Essay On The Villanelle In A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

Joyce’s künstelroman, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, features a villanelle that recreates Stephen’s journey of self-discovery through its recurring structure and themes. From an early age, Stephen realizes his fascination for the arts and struggles to understand the voices pressuring him to conform into the ideal catholic Irishman. Joyce’s use of various forms of literary genre gives Stephen the opportunity to indulge his senses and pursue a future as an artist, not one of a Jesuit or one like his father. One such form, the villanelle of part V, marks the long awaited blossoming of Stephen into the artist that has been developing over the course of the novel. The physical structure of the villanelle, with persisting rhymes, themes, and figures, is emblematic of Stephen’s full-circle from his early identification as an artist to his resulting identity. Thus, the villanelle, “Are you not weary of ardent ways,” functions as a microcosm of Joyce’s

After he cannot kiss E.C. on the train despite his sudden feelings of confidence, Stephen becomes overwhelmed with his desires and resorts to prostitutes. However, this does not come without consequence for Stephen, as noted in the villanelle: “Your eyes have set man’s heart ablaze / And you have had your will of him.” The tone of the villanelle depicts Stephen’s lasting bitterness for indulging in the prostitutes. In the midst of Stephen’s guilt, Father Arnall says loss is the greatest torment and is infinitely painful. Stephen’s pain of lost love continues to torture him in his quest, until he experiences his villanelle. With the repetition of the line, “Tell no more of enchanted days,” Stephen admits his frustration with love to his quest, and therefore abandons the idea of sexualized love; instead he embraces the love of the