LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 17:4 April 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Out of the Labyrinth:
Optimism in A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

Shilpa Sreekumar


Abstract

Optimism is a mental attitude or world view that interprets situation and events as being best optimized. The concept is typically extended to include the attitude of hope for future conditions unfolding optimum as well. Philosophers often link the concept of optimism with the name of Wilhelm Leibniz who held that we live in the best of all possible worlds or that God created a physical universe that applies the laws of Physics. This paper analyses the concept of Optimism in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The novel with its protagonist Stephen Dedalus striving to get out of the limitations of Labyrinths is an example of optimistic attitude to life and its progress. James Joyce’s artist, Stephen is not a symbol of Everyman representative, but of man apart, defined by his differences from the generality of humankind, at odds with his society.

Keywords: Optimism, Labyrinth, Freedom, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Optimism for Survival

Optimism can be defined as a tendency to expect the best possible outcome or an interest to dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation. The broader concept of optimism is the understanding of nature, past, present and future which operates by laws of optimization. This understanding although criticized by counterviews such as pessimism, idealism and realism, leads to a state of mind that believes everything as it should be and that future will be as well.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Shilpa Sreekumar, M.A., B.Ed.
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Yuvakshetra College
Ezhakkad
Yuvakhetra Rd.
Mundur-II
Palakkad 678631
Kerala
India
shilpa.sreekumar121@gmail.com
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