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Works of James Joyce: Chapter One

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From: Monarch Notes
Date: 19630101
Author:Joyce, James

Joyce, James
Monarch Notes
01-01-1963
Chapter One

The Opening Fugue.

The first two pages of A Portrait are a microcosm of the entire novel.
The opening four words suggest that the fairy tale told to Stephen by his
father about a cow who came down the road has great symbolic importance; for,
later, the priests, more fathers, will promulgate an even greater fairy
tale, Irish Catholicism, which Joyce once called "black magic." Stephen must
walk down many roads before he finds fulfillment as an incipient artist; he
prepares for his European sojourn at the end of the book, determined to follow
an ...

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