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In his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Joyce uses water-sea-liquid imagery to show that a person who desires to become an artist must first achieve a complete understanding of himself and personal circumstances before he can reject old conventions of thought and custom and finally realize a unique perception of the world. In the first part of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce portrays the young Stephen Dedalus as an insecure and confused young man. Throughout his early adolescence Stephen suffers through many identity crises. For a time he was a whore monger, later he wanted to become a priest, finally he thought about becoming a teacher.
All the while he seemed to be in a stagnant cycle of routine, indeed his life seemed to have "a smell of stale water" (ch. 1) because it was going nowhere in poverty stricken Dublin. The stale water represented Stephens static self image. He was perpetually confused and never really knew what direction he wanted to go in life, hence, for a time he went nowhere. As the first part of the story continued and Stephen dabbled in one thing or another, but continued to have trouble figuring out his own goals for life. He experimented a lot, but all of his searching lacked depth, instead it was as if he was a submarine "bobbing on the surface of the water" (ch. 2) unable to commit to any real meaningful voyage into the sea; or in Stephens case, to look inward and realize his true purpose in life.
Bobbing on top of the surface indicates that instead of diving and exploring, Stephen instead drifts aimlessly and without purpose. As the first part of the story winds down, Stephen begins to feel uneasy and apprehensive about his current situation. Here, Stephen begins to cultivate an understanding of himself and what he wants to accomplish in life; like a rising tide in which "the water rises inch by inch" (ch. 3) Stephens self-awareness was growing and he came to the threshold of comprehending what he had to do in the second part of the story. The rising water correlates to Stephens rising confidence and ability to form a positive self-image. As the second part of the story commences, Joyce uses Dublin and a perceived common Irish culture to show that Stephen must escape old cultural idioms of thought and custom in order to form a novel cognition of the world in which he lives. The Ireland Stephen tries to escape from imposes many intellectual and behavioral expectations upon Stephen, who feels smothered in the intellectually stultifying environment.
Stephen feels that many of his peers are no more than "jelly like masses of liquid" (ch. 3) unable to think independently of the expected Irish way of thinking. Stephen likens his peers to jellyfish like beings because he sees in them a doctrine of ingrained behavior, not people who constantly make free decisions. Hence, due to their closed minds, his views as an artist will not be taken seriously, and that is exactly what Stephen tries to avoid. An artist relies on an audience being open to new ideas and new ways of thinking, if they are not then art will not thrive, which is why Stephen finds so much fault with the people of Ireland. Later Stephen again takes a potshot at the intellectual and cultural sophistication of Ireland, he believes it is more like a bucket of "sluggish turf colored water" where new ideas and voices are not greeted with open arms. The sluggish and turf colored labels represent the lack of progress Ireland has made culturally and the way many of its people are tied to the land in an archaic and outdated way.
Nearing the end of the middle part of the story Stephen wishes to escape Ireland, and its suffocating culture. Stephen imagines the old legend of his namesake, the ancient Greek figure Dedalus, who "flies sunward above the sea" (ch. 4) avoiding the perils of the open ocean and trying to attain a glorious goal. Flying above the sea or Ireland towards the sun which is really a shining goal, becomes Stephens chief aim for a time. He struggles with escaping the land of his birth, but knows he must in order to realize his dreams. As Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man draws to a close Joyce uses Stephens newfound identity to show that Stephen has finally overcome his own internal problems and the struggles associated with growing up in Ireland to realize a new persona with a novel perspective on life.
After his long battle with Ireland and himself Stephens mind is now like a "grey sheet of waterloo up by sunlight" (ch. 4) now open for new ideas and means of expression. The old grey water was now broken by the sunlight and illuminated, representing a different level of thought and creativity. Stephens goal is almost actualized. Stephens new invigorating state of mind fills him with happiness and a sense of purity as "pure as the purest water" (ch. 5), which is a departure from his earlier thought of himself as a bucket of stale water earlier in chapter one. His newfound confidence he feels will lead him to the path he has now chosen. The pure water is almost like a religious feeling for him.
He feels like his soul is cleansed now that he continue; he has found experience a "new world, fantastic, dim, uncertain as the sea" (ch. 5) where his art can flourish in an environment free of inhibitions. This brave new world Stephen is about to enter offers untold possibilities for learning and self-improvement which have been Stephens goal from the start. knows the true direction his life will take. As the story draws to a close Stephens triumphant feelings the strength to battle personal demons, escaped Irelands grasp and is now ready to.
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