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Motifs
Definition of Personification
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the... read full definition
Chapter 3, Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—Nightfall:
Night and nightfall are personified in a very negative way in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Chapter 3, Part 1 opens with a description of the "December dusk":
The swift December dusk had come tumbling clownishly after its dull day and, as he stared through the dull square of the window of the schoolroom, he felt his belly crave for its food [...] It would be a gloomy secret night.
Here, the narrator gives the night human qualities, including swiftness and gloominess as it "tumbl[es] clownishly" upon the town. This passage's momentum reflects the chapter's content, since Stephen plans to spend the night wandering through the sex workers' quarter. The dusk sounds just as hasty and pleasure-seeking as a young man lustily roaming the darkest streets of Dublin.
The night is personified again in Chapter 5, Part 4. One of Stephen's journal entries reads:
March 25, morning. A troubled night of dreams. Want to get them off my chest.
He does not say "troubling dreams" but "troubled dreams," as if the dreams themselves were troubled. In this way, he tries to distance himself from the disturbance. In order to "get them off [his] chest," he makes an effort to describe them in his diary. Two brief paragraphs about strange figures, caves, and dark eyes and faces reveal his tendency to fear the darkness in any form; he also adds "country roads at night" to his list of fears in Chapter 5, Part 3. The negative personification of nightfall indirectly emphasizes Stephen's fear.
Related Themes:
Chapter 3, Part 3
Explanation and Analysis—Stephen's Soul:
Throughout A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the narrator describes Stephen's soul as having human characteristics. For example, in Chapter 3, Part 3, he describes the "sickening" of Stephen's soul:
Who made it to be like that, a bestial part of the body able to understand bestially and desire bestially? Was that then he or an inhuman thing moved by a lower soul than his soul? His soul sickened at the thought of a torpid shaky life feeding itself out of the tender marrow of his life and fattening upon the slime of lust.
Here, the soul seems to take on a life of its own. Stephen seems to lose control of his own life force. He fears that he is "moved by a lower soul" or that his motives come from an unclean, unworthy place. He feels pressure to divest himself of lowly, earthly desires for sex and other "bestial" forms of satisfaction.
In Chapter 4, Part 3, when Stephen is on the verge of falling asleep, his soul "swoons":
His eyelids trembled as if they felt the vast cyclic movement of the earth and her watchers, trembled as if they felt the strange light of some new world. His soul was swooning into some new world, fantastic, dim, uncertain as under sea, traversed by cloudy shapes and beings.
This moment contrasts with the "sickening" of his soul. In this moment, he sleeps and swoons and dreams in the deepest state of joy. This moment could also be called an epiphany—a moment of profound realization that changes the course of his life.
Related Themes:
Chapter 4, Part 3
Explanation and Analysis—Stephen's Soul:
Throughout A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the narrator describes Stephen's soul as having human characteristics. For example, in Chapter 3, Part 3, he describes the "sickening" of Stephen's soul:
Who made it to be like that, a bestial part of the body able to understand bestially and desire bestially? Was that then he or an inhuman thing moved by a lower soul than his soul? His soul sickened at the thought of a torpid shaky life feeding itself out of the tender marrow of his life and fattening upon the slime of lust.
Here, the soul seems to take on a life of its own. Stephen seems to lose control of his own life force. He fears that he is "moved by a lower soul" or that his motives come from an unclean, unworthy place. He feels pressure to divest himself of lowly, earthly desires for sex and other "bestial" forms of satisfaction.
In Chapter 4, Part 3, when Stephen is on the verge of falling asleep, his soul "swoons":
His eyelids trembled as if they felt the vast cyclic movement of the earth and her watchers, trembled as if they felt the strange light of some new world. His soul was swooning into some new world, fantastic, dim, uncertain as under sea, traversed by cloudy shapes and beings.
This moment contrasts with the "sickening" of his soul. In this moment, he sleeps and swoons and dreams in the deepest state of joy. This moment could also be called an epiphany—a moment of profound realization that changes the course of his life.
Related Themes:
Chapter 5, Part 4
Explanation and Analysis—Nightfall:
Night and nightfall are personified in a very negative way in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Chapter 3, Part 1 opens with a description of the "December dusk":
The swift December dusk had come tumbling clownishly after its dull day and, as he stared through the dull square of the window of the schoolroom, he felt his belly crave for its food [...] It would be a gloomy secret night.
Here, the narrator gives the night human qualities, including swiftness and gloominess as it "tumbl[es] clownishly" upon the town. This passage's momentum reflects the chapter's content, since Stephen plans to spend the night wandering through the sex workers' quarter. The dusk sounds just as hasty and pleasure-seeking as a young man lustily roaming the darkest streets of Dublin.
The night is personified again in Chapter 5, Part 4. One of Stephen's journal entries reads:
March 25, morning. A troubled night of dreams. Want to get them off my chest.
He does not say "troubling dreams" but "troubled dreams," as if the dreams themselves were troubled. In this way, he tries to distance himself from the disturbance. In order to "get them off [his] chest," he makes an effort to describe them in his diary. Two brief paragraphs about strange figures, caves, and dark eyes and faces reveal his tendency to fear the darkness in any form; he also adds "country roads at night" to his list of fears in Chapter 5, Part 3. The negative personification of nightfall indirectly emphasizes Stephen's fear.
Related Themes:
