In his 1987 study La via del mondo, literary scholar Franco Moretti states that the Bildungsroman “ stands out as the most obvious of the (few) points of reference available in that irregular expanse we call “novel””. Indeed, although the reader may not be familiar with the term itself, coined by German philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey, the genre's common motifs of education, growth, and formation are widely recognized as staples of the Western novel tradition. The late 19th and early 20th centuries in particular saw a keen interest in life stories, including Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (1861) and James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), two novels that they tell of a process of self-discovery through which the protagonist comes to a deeper understanding of life through epiphanies and a gradual transition from childhood to maturity. However, while it is generally accepted that these texts fall within the Bildungsroman tradition, it is necessary to consider the contradictions and inconsistencies present in both novels, including the seemingly incongruous way in which the protagonists' moral and intellectual development is accompanied by a curious loss of sensitivity. financial freedom and autonomy. Furthermore, the semi-autobiographical nature of these texts raises problematic issues relating to novelistic closure, with both protagonists' moral journeys ending ambiguously. Throughout both stories, then, the reader's expectations are continually confounded, calling into question the assumption that Dickens and Joyce produced clear narratives of advancement and progress. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay With a deft and surprisingly progressive focus on the sensibility of the child, the opening chapters of Dickens' Great Expectations firmly establish the identity of the young Philip Pirrip and outline the social and emotional constraints imposed on the protagonist as a result of his struggle through childhood adversity, a main characteristic of the Bildungsroman form. Orphaned at a young age and raised by his domineering sister, Pip harbors a considerable degree of resentment, but is unfortunately unable to better himself due to his disadvantaged start in life. Indeed, after being mocked for his clothes and coarse manners by the beautiful Estella at Satis House, Pip reflects that: “Inside myself, I had sustained, from my childhood, a perpetual conflict with injustice. I knew, from the moment I could speak, that my sister, in her capricious and violent constraint, was being unfair to me” [63]. Dickens heightens this internal struggle by imbuing his text with a distinctly Gothic quality, and Pip's surroundings are continually shrouded in darkness – “Once again, the mists were lifting as I drifted away” [285] – thus reflecting the confusion and vulnerability of the protagonist in the face of an uncertain future. When Pip is brought to London by worldly expectations, therefore, the foundations appear to have been laid for a gradual quest for self-realization and social ascent, and the reader subsequently anticipates a “rags to riches” tale of personal development in line with conventions of the nineteenth-century Bildungsroman. Written over fifty years after the publication of Dickens's text, James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man develops the tradition of the Bildungsroman using innovative stream-of-consciousness narrative, but the protagonist emerges from equally poor beginnings into aprovincial Irish city. The intellectual and emotional challenges faced by Dickens's Pip are echoed in the opening chapters in young Stephen's sense of loss at the world, with Joyce describing a similar conflict between generations – perpetuated by a father who is an embarrassing figure of neglect and ineptitude – as the source of his son's resentment: "He was angry with himself for his young age and prey to restless senseless impulses, also angry at the change in fortune that was redesigning the world around him in a vision of squalor and insincerity" [50 ]. In fact, Stephen's struggle with isolation reaches its peak while he accompanies his unfortunate father to Cork, where he feels the need to reassure himself by repeating: "I am Stephen Dedalus" [70], thus highlighting his continuous search for a concrete identity . The protagonist's alienation from his father parallels his lack of faith in the values ​​of his home, and Stephen must consequently seek an alternative vocation and belief. From the opening chapters, therefore, Joyce seems to prepare his readers for a formative novelistic journey of emancipation, consequently setting in motion the evolutionary structure of the Bildungsroman. On the surface, the journey from provinciality to metropolis, undertaken by both Pip and Stephen, signals a path to success and autonomy. However, these notions of social and professional advancement are problematized by the palpable decline in freedom experienced by the characters as a direct consequence of their moral development. For example, Great Expectations depicts Pip's descent into an attitude of carelessness and snobbery that ultimately results in a religious paradox: to be purified, he must be defiled and subsequently lose everything he possesses. As a result, Pip's fortune is taken away from him and the protagonist is forced to return to a state of childish helplessness. Invoking the biblical parable of the prodigal son, Dickens strips Pip of his wealth and