James Joyce invested many of his characters with his own personality and experiences and in Stephen Daedalus' case his education and family
history. These selections represent some of the closer intersections of Joyce's own mind with the actions of his characters. They show the
evolution not only of his work, but his evolution as an artist as well.
The readings from Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man were chose for their ability to express Stephen Daedalus' rejection of societal
traps, which he felt imprisoned him within the oppressive nature of Irish history, politics, and religious life. His esthetic theory mirrors his
rejection of family, country, and religion as they express the artist and his work through the mediation of self, other, and the eternal. These are
also reflected in the tools or tactics he will use to sidestep these nets: silence towards kinship or family, exile toward the kingship of a country
obsessed with nationalism, and cunning towards the worship of a stifling and martyr-centered religion.
Scene One shows Stephen holding himself apart from the political concerns of the day. Czar Nicholas II has recently drawn up a petition for
World Peace and MacCann, the real life Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, murdered in prison shortly after the Easter Rising, is attempting to gather
signatures from their fellow students. Stephen is refusing to be part of a history of political idealism, which serves as the backdrop to the
stillborn birth of the Irish Republic.
Scene Two shows Stephen discussing his aversion to the Irish nationalist movement, the 'Celtic Twilight' concept of a Gaelic renaissance, and
the tendency of the Irish to betray their own. This is particularly evident in the case of Parnell's abandonment, where he echoes the Christmas
dinner speech of his father at the beginning of the novel. Stephen is refusing to be yet another nettle collected by the 'poor old woman' in her
attempt to reclaim her country from the English.
Scene Three shows Stephen attempting to develop a theory on esthetics. Stephen, in extreme hubris, appears to be attempting to go beyond the
'masters' of his Jesuit education: Aristotle and Aquinas. It is important to recognize how the concepts he uses to illustrate this theory
underscore the nets, which he feels imprison his soul, as well as the tools he will suggest for his success in escaping this island labyrinth.
Scene Four shows Stephen finally coming up against the one thing which will force his flight from Erin, his mother and her religion – which he
no longer believes in. He articulates again the nets that confront his flight of escape, but more importantly he has discovered the means by which
he will escape their grasp. Stephen here is refusing to be a conscious hypocrite by denying his mother's dying request; a heavy guilt that will
come to haunt him.
The epilogue of these conversations is taken from the 'Circe' section of Ulysses, it was chosen to show how Stephen breaks away from
the obsessive guilt, which has impeded his spiritual growth, and which draws him back to Ireland and the nets he has striven to escape.
A second selection is taken from the 'Penelope' section – Molly Bloom's soliloquy. A primary factor both in the novel's popularity and its status
as a banned book in Ireland, England, and the United States. Just as in his final novel Finnegan's Wake, the feminine principle gets the
last word. The character of Leopold Bloom who is cuckolded by Molly mirrors an important part of Joyce's experience. This was seen in the film
Joyce's Women, Joyce thought his companion Nora Barnacle cuckolded him because of a slanderous comment made to him when he
had returned to Ireland.
The selection from Dubliners, the final scene in 'The Dead' between Gretta and Gabriel, shows Joyce at his emotionally strongest. The
character of Gabriel is analogous to Joyce had he not taken that leap and chosen to fly by those nets. He sees himself as a figure whose
opportunity for action has passed and laments that only death awaits him in the dusk of his years. A reflection brought on by his wife's mention
of a young lover who was willing to die for her – another martyr in the graveyard of history.