Transilvania University of Braşov

Faculty of Letters

Department of Romanian-English

THE MYTH OF DAEDALUS AND THE

JOURNEY MOTIF IN JOYCE’S A PORTRAIT
OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN

BRAŞOV
2013

Supervisor: Senior Lecturer Oana-Andreea PÎRNUŢĂ, PhD Student: Luciana LIA-SIMA

 Sentence Outline

I. Introduction
This paper discusses the importance of the myth of Daedalus for the narrative structure of the
novel “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, written by James Joyce. The central character of
the novel is young Stephen Dedalus, an alter-ego of the author himself. Stephen’s name mirrors his
own destiny.

II. Body Content

2. The myth of Daedalus and Icarus provides an underlying structure for the novel, this legend
depicting the story of the craftsman and his son. Another legend present in the novel is that of Saint
Stephen, the martyr who was stoned to death. Creating his own myth, the young hero manages to
live up to his name’s expectations.
3. Icarus is often considered an example of failed ambition, of the tragic flaw or hubris. Just like
in the legend, the immense pride of Stephen is the one that causes his failings and disappointments.
But Stephen Dedalus’s character embodies both Daedalus and Icarus, the craftsman symbolizing the
Art and the skill and his son being the representation of the rebellious spirit of the artist.
4. In this novel, Stephen experiences a journey of self-exploration. The novel is not only a
Bildungsroman, but, more important, is a Künstlerroman, an artist’s novel. Stephen desires the
escape that Daedalus experienced. His depart from Ireland to France imitates the journey that the
ancient hero made from Greece to Crete.
5. The labyrinth motif is also significant in what concerns Stephen’s quest for the real self. Thus,
Stephen has to find out the secret of his own personal labyrinth, the secret which will transform him
into an Artist. Following this key of interpretation, the labyrinth may be seen as a symbolizing life.
But the labyrinth may also be a representation of Ireland.
III. Conclusion
In conclusion, James Joyce’s semi-autobiographical novel, “A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man”, embodies in its narrative structure, the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus. The
motifs of flight and falling are also present in “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”.
 Abstract

The present academic paper analysis the influence and importance of the myth
of Daedalus and Icarus, in the context of James Joyce’s novel “A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man”. It also discusses the journey motif and the evolution of
the main character, Stephen Dedalus, from apprentice to master, to Creator. The
hero’s quest for his inner self follows a pattern of flight and fall. The purpose of
this paper is to show the fact that the myth of Daedalus and Icarus provides an
underlying structure for this novel. The paper also examines the symbolism of
the labyrinth and tries to explain what the labyrinth stands for.

Key Words: Stephen Dedalus, myth, Journey motif, labyrinth, flight.

 1. INTRODUCTION
This paper discusses the importance of the myth of Daedalus for the narrative structure of
James Joyce’s semi-autobiographical novel, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, focusing also
on the journey motif and the symbolism of the labyrinth.

Not as challenging as “Ulysses” or Finnegan’s Wake”, “A Portrait of the Artist” is essential

in what concerns the understanding of Joyce’s evolution as a writer. The novel, first published in
1916, is considered to be a Bildungsroman that follows the journey of Stephen Dedalus from boy to
man, from apprentice to master.

“A Portrait of the Artist...” is Joyce’s only published work that has an epigraph: Et ignotas
animum dimittit in artes. “The passage comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and it can be translated as
<<he turned his mind to unknown arts.>> It records the response of Daedalus, the fabulous artificer,
when told by King Minos of Crete that he and his son would not be allowed to leave the island.
Daedalus, in turn, produced the wax wings that allowed him and Icarus to soar away, but that also led
to his son’s death when the young man flew too close to the sun and the wax melted.”(Fargnoli,
Gillespie,2006:136-137)

Stephen Dedalus, considered by many an alter-ego of the writer himself, is the central character
of “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” and an important character in “Ulysses”. Stephen’s name
mirrors in a way his own destiny, but only when his colleagues laugh at him, calling him: “Stephanos
Dedalos! Bous Stephanoumenos! Bous Stephaneforos!”(Joyce,1992:129), does he realizes its
importance.

“Their banter was not new to him and now it flattered his mild proud sovereignty. Now, as
never before, his strange name seemed to him a prophecy […] Now, at the name of the fabulous
artificer, he seemed to hear the noise of dim waves and to see a winged form flying above the waves
and slowly climbing the air. What did it mean? Was it a quaint device opening a page of some
medieval book of prophecies and symbols, a hawk-like man flying sunward above the sea, a prophecy
of the end he had been born to serve and had been following through the mists of childhood and
boyhood, a symbol of the artist forging anew in his workshop out of the sluggish matter of the earth a
new soaring impalpable imperishable being?”(Joyce,1992:129-130)
 2. The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus and the legend of St. Stephen in “A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”

James Joyce’s passion for mythology does not limit itself only to his masterpiece, the
brilliant and controversial novel “Ulysses”, but it is also present in one of his earliest works, the
semi-autobiographical Bildungsroman “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”. Stephen Dedalus,
the main character of this novel, is considered to be the quintessence of Joyce’s obsession with
mythology.

