A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man characters
A thoughtful and imaginative son of the Irish Catholics, Stephen develops into a confident and independent young artist rejecting any limits to his artistic freedom. As a child, he quickly understood that the world of adults is just as cruel and unfair place as his boarding school run by the...
Stephen’s father is a kind-hearted but unreliable man whose leisure mostly includes getting drunk at pubs reminiscent about his past. Due to his poor financial judgments, he has lost all of his money sinking his family deeper into poverty every year. The role of a responsible father is also...
A compassionate and supportive rector of Clongowes Wood College, the school run by the Jesuit monks, where Stephen has lost most of his childhood illusions. If Stephen needed advice or help, Father Conmee would comfort him, especially after the pandying incident. He also helped Stephen to enroll...
Mary is Stephen’s mother whose life is full of different burdens and disappointments. Every day she has to cope with her numerous children, living in poverty, and her weak husband. His constant drinking and political arguments exhaust her tremendously as she isn’t into politics at all...
This is not a fictional character – Parnell was a famous Irish politician and nationalist. His politics was predicted to make Ireland independent from England, and the radical part of the Irish society believed him to be a national hero. But he has a love affair with a married woman, Kitty...
A character shrouded in mystery, Emma is a beautiful young girl to whom Stephen is greatly attracted. She is shown as an example of femininity, the perfect type of woman, and a muse for an artist. Not many details about her personality or character are provided in the novel so the real Emma...
A close friend of Stephen’s father and his companion in consuming alcohol, John Casey shares the same political views as Simon. A staunch believer in Irish independence and national idea, Casey has even been arrested for his heated public speeches on the support of Charles Stewart Parnell...