The Powerful Female Character in a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man One of the most powerful nuances of any writing is the dialogue within the story. In literature, it is too often the case that characters live only in the tired voice of the author and never truly develop into their true selves, or are not strongly opinionated in a way that conflicts with the writer's opinions. Unfortunately, it's also true that the women depicted in most literature by male authors often don't seem realistic, or like most women you talk to throughout the day tend to seem. Too often women are represented at a lower level of discourse than men. For example, Dickens and Arthur Miller both apparently subscribed to this notion, as the women in their stories were usually more passive and unelaborate as the men in their speeches, however, James Joyce did not see things in the same light. The most developed female character in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the one who speaks with the dignity, passion, and feminine tact that is too often ignored in female characters. Joyce's words and thoughts of Dante Riordan are faithful to those of 20th century literary women. Although Dante Riordan is a short-lived character in Portrait, in a short amount of time he emits a seemingly important and mysterious aura, the aura of a woman. Judging by the studies of twentieth-century linguists, Joyce's brief representation of Dante through speech is almost flawless. To understand this more clearly, one must carefully examine some of the instances in which Dante speaks in her conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Dedalus, Charles, and Mr. Casey, and re-examine the arguments she makes. Dante is introduced into the table conversation as a silent character. However, when the men's conversation turns to the preacher's misuse of the pulpit, Dante begins his interjections. Too often, women in literature remain linguistically dormant unless spoken to, however, studies conducted in real life outside the covers of a book have shown that women will interrupt a conversation to contradict whoever spoke first, and will do so with vehemence (Coates, 193). A nice answer to give to your priest for every man who calls himself Catholic, (Joyce, 273) states Dante as his first answer. At this point, Dante entered the conversation.