Stephen Dedalus is

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

's literary

alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I", "doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a different ...

, appearing as the

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

and

antihero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actions ...

of his first, semi-autobiographic novel of artistic existence ''

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's fictional al ...

'' (1916) and an important character in Joyce's 1922 novel '' Ulysses''. In '' Stephen Hero'', an early version of what became ''Portrait'', Stephen's surname is spelled "Daedalus" in more precise allusion to

Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdi ...

, the architect in Greek myth who was contracted by King

Minos In Greek mythology, Minos (; grc-gre, Μίνως, ) was a King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus's creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten ...

to build the

Labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by ...

in which he would imprison his wife's son the

Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "p ...

.Ovid, in his ''Metamorphoses'', suggests that Daedalus constructed the Labyrinth so cunningly that he himself could barely escape it after he built it.

Buck Mulligan Malachi Roland St. John "Buck" Mulligan is a fictional character in James Joyce's 1922 novel '' Ulysses''. He appears most prominently in episode 1 ''(Telemachus)'', and is the subject of the novel's famous first sentence: "Stately, plump Buck ...

makes reference to the mythic namesake in ''Ulysses'', telling Stephen, "Your absurd name, an ancient Greek!" In revising the mammoth ''Stephen Hero'' into the considerably more compact ''Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'', Joyce shortened the name to "Dedalus".

Fictional biography

Stephen Dedalus appears in ''Ulysses'' as the character who corresponds to

Telemachus Telemachus ( ; grc, Τηλέμαχος, Tēlemakhos, lit=far-fighter), in Greek mythology, is the son of Odysseus and Penelope, who is a central character in Homer's ''Odyssey''. When Telemachus reached manhood, he visited Pylos and Sparta in s ...

; less overtly, he embodies aspects of

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

. He is the protagonist of the first three chapters. Subsequently,

Leopold Bloom Leopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's 1922 novel '' Ulysses''. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/ Odysseus in Homer's ep ...

is introduced, and Stephen's interactions with Bloom and his wife,

Molly Bloom Molly Bloom is a fictional character in the 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' by James Joyce. The wife of main character Leopold Bloom, she roughly corresponds to Penelope in the ''Odyssey''. The major difference between Molly and Penelope is that while P ...

, form much of the final chapters' substance. Mirroring his mythological namesake, Daedalus (or Daidalos in the Greek pronunciation and transliteration), whom

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...

described in the ''Metamorphoses'' (VIII:183–235) as being shut up in a tower to prevent his knowledge of the labyrinth from spreading to the public, Stephen is introduced taking breakfast in the Sandycove

Martello tower Martello towers, sometimes known simply as Martellos, are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts. They stand u ...

in Dublin on the morning of 16 June 1904. Stephen shares his opinions about religion, especially as they relate to the recent death of his mother, with his quasi-friend Buck Mulligan, who manages to offend Stephen before making plans to go drinking later that evening as they part ways. In the second chapter Stephen teaches a class of boys a history lesson on ancient Rome. In the "Proteus" chapter (in Greek myth Proteus was the old man of the sea and the shepherd of sea animals who knew all things past, present, and future but disliked telling what he knew), Stephen ambles along the strand as his thoughts are related in the form of an internal monologue. Following several chapters concerning Bloom, Stephen returns to the fore of the novel in the library episode, in which he expounds at length to some acquaintances his theory of the obscurely autobiographical nature of Shakespeare's works and questions the institution of fatherhood, deeming it to be a fiction. He discredits his own ideas afterward, suggesting some lack of self-confidence. As a character, Stephen seems to mirror many facets of Joyce's own life and personality. Joyce was a talented singer, and Bloom notes the excellence of Stephen's tenor voice after hearing him sing

Johannes Jeep Johannes Jeep (pronounced "Yape"; also Johann or Jepp; 1581/1582 – 19 November 1644) was a German organist, choirmaster and composer. Biography Jeep, who was born in Dransfeld, Germany, is remembered for his choral writing. He collected his ...

's song "Von der Sirenen Listigkeit". Stephen's first name remembers the first Christian martyr; in

juxtaposition Juxtaposition is an act or instance of placing two elements close together or side by side. This is often done in order to compare/contrast the two, to show similarities or differences, etc. Speech Juxtaposition in literary terms is the showin ...

, his surname recalls the mythological figure Daedalus, a brilliant artificer who constructed a pair of wings for himself and his son

Icarus In Greek mythology, Icarus (; grc, Ἴκαρος, Íkaros, ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, King Minos sus ...

as a means of escaping the island of Crete, where they had been imprisoned by King Minos. It is possible that Stephen's surname also reflects the labyrinthine quality of Stephen's developmental journey in ''Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man''. The name "Dedalus" also suggests Stephen's desire to "fly" above the constraints of religion, nationality, and politics in his own development.

Quotations

When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets. :—''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,'' Chapter 5 A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery. :—''Ulysses,'' Episode 9 Welcome, O life, I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race. Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead. :—''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake. :—''Ulysses,'' Episode 2 I fear those big words that make us so unhappy. :—''Ulysses,'' Episode 2

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dedalus, Stephen Ulysses (novel) characters Fictional writers Fictional Irish people Literary characters introduced in 1918 Characters in novels of the 20th century Author surrogates Male characters in literature