"Unfallen but About to Fall": The Influence of Byron's Cain on Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

The importance of Byron's verse drama Cain on Joyce's work has been largely limited to considerations of Finnegans Wake. Joyce had a well-annotated copy of the text with him in Trieste when he wrote his first novel, however, and his fascination with Byron was a lifelong affair that extended from youthful infatuation to a more mature engagement with Byron's critiques of culture, society, and individual selfishness. This essay argues that Cain exerts a deep influence on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and that Joyce incorporates numerous parallels between Cain and Stephen. This symmetry between the two texts casts A Portrait's ending in a deeply ironic light and produces the disillusioned Stephen whom readers meet in Ulysses; furthermore, it indicates Joyce's acknowledgment that isolation, resentment, and estrangement are not the conditions for producing great art.