Stephen Dedalus is the titular character. He possesses an artistic sentiment from an early age, viewing the world with a curiosity and a fascination that he spends his life trying to put into words. Stephen dedicates his life to this pursuit of artistic expression, eventually deciding that he must leave his home country of Ireland to find what he has searched for throughout his entire life. Throughout the story, Stephen is continuously caught up in daydreams, which he uses to explore his own identity.

Stephen’s life is a tangled mess of competing influences. While Stephen eventually comes to regard his father as an overly nostalgic failure of a man, he struggles to match his mother’s fervent piety with his own lack of religion. He moves away from their influences, as they do not suit his artistic vision of the world. At the Jesuit school Clongowes, Stephen is bullied and isolated; his social alienation becomes pronounced to the point where other boys comment on his remote demeanor. The school environment matures Stephen, however, exposing him to a world with different expectations from his home and family.

While still a young teenager, Stephen wrestles with guilt. He visits sex workers frequently, but the weight of sin hangs heavily over him, to the point where he obsesses over the concept of hell and the fate of his immortal soul.