Writers of the rst decades of the twentieth century became fascinated by the inner lives of teeming impressions, impressions, and by the mental activities of meaning making which constitute our private inner lives. The works of Irish writer James Joyce are distinguished by their keen psychological insight and use of various literary techniues! most notably "stream of consciousness" consciousness" which is an attempt to write in the manner in which thoughts and memory actually work in our minds. Joyce#s A Joyce#s A Portrait of the Artist as as a Young Young Man $%&%'( is one of the greatest of modern novels in which he uses the )stream of consciousness* techniue. Joyce arranged arranged his novel in ve chapters which trace the protagonist#s life, +tephen edalus, from boyhood to young manhood. It was in the psychology that the term "stream of consciousness" was rst introduced. In his book, The rincipal of sychology$%&/(, 0merican philosopher and psychologist William James introduced the term to denote what he called )the mind stu1* in human brain. It can be understood as the multitudinous and chaotic 2ow of impressions, sensations, memories and mental images through the human mind. James in his book says, 34onsciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits5It is nothing 6ointed! it 2ows. 0 #river# or a #stream# are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In T078I9: ;< IT =>?>0?, let us 4all it the stream of thought, or consciousness, or of sub6ective life.@
'Stream of consciousness' writing comes in a variety of stylistic forms, most importantly narrated stream of consciousness and quoted stream of consciousness ('interior monologue'). Narrated 'stream of consciousness' is most often composed of a variety of sentence types including psycho-narration (the narrative report of character's psychological states), states), and free indirect indirect style. Interior Interior monologue is the direct direct quotation of character's silent speech, though not necessarily mared with speech mars.
In 0 ortrait of the 0rtist as a Aoung Ban Joyce uses the interior monologue very eCtensively. In interpreting +tephen*s personal world, Joyce applies this various time in the course of the novel. Dse of this techniue begins with the very opening pages of the novel where the story told to the infant +tephen is given. 3;nce upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow5=is father told him that storyE his father looked at him through a glassE he had a hairy face.@ The identity of the storyteller is not related, related, but the reader imagines that +tephen#s father is reading to him. There are no no uotation marks marks as in conventional conventional dialogues. ;ne realiFes that these are not real words, but the in medias res stream of preconsciousness. The story, in the language of a young child, becomes indicative of the uality of, or the epiphany of +tephen#s +t ephen#s mind at that age. 0s +tephen grows, the language changes to that of an adolescent, and nally becomes the philosophical words of a young aesthete about to launch his career as an artist. The style shifts according to the epiphany. The interior interior monologue monologue is not used used throughout, throughout, but when it is, it is important that time situations can be leaped, so that without formal eCplanation, the narrative shifts from
scene to scene as the associational patterns permit. permit. +o that +tephen, seen from the 4longowes schoolroom, can abruptly be at the 4hristmas dinner at home, because something in his "stream" has suggested 4hristmas to him. Thus, by revealing the mind of +tephen, Joyce gives the reader his character#s conceptions of absolute reality. +tephen#s attitudes toward ublin are not black and white ob6ective statements, but edalus G colored impressions, because the progressive narrative of the story is given in re2ections from the mirror of his consciousness. The whole story re2ects the peculiar point of view of a lonely, introspective introspective boy growing growing into a lonely, introspective young man. Three di1erent di1erent devices are are employed employed to give the eCperience eCperience of the t he growth of +tephen. In the early sections, the indirect interior monologue is used. Incidents are given by the use of ob6ective details which the young boy is not old enough to evaluate. 0s he grows older, he grows more selective, so that his rst eCtensive monologue is self uestioning. In it he ponders his identity. Hecause there is no complete use of the device, the monologue seems seems detached from the rest of the chapter. #+tephanas edalos # Hous +tephanoumenas.# +tephanoumenas.# Hous +tephaneforos.# Their banter was not new new to him and and now it 2attered 2attered his wild proud sovereignty. 9ow, as never before, his strange name seemed to him a prophesy. +o timeless seemed the grey warm air, so 2uid and impersonal his own mood, that all ages were as one to him....9ow, at the name of the fabulous articer, he seemed to hear the noise of dim waves and to see a winged form 2ying above the waves and slowly climbing the air. What did it mean Was it a uaint device opening a page of some medieval book of
