The Images in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and James Joyce's Aesthetics

James Joyce employs the symbolic technique in the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man to depict the complex inner mind of the protagonist.The images are closely related with Joy’s aesthetics.The reappearance of these images reinforces and unifies the theme of the novel which eventually makes the novel a complete whole.This coincides with Joyce’s principle of "wholeness".In this paper,mainly two images the "bird" and the "water" will be analyzed.Their symbolic meaning changes with the development of Stephen in different chapters.Sometimes they are symbols of threat and pressure;sometimes they are symbols of freedom and flight,which coincides with Joyce’s exile aesthetics.