wealth, ensuring that he must be raised once again by the kindly blacksmith Joe. This disastrous turn of events highlights the contradiction at the heart of the novel: although Pip has gained emotional maturity, he has lost crucial elements of his adult identity, with his financial destitution symbolizing his loss of freedom and independence. Similar inconsistencies can be found in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, in which Stephen continually struggles with feelings of isolation and entrapment even at crucial moments in his personal growth. As a schoolboy in Clongowes, for example, he stood up to injustice and reported the prefect of studies after being treated unfairly. For the first time Stephen is held in high esteem and treated like a hero by his peers, yet he is uncomfortable with the situation and evidently feels “caged” by the adulation of his classmates: “They made their imprisonment a crib". hands and lifted him up among them and carried him with them until he struggled to free himself” [44]. Even at this early stage in the novel, Stephen's developing mind associates heroism and success with constraint, foreshadowing the continued feelings of confinement he encounters as he reaches adulthood. This theme persists throughout the narrative, and despite experiencing developments in his artistic consciousness, Stephen remains alienated from others, as illustrated by his discomfort while among his peers in class: “Stephen's heart slowly began to bend and wither out of fear like a withered flower. "[82]. Evidently, the protagonist's intellectual development is not analogous to a process of self-satisfaction, and Stephen, despite his growing awareness as an artist, remains dissatisfied. Furthermore, several critics have notedthe problematic issue of novelistic closure in the Bildungsroman, highlighting the various difficulties in concluding a semi-autobiographical life story with conviction. The ending of Great Expectations, in particular, is a point of contention for many readers and could be said to subvert the notion of life stories as congruent narratives of development and progress. After initially ending his protagonist's story in a decidedly unromantic way, Dickens was invited to write an alternative conclusion, which sees the adult Pip reunited with his first love, Estella: “I took her hand and we walked out of the place in ruins; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the smithy, so the evening mists were lifting now, and in all the wide expanse of still light they showed me, I saw the shadow who did not separate from her. " [482]This somewhat disappointing conclusion undermines the moral journey undertaken by Pip, and it could be said that the reemergence of Estella (and the cynical opulence she represents) into the protagonist's life makes a mockery of Pip's process of redemption. Being an account semi-autobiographical of Dickens's life, the uncertain ending of Great Expectations thus exemplifies the difficulties associated with blending fiction with autobiography, as the tensions between the novelistic elements and the intrusions of real-life experience are difficult for Dickens to reconcile is unable to definitively conclude the text and, as a result, Pip is unable to fully escape the shackles of his troubled childhood. Therefore, rather than being a tale of coming of age and development, Great Expectations could instead be regarded as a tale of fictional expectations , in which readers' anticipations are raised and subsequently challenged. A similarly ambiguous conclusion is found in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a. Young Man, and despite Stephen's formative decision to leave Ireland, the author makes no attempt to disguise the incomplete nature of the artist's development. In fact, Stephen's personal shortcomings are also made evident in the final chapter, which sees the protagonist often speaking irregularly, "like a guy throwing a handful of peas in the air" [195]. Like Dickens, Joyce is constrained by the semi-autobiographical nature of the text, and the novel's inconclusive ending highlights Stephen's profound flaws. Indeed, several critics have highlighted undesirable elements of Stephen's character, such as his lack of humour, with Hugh Kenner arguing that the reader's first impulse when confronted with Stephen's final edition is to laugh: "we must not accept the mode of Stephen's “freedom” as the “message” of the book”. The tension between the protagonist's intellectual development and the absence of a full and harmonious personality therefore undermines the idea that Stephen's life story is a story of true development and self-improvement. Furthermore, over the course of both novels, the division between good and evil, reality and falsehood, becomes increasingly blurred, leading to what Moretti calls “a veritable paralysis of judgment.” initially perceiving the world in fairly binary terms, his experiences in London, together with his subsequent meeting with his unlikely benefactor, Magwich, lead him to the realization that he has behaved more reprehensibly than a convicted criminal: “I saw in him only a a much better man than I had been to Joe" [446]. Similarly, Stephen Dedalus repeatedly confuses fiction with reality, escaping from… imagining himself as the hero in various literary works, including The Count of Monte Cristo. In a confusing and chaotic world of industrialization and middle-class progress, therefore, the “ideal” of the gentleman becomes increasingly.