Elucidate the aesthetic
theory of Stephen Dedalus in The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Stephen Dedalus is the main character in James Joyce's novel Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man. This character develops a lengthy theory of
aesthetics that is interesting in its own right.Aesthetics - a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste and with the creation and appreciation of beauty - Merriam-Webster
The myth of Dedalus and Icarus is a theme that permeates James Joyce's Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. In the myth Daedalus, a great artisan and craftsman, and his son Icarus attempt to escape the island of Crete by means of wings Daedalus creates. Icarus flies to close to the sun and falls to his death while Dedalus escapes alone. Stephen Dedalus (note the obvious namesake, in fact the name Dedalus comes from the Greek meaning cunning worker) finds he must escape Ireland to grow into the artist and individual he desires to be, and even imagines himself taking wing much as his namesake does, as is suggested by the novel's opening epithet: "He turned his mind toward unknown arts," a quotation from the Daedalus section of Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Stephen's development of his own views of aethestics is an important part of his growth as a character and his eventual spiritual escape from the confines of his Irish surroundings. The character Stephen Dedalus combines classical aesthetic theories, namely the Poetics of Aristotle and the writings of Thomas Aquinas with his own evolving ideas.
