The Journey from Alienation towards Self-Realization in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

The very scrutiny was entrenched on the novel A portrait of an artist as a young man (1982) which is the great work of James Joyce. The efficacy of this probe was that it took a concept, alienation, that is basically considered as a pessimistic phenomena, and analyzed that how this notion led towards self-realization in the novel A portrait, which is the optimistic outcome of estrangement. Therefore, it did not merely ponder upon the negative, but also the positive facet of alienation. It focused on the brutal effects of alienation which perturbed Stephen’s self and how that disturbance was changed into solace and eventually he realized his true self. Moreover, it also gave the very importance of self-realization in Stephen’s life. The whole investigation was backed up by Hegel’s theory of alienation since he takes alienation as a process that leads towards self-realization. For this study qualitative paradigm was being opted and through content analysis the novel was being examined and the researcher inferred that being indulged in the murky depths of estrangement, Stephen encountered separation but then afterwards his surrender assisted him to embrace his own self.