A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is an autobiographical novel by James Joyce.
It is Ireland at the turn of the 20th century. The hero Stephen Dedalus represents James Joyce himself. He is intelligent but a frail
child. The story traces his intellectual, artistic, and
moral development, from babyhood to the completion of his education at the University College, Dublin.
As a child he experiences untoward political disputes of adults, and suffers unfair punishment from Father Dolan, a mean and stupid priest. His individuality is affected, stifled by different levels of convention dictated by his family, his Catholic religion, and Irish nationalism.
Even in adolescent years, his
experience of sexuality during this time causes him moral torment, and further ignited at a school retreat when he hears from Father Arnall a sermon of hell damnation. Dedalus rejects the call to priesthood, and starts to assert his own identity. In his University College, he welcomes and embraces the rewarding world of the sense of aesthetics, art, literature, and philosophy.
The novel ends as Stephen Dedalus liberates himself from the claws of family, church and state. He then resolves to leave Ireland for Paris, to forge 'the uncreated conscience' and encounter 'the reality of experience.'