A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Characters

Have you ever tried to describe a sibling, or a parent, or that best friend you’ve known since you were both two and a half, but just not been able to come up with words that really do the tr...

There are some real father-issues in this book. Stephen’s father is possibly the most sentimental character in the book – not only because he’s a very emotional being (quite prone...

Honestly, there’s not much to say about Stephen’s mother. She’s always present as a background figure in family scenes; we know that she’s a peacemaker (or at least tries to...

Emma is really not a "character" in the traditional sense of the word. She’s actually more of a concept – she is the subject of Stephen’s adoration, but we have no real sense of h...

Stephen doesn’t have too many real friends at university, but the ones he does have are carefully chosen. They are all his intellectual equals (or at least close to it). Though Cranly often i...