The myth of Daedalus and Icarus provides an underlying structure for the novel, this legend
depicting the story of the craftsman and his son, who were locked as a “reward” for constructing the
labyrinth that imprisoned the Minotaur. Daedalus created a pair of wings to enable himself and
Icarus to fly, in order to escape from the labyrinth. Icarus, however, despite his father’s warning,
flew too close to the sun, melting the wax on his wings and falling into the sea.

The elements of the myth relating both to the father’s triumphal flight and the fall of Icarus
are translated into the narrative structure of the novel itself because Stephen’s moments of triumph
and spiritual elevation are consistently followed by episodes of failure.

Another legend, this time one of Christian origin, is linked with “A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man’, the story of Saint Stephen, the martyr who was stoned to death because of his
religious beliefs.”Joyce's view of the artist as isolated and exiled, misunderstood by his neighbours
and consequently vilified by them, would have made the association with St. Stephen.” (Givens,
1963:119).

One way of interpreting the importance of this legend for the structure of the novel will take
us to an interesting analogy. Saint Stephen was stoned to death because he claimed that God is real.
Joyce’s Stephen is beaten up by Heron because he read Byron. Despite his link with the Christian
hero, Stephen Dedalus is, all way through the novel, in a continuous fight with his religious beliefs.

Creating his own myth, the young hero manages to live up to his name’s expectations. He is
aware that his name made him special, that he is supposed to do great things and that he belongs to
a series of mythological characters that came before him. Thus, in the end of his journey, Stephen
Dedalus becomes a myth of creation himself.
 3. Stephen Dedalus: Flight and Fall

Icarus is often considered an example of failed ambition, of the tragic flaw or hubris.
Coming back to Joyce’s novel, there are numerous allusions to this idea in “A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man”. Just like in the legend, the immense pride of Stephen is the one that causes his
failings and disappointments.

Returned from boarding school to the city of Dublin – which is not at all a suitable place for
becoming an artist, as Stephen himself thinks – the young hero’s adventures are a string of defeats.
He continuously struggles with his art and continuously fails.

Captive in a hostile city, feeling alone and misunderstood, Stephen Dedalus rebels. He
willingly decides to withdraw himself from his relationship with his family and friends. Just like
Icarus, he wants to be independent, to start his own adventure. Daedalus, who has killed his
nephew out of envy, also encounters various difficulties in relation to authorities and his family.

But Stephen Dedalus’s character embodies both Daedalus and Icarus, the craftsman
symbolizing the Art and the skill and his son being the representation of the rebellious spirit of the
artist. “With this mythological reference, Joyce implies that Stephen must always balance his desire
to flee Ireland with the danger of overestimating his own abilities—the intellectual equivalent of
Icarus’s flight too closest to the sun.” (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/portraitartist/themes.html).

In Chapter 4, after he refuses the offer to enter the priesthood, Joyce’s hero has an epiphany.
He feels that he is: “destined to learn his own wisdom apart from others or to learn the wisdom of
others himself among the snares of the world” (Joyce,1992:124). Few pages later, he has a vision of
his future as an artist, depicted in the image of “a hawk-like man flying above the waves.”
(Joyce,1992:130) It may be the image of Icarus, or it may be an image that embodies both the father
and the son. Jacqueline Belanger says, in her introduction to the 1992 Wordsworth Edition of “A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” that:”In this pattern of flight and fall, Stephen is both
Daedalus and Icarus (just as he identifies himself, as an artist, with both God the Father and Jesus),
as well as the rebellious angel Lucifer who, like Icarus, falls from Heaven.”

Towards the end of the novel, sitting on the steps of the university library, Stephen contemplates
a flock of birds circling in the skies and tries to identify their species. He meditates on the idea of flight
and on the fact that men have always tried to fly.
 “He watched their flight; bird after bird: a dark flash, a swerve, a flutter of wings. He tried to
count them before all their darting quivering bodies passed: six, ten, eleven: and wondered were they
odd or even in number. Twelve, thirteen: for two came wheeling down from the upper sky. They were
flying high and low but ever round and round in straight and curving lines and ever flying from left to
right, circling about a temple of air.” (Joyce,1992:173)

“And for ages men had gazed upward as he was gazing at birds in flight. The colonnade above
him made him think vaguely of an ancient temple and the ashplant on which he leaned wearily of the
curved stick of an augur. A sense of fear of the unknown moved in the heart of his weariness, a fear of
symbols and portents, of the hawk-like man whose name he bore soaring out of his captivity on osier-
woven wings, of Thoth, the god of writers, writing with a reed upon a tablet and bearing on his narrow
ibis head the cusped moon.”(Joyce,1992:173)

Stephen asks himself if the birds are a “Symbol of departure or of loneliness?”(Joyce,1992:174)

 4.The Journey Motif

In his book, “The Hero with A Thousand Faces”,” Joseph Campbell . . . divides the journey
of the archetypal hero into three parts: departure (the call to adventure); initiation (a series of
adventures that test or develop the hero's skills); and return (the hero arrives transformed).”
(Robbins, 1994:261) In the tradition of Homer's “Odyssey”, Milton's “Paradise Lost”, and Dante's
“Divine Comedy”, Joyce's “A Portrait of the Artist” is the story of Stephen Dedalus's journey.

