Joyce's English

Portrait of the Artist gives great insight into the command of the English language that Joyce uses in his work. His depiction of the different language patterns used by the characters described in the novel show that Joyce's insight into the intricacies of the English language allows him to meta-analyze a given character's speech in order to further reveal hidden truths about them. Joyce's comparison between the speech of his friends Davin and Cranly highlights this gift; comparing the full-of-life speech of Davin to the "lumpy" language of Cranly. It is clear that Stephen Dedalus (and by association Joyce himself, on whom the character is based) places a great deal of importance on how well a person uses English and makes judgments and assumptions about people based on this. This is made readily apparent when Stephen has a conversation with his dean at the end of the novel and the dean's vocabulary is found wanting. One of the great ironies of the importance of English to Stephen is that he realizes that because of his Irish heritage, English will always be somewhat of a borrowed tongue for him.