“For some time he had felt slight changes in his house; and these changes in what he had deemed unchangeable were so many slight shocks to his boyish conception of the world. The ambition which he felt astir at times in the darkness of his soul sought no outlet.”
Joyce, James Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Oxford World’s Classics, pp.53
As Stephan matures, he becomes more perceptive to the state of his surroundings. This can mark artistic development along with maturity as Stephan relates his newfound perspectives with deep reflection and inquisitiveness.