Each person’s life is defined by a series transformations. All alterations, whether they are physical, psychological or religious, mark the progress of maturation. This idea is the central theme of James Joyce’s debut novel. Stephen Daedalus, a young man who has been struggling with his life, becomes an artist. Joyce uses water to illustrate the transformation of Stephen in A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man.
Water is the most versatile compound known to man. It dissolves a vast array of substances and switches between energy states. Joyce uses water to represent Stephen’s evolving soul. Joyce can use water to show Stephen’s growing-up story. He describes the water’s current state and how it looks. Joyce suggests that Stephen’s soul is represented by water throughout his novel. Stephen tells Joyce a story about a philosopher named Epictetus who once said, “The soul looks very much like a bucket of water” (Joyce 197). The statement can be understood to mean that water in a bucket represents experiences. Each drop of water defines that bucket just as each experience defines Stephen’s soul. The book’s first-half is filled with water, and it has a depressing connotation. This is because Stephen is in a very down state. Stephen lived in the Clongowes ditch during this time. Stephen vividly described the experience of being shoved into the ditch by an aggressive student. Joe 11: A man once saw a rat jumping into the scum. Stephen’s later illness is a result of this event. They combine to illustrate how Stephen’s mind reacts to the unfavorable environment. Stephen is similarly drawn to water when he visits Dublin. Here he notices “the multitudes corks floating in the water’s surface in thick yellow soap” (Joyce 64). Stephen feels a sense of depression when he sees the yellow scum.
Water is a key motif in Stephen’s novel. It plays an important role in two pivotal turning points. Stephen imagines a flood coming and destroying all life while listening to the chapter three fire-andbrimstone sermon. Stephen’s sins from his past threatened to consume him just as the flood would consume the entire earth. This was Stephen’s first step towards becoming a good and pious man. Stephen’s epiphany was the result of this transformation. Stephen finds a peaceful scene at the sea and describes his newfound power. Stephen was fascinated by the seaweed’s endless movement. It moved underneath the current, swaying in and out of its place. Joyce shows Stephen’s transformation to artist through the combination of water, fire, or bird motifs. It transforms a depressed soul into a living one.
The beautiful ocean imagery contrasts sharply with something less pleasant. Stephen describes his dinner in despair shortly after his epiphany. This water imagery highlights an important point. Although Stephen has become an artist in his soul, society and his family still hold him prisoner. Clongowes is a reference to Stephen’s soul, returning him back to his discontentment, unhappiness, and beginning of the novel. Stephen must fly over Ireland to free himself from the chains that keep him bound to Ireland in order for him to truly be an artist.
James Joyce uses water as a theme to show Stephen’s transformation. Stephen’s transformation from a dead man to a joyous and free artist is portrayed throughout the novel. Joyce’s Stephen creates a universal theme that can resonate with anyone who’s struggled to find themselves. Like Stephen’s transformations, each individual’s journey towards discovering their identity and individuality is also defined by them.