prophecies and symbols, a hawklike man 2ying sunward above the seas, a prophecy of the end he had been born to serve and had been following through the mists of childhood and boyhood, a symbol of the artist forging anew in his workshop out of the sluggish matter of the earth a new soaring impalpable imperishable imperishable being The use of the third person pronoun pronoun indicates indicates that this device is the in direct interior monologue. +tephen#s mind has grown so that he can associate his name with all the symbols of edalus and can think of himself as belonging to all ages as the mind before him. Joyce#s awarenes awareness s of the importance importance of sense impressions impressions is brought out in constant allusions to 0ristotle#s theory of possibility. This, in the stream of consciousness techniue, means that sight and sound make impressions on the human mind during perception and afterwards in memory. +tephen#s view of the world is thus a1ected and his "stream becomes an eCpression of ineluctable modality in the mind, a realm of seemingly innite possibilities whose realiFation is uncertain and often sub6ect to chance." In the following lines +tephen#s reactions to his senses is can be perceivedE perceivedE 30 smell of molten tallow came up from the dean#s candle butts and fused itself in +tephen#s consciousness with the 6ingle of the words, bucket bucket and lamp and lamp and and bucket.. The priest#s voice too, had a hard 6ingling tone. +tephen#s mind halted by instinct, checked checked by the strange tone and the imagery and by the t he priest#s face which seemed like an unlit lamp or a re2ector hung in a false focus. What lay behind it or within it 0 dull torpor of the
soul or the dullness of the thundercloud, charged with intellection and capable of the gloom of :od@ Throughout Throughout the book, book, +tephen#s consciousness consciousness reveals reveals an intellectualism which sets him above his peers. =e is revealed as one who hordes eCperiences for his own contemplation. contemplation. Thought rather than action characteriFes characteriFes him, but his thoughts pain him and leave scars on his personality. =is thoughts on the rector#s sermons on =ell as the conseuence of +in are eCamples of this as well as his reactions to his classmates at the Jesuit school. +tephen#s trouble is the mingling of the conscious and subconscious states, or the refusal of the levels to keep their places! he is unable to control the images from his mind, but must wait for them to subside. The fourth chapter of the book is almost almost a complete complete indirect monologue. It is the second stage of the growth of the consciousness and reveals +tephen as he contemplates and ponders the decision which will shape the remainder of his life. +hould he become a Jesuit priest or should he devote his life to art It is the old uestion of participation vs. withdrawal. What happens to +tephen#s mind at this stage is perhaps one of the most important themes for the rest of the book and for Dlysses. 0t this point, +tephen realiFes the importance of the inner world of consciousness over the eCternal world of physical phenomena. =e takes upon himself the task of eCperimentation eCperimentation with the t he "contemplation of an inner world of individual emotions." It is only in the fth chapter that Joyce comes closer to the dramatic techniue or the complete interior monologue in the direct method. The reveries of an older
+tephen in Dlysses are anticipated in the daydreams of young +tephen on a young girl. The imagination of the artist is shown to be more elaborate than the real world and in highly elated states, +tephen, the artist, is able to recreate the "liuid letters of speech, symbols of the element of mystery, which 2amed forth over his brain." Hut if one compared +tephen#s preconscious thoughts in this book with those of Bolly in Dlysses, one can see that t hat Joyce, in 0 ortrait ortrait of the 0rtist 0rtist as a young young man, has has not arisen to his greatest heights as a stream of consciousness writer. =ere are +tephen#s thoughtsE The instant of of inspiration seemed now now to be re2ected re2ected from all sides at once from a multitude of cloudy circum stances of what had happened or of what might have happened. The instant 2ashed forth like a point of light and now from cloud on cloud of vague circumstance confused form was veiling softly its afterglow. In the virgin womb of the imagination the word was made 2esh. :abriel the seraph had come to the virgin#s chamber. 0n afterglow afterglow deepened within his spirit, whence the white 2ame had passed, deepening to arose and ardent light....@ In this passage there is the hint of the free association method which is to be used more eCtensively in Dlysses and in Bolly#s rambling 2uC. =owever, note that in +tephen#s thoughts above, Joyce has not completely abandoned his conventionalism. Time, place and action are aligned so that Joyce#s role as "chorus" to the "action" is still noticeable. Joyce admitted the importance of language in following and recording the stream of consciousness. +o Joyce#s devices for following the stream of consciousness consciousness have been rather mechanical and
ephemeral. It is as if he lays down the rules! not to say that there is nothing noteworthy about the use of the techniue in 0 ortrait of the 0rtist as a Aoung Ban, rather the changes in style from chapter to chapter to show the growth of the hero#s mind is anticipating the changes in style from episode to episode in Dlysses. The last chapters of the earlier book depict Joyce#s growth as a technician to a certain stage. uring the interim between the two books, there was a great spurt of growth. The reader has been left in great eCpectancy by the closing lines of the novel. There is an indication that the book does not mark the end of the technical growth, but that the neCt book will be a continuation.
