Beginning of Essay
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Stephen Dedalus is born of a woman, created of the earth; pure in his childhood innocence. From this beginning stems the birth of an artist, and from this the novel, as a Young Man, James Joyce recounts Stephen's story. His j ....

Middle of Essay
.... the novel much like Stephen himself. The figure woman goes from the mother figure, to that of the whore, and finally to the representation of freedom itself. As a child, the image of the mother figure is strong. It is nurturing and supportive, that of "a woman standing at the half-door of a cottage with a child in her arms . . ." (10) who shelters and protects and makes Stephen afraid to "think of how it was" to be without a mother. As Stephen grows, however, like any child his dependency of him mother begins to dwindle, as does his awe for her. He begins to question his relationship with her and she is suddenly seen as a dirty figure, beginn ....