Freedom and Desire: A Quest for Spiritual Journey in James Joyce’s Novel Ulysses/A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Abstract

This study, Freedom, and Desire: A quest for a spiritual journey in the novel by James Joyce, describes the journey of the main character of the story from his adolescence to the best way of conceptualizing the dynamic, multilateral relationship between individual experience and socio-cultural scope, since it recognizes the causal significance of culture but also recognizes individual choice and changes. The researcher examines the true desire which enables him to embrace his creative spirits “the actual experiences” which also symbolize freedom. This claim is formed by contemplating how many historical shifts in the socio-cultural context, i.e. the increase in freedom of choice, the shift in interpersonal patterns, the loss of traditional values, the loss of religious understanding, and the increasing conflict between the desire for individuality and the complexity of achieving it, have led to changes in the essence of true intentions and modern personhood. For this research, a qualitative method is adopted in the framework of Locke on Freedom (2015). It also points out and aims at the need to establish a new perspective on the provision of spiritual treatment in the field of freedom and desire, which focuses on improving the particular spiritual journey of the person, rather than simply reassuring spiritual distress. A man should not have to restrict himself to limited ideas, for this one has to go beyond limitation to change his mind which is the ultimate reality of advancement in life.