, Ellman states that Joyce originally recognized the work's main theme as "the portrait of the renegade Catholic artist as hero." Certainly, evidence from Joyce's life mirrors Stephen's need to escape the bonds of Irish nationalism and Catholicism, both of which seemed to threaten his pursuit of a literary career.
The most obvious clue that the author's life is related to the novel's thematic development exists in the hero's name — Stephen Dedalus, which combines significant elements of both Greek and Christian myths. "Stephen" is the name of the first Christian martyr who was persecuted for reasons of faith. Joyce's hero identifies with his patron's martyrdom by recalling an early reprimand against marrying a Protestant, the unjust pandying incident, and a variety of instances wherein he was ostracized or made to feel guilty by his peers and older people.
It is, however, the author's choice of his character's family name — Dedalus — which reveals to readers the source of the novel's greatest thematic parallel. The myth of Daedalus and Icarus, the story of the cunning Greek inventor and his ill-fated, impetuous son, is the framework responsible for the major imagery and symbolism which pervade the novel.
Daedalus, an architect commissioned by King Minos, designed an elaborate labyrinth in which the king planned to confine the monstrous Minotaur. However, ill-fortune soon caused Daedalus and Icarus to be imprisoned in the labyrinth, from which they were forced to contrive a daring and ingenious escape.
Symbolically, Stephen, like Daedalus, feels compelled to find a means of escape from the labyrinth of Dublin, which threatens him with spiritual, cultural, and artistic restraints. Similarly, Stephen can also be compared with Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, melted his fabricated wings, and plunged to his death in the sea. Like Icarus, Stephen ignores the warnings of family and clergy and is symbolically drawn toward a philosophical illumination which ultimately casts him into sin (spiritual death) and leads him to renounce his Catholic faith.
The final and most dramatic parallel associates Stephen with his mythic namesake Daedalus — the "great artificer." Like Daedalus, Stephen succeeds in escaping the labyrinth of cultural restraints. At the end of the novel, Stephen is imaginatively soaring — in flight away from Ireland toward a future of unfettered artistic freedom.
