The Artist In Joyce’s Portrait

The art plays a major role in Iris Murdoch’s moral philosophy. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the story of Stephen Dedalus’s struggle to determine his way to become an artist. Murdoch has certain criteria for the real artist. The self is the biggest barrier for a person to become an artist because self veils the reality. The person should get rid of the selfish bonds to see the reality. Murdoch does not dignify all artists as great artists because she believes that most of the artists cannot escape from the impediments of their selves. And as a result quality of their selves is reflected in their arts. The ordinary artist produces bad art which is full of illusions and lacks the strength of guiding. However; the real artist’s art can save a person from illusion. In this respect Stephen has many obstacles in addition to his ‘self’ that keeps him away from reality. The strict rules of religion, Irish nationalism and family are other barriers on his way to becoming an artist. In Murdoch’s philosophy there are certain stages that can lead a person to seeing the reality. Some of these stages are evident in this novel. First of all, Murdoch claims that life is contingent. The reality which is different from the assumption of the self is the contingency. The school functions as a new contingent place and he cannot put it into scope of his consciousness and hence cannot make it a subject of his self. It causes a sense of weakness in front of the new. He finds consolation in daydreaming. Murdoch considers personal fantasy as the tissue of self-aggrandizing and consoling wishes and dreams which prevents one from seeing what is there outside one. The religion has a basic place in Portrait. Equally it has an important role in Murdoch’s philosophy. These analogies can be enhanced. In the light of the similarities this study focuses on Stephen’s personality and experiences to figure out his potential of becoming an artist within the scope of Murdoch’s philosophy.