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Allusion
Explanation and Analysis—The Myth of Daedalus:
The most important allusion in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is, of course, to the Greek myth of Daedalus. Joyce named Stephen Dedalus after the mythical inventor Daedalus who creates wings made of feathers and wax to escape from Crete where he and Icarus (his son) are held captive by King Minos. Despite his triumphant artistry, the story has a tragic ending. Icarus ignores his father and flies too close to the sun, causing his wings to melt. He falls into the sea and dies.
In Chapter 4, Part 3, Stephen implicitly compares a flying form in the sky to an artist, which is a subtle allusion to the story of Daedalus and Icarus:
Was [the flying form] a symbol of the artist forging anew in his workshop out of the sluggish matter of the earth a new soaring impalpable being? … His soul was soaring in an air beyond the world and the body he knew was purified in a breath and delivered of incertitude and made radiant and commingled with the element of the spirit.
Here, Stephen's disdain for Dublin becomes clear. He derides the "sluggish matter" of the city and lauds Daedalus' ability to craft wings that allow him to escape. Stephen yearns for escape, and the sight of this flying form causes his soul to take flight. He is momentarily relieved of his former "incertitude," or uncertainty. Just as Daedalus created wings in his workshop, Stephen strives to forge definitions of art and beauty that will take him beyond the confines of his home. The original myth has a tragic ending, but the ending of Portrait implies that Stephen will continue to advance as an artist.
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