Breaking Away From The Maternal Fetter

Mother, as the most important female character in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, has always been discussed in Joycean studies.Although May Dedalus, like other women characters, does not speak very much for herself in the novel, she plays a critical role in Stephen's life. From the caring and religiously pious mother to the major obstacle in Stephen's final flight, the image of May Dedalus and the mother-son relationship invite a specific study.This thesis will focus on three aspects:mother's love fetter, mother's religious fetter and Stephen's searching for an ideal mother, which includes the collapse of father's image as a male model and other women characters as mother-substitutes. Psychoanalytical theories and feminist criticism will be applied in the analysis of Stephen's complex relationship with his mother from his infancy, his adolescence to his adulthood.What's more, the historical background of Ireland in Joyce's time and Joyce's own life experiences will also be taken into account in support of the viewpoint of the thesis.