On Epiphany In James Joyce's A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

With the publication of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (A Portrait hereafter) in 1916, James Joyce established his position as a leading figure in the international movement known as realistic modernism. It fully represents Joyce's modern aesthetic concept from the tradition to the innovation and provides the inevitable transitional stage between the"spiritual epiphany"in Joyce's Dubliners and the stream of consciousness technique in Ulysses, which is a key example of the Kunstlerroman (artist's Bildungsroman) in English literature, which presents the inner world of the centre character Stephen from childhood to young adulthood. James Joyce delicately traces Stephen from a physically and spiritually embittered childhood through the psychologically restrained adulthood to his eventual pursuit after an art world. Since its publication, A Portrait has caught a lot of critical attention, varying from traditional criticism to various post- modernist views, and received diverse interpretations.The present thesis is an attempt to analyze the novel in the light of epiphany, through which this paper endeavors to figure out why Stephen breaks away from the obsession and achieves sudden revelation.In literature, epiphany, originally a religious term, is a sudden revelation or manifestation that a person experiences usually at a moment of crisis."Epiphany"is a typical feature of the initiation story. It often occurs in a key moment of psychological change, betokening the coming of a climax of the story, and deepening the thematic meaning. James Joyce's epiphany is based on his continuous growing consciousness. He gradually recognizes his own value, pulls through the crisis and reaches the transcendence of his soul. The whole initiation process is achieved after he experiences epiphanies.The thesis includes five parts. To start with, the introduction, sketching the author---James Joyce and briefly introducing his novel--- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In addition, this part gives a brief introduction to relevant criticism on the novel. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to epiphany, including its origin and development, Joycean epiphany and understanding and reception of Epiphany, pointing out that Joycean epiphany is mostly based on theories of the Austrian doctor Sigmund Freud and Italian Scholastic aesthetician Thomas Aquinas. After that the thesis makes a study of the forms of expression in epiphany, including senses, language and images. The complexity of forms increasingly spirals with the growing ages and gradual maturity.In Chapter 3, the thesis mainly discusses the functions of epiphany. Here the protagonist's main disposition is introduced such as isolation, sensitivity and rebellion which are notable personality to lead to Stephen's production of significant epiphany and in the end he frees from the restrictive social background of Catholic Ireland. Then the elaborate structure arrangements including wave-like movement, curved narration, repetition and diary ending are listed to show Joyce innovation and point out that such structure is just based on the epiphanic mode. The arrangement of the structure aims to express his spiritual suffering, frustration and sense of loneliness living in a depressing and apathetic society. At last the chapter points out that different themes are focused on the major themes: growing consciousness and the flee from the nation, family and religion, and then it further discusses that the epiphany helps to express those themes deeply and efficiently.The last part comes to a conclusion that epiphany makes the characterization deeper, structure arrangements more rational and thematic expression more powerful through analyzing the relationships between epiphany and the characterization, structure and themes.