In this novel, Stephen experiences a journey of self-exploration. The novel is not only a
Bildungsroman, but, more important, is a Künstlerroman, an artist’s novel. The young hero
resembles the master artisan Daedalus who, being envious of his nephew’s success, kills him and
then is forced to leave Greece. Ambition, the constant inability to find satisfaction in personal life
and work, the feeling of loss are characteristics that both these characters share. They both have
troubles in establishing relationships with those around them, and thus, try to find refuge in art, this
leading to an increase in creativity.

Stephen desires the escape that Daedalus experienced. His depart from Ireland to France
imitates the journey that the ancient hero made from Greece to Crete. “Both men possessed guilt
and were scrutinized by their peers for the inner demons that manifested in their behaviour. Joyce
frequently alludes to the rising and falling of Icarus metaphorically when discussing Stephen’s soul
as it likewise ascends and descends through many social and familial woes.”
(http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php?categoryid=37&blogid=16)
 5. The Symbolism of the Labyrinth

The labyrinth motif is also significant in what concerns Stephen’s quest for the real self.

“And so Daedalus again was summoned, this time by the king, to construct a tremendous
labyrinthine enclosure, with blind passages, in which to hide the thing away. So deceptive was the
invention, that Daedalus himself, when he had finished it, was scarcely able to find his way back to
the entrance. Therein the Minotaur was settled: and he was fed, thereafter, on groups of living
youths and maidens, carried as tribute from the conquered nations within the Cretan domain.”
(Campbell, 2004: 13)

It seems as if art defeated its own creator, but the same Campbell states that: “The trails are
deliberately confused, but if you know the secret of the labyrinth, you can go and pay its inhabitant a
visit.”(Campbell, 2004: 142).

Thus, Stephen has to find out the secret of his own personal labyrinth, the secret which will
transform him into an Artist, a Creator. The Minotaur is believed to represent the archetype of evil, but
in “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, the Minotaur is only an obstacle that stands between the
young hero and the object of his quest. The Minotaur is, in fact, inside Stephen Dedalus, is his darkest
part.

Following this key of interpretation, the labyrinth may be seen as a symbolizing life. Stephen
has to unravel the mysterious complexities of life in order to become the artist he needs to be.
Stephen’s labyrinths are found on different levels: in his relationships with family, friends and
authorities.

But the labyrinth may also be a representation of Ireland. Stephen feels the need to escape the
city of Dublin (and his country), because he feels that he cannot create his own personal myth in
here. In the last chapter of the novel, we see Stephen as an intellectually and aesthetically grown
man, an Artist that cannot express his creativity properly because he is not free. He feels trapped, as
if he were in a labyrinth. Stephen is too egocentric, too self-absorbed and unsatisfied with his
country to remain in it. In his conversation with Davin, Dedalus says: “My ancestors threw off their
language and took another […] They allowed a handful of foreigners to subject them. Do you fancy
I am going to pay in my own life and person debts they made? What for?”(Joyce,1992:156)

“Do you know what Ireland is? asked Stephen with cold violence. Ireland is the old sow that
eats her farrow.”(Joyce,1992:157)
 6.CONCLUSION

In conclusion, James Joyce’s semi-autobiographical novel, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young

Man”, embodies in its narrative structure, the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus. This legend is
‘contaminated’ with another one, of Christian origin, namely, the story of Saint Stephen, the martyr.
The meeting point of these two myths is the main character’s name: Stephen Daedalus.

“Both his surname and given names have symbolic significance. Stephen was the name of the
first Christian martyr, stoned to death for his religious convictions Dedalus (or Daedalus as the name
appears in Stephen Hero) was the mythical “fabulous artificer” who made feathered wings of wax with
which he and his son Icarus escaped imprisonment on the island of Crete. Like the first Christian
martyr with whom he shares a given name, Stephen, in advancing a new cause, breaks from tradition
and faces persecution by his peers. Like Dedalus, he must use artifice and cunning to escape his own
imprisonment—by the institutions of the family, the church and Irish nationalism. Stephen writes in his
diary: <<Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead.>>” .”(Fargnoli,
Gillespie,2006:145-146)

The motifs of flight and falling are also present in “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”,
they are a guiding thread through the entire story; story which is, in fact, a revelatory journey of escape
from a labyrinth that symbolizes both life and Ireland.
Bibliography

1. Attridge, Derek. The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2004

2. Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New Jersey: Princeton University Press,
2004

3. Fargnoli, Nicholas A. and Michael Patrick Gillespie. Critical Companion to James Joyce: A
Literary Reference to his Life and Work. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2006

4. Givens, Seon. James Joyce: two decades of criticism. New York: Vanguard Press, 1963

5. Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. London: Wordsworth Editions, 1992

6. Robbins, Dorothy Dodge. "'Coming Down Along the Road’: the journey motif in “A Portrait of the
Artist”." The Midwest Quarterly 35 , Pittsburg: Pittsburg State University, 1994

7.http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php?categoryid=37&blogid=16

8. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/portraitartist/themes.html