The constraints that affect the protagonist in Portrait of the Artist as a Young man
...sthood (according to his parents desires), his interest in priesthood diminished when he made contact with various members of the “Irish Literary Renaissance”. This is the moment when he began to make critic of Ireland and its conservative elements, specially the Church. In 1902, he finally left Ireland to pursue a medical education in Paris, not without the opposition of his mother. In the following years Joyce will begin to write professionally. Is in this decision of leaving Ireland where we see the coincidences between James Joyce and the protagonist of the novel, Stephen Dedalus, as in the narrative Stephen do also takes the decision to leave Ireland. Like Stephen, Joyce had early experiences with prostitutes during his teenage years and struggled with questions of faith. Like Stephen, Joyce was the son of a religious mother and a financially inept father. Like Stephen, Joyce was the eldest of ten children and received his education at Jesuit schools. Like Stephen, Joyce left Ireland to pursue the life of a poet and a writer. But at this point we can question ourselves why did they leave Ireland. Which were the reasons that pull them to abandon their native country. And the most important, what in Ireland make them feel that incommodity, so big to make them go away. In the novel, as in the biography of James Joyce, we can observe how certain constraints and entrapments affected his personality. This is one of the main themes in the novel, and I´ m going to talk about it, and about other related themes in the following part of this essay. In the narrative, Stephen describes Ireland as a deception and a place that will not let him develop as a human being at least in the way he would like to. There are three major bonds threaten: family, nation and the Church. Stephen´ s family provides him frustration and guilt. Is a family increasingly impoverished and he can do nothing to help them. The aptitude of his father makes think more difficult though. Despite the fact that his father is an enthusiastic nationalist, Stephen feels the opposite toward his country, a kind of rejection to Irish politics and social construct of population. He criticises the Irish as a nation in several occasions and rejects some of the typical Irish activities regarding politics, as for instance petition-signing and protest; in his mind, these activities amount to an abdication of independence. At the same time, he leaves Ireland hoping to forge the new conscience of his race. Another important theme that will be an important influence over Joyce and Stephen is Catholicism. The Church is perhap...