They have been denied many of the privileges that Stephen has had.

They are minor characters in the novel, usually lumped together as a group. She is burdened with the raising of ten children, with financial circumstances always becoming worse.

Mary is quite religious, and is deeply concerned when Stephen, during his college days, develops an increasingly hostile attitude toward the Roman Catholic Church. He is deeply nostalgic, and sometimes full of unsolicited cliché advice for his son. With Simon, one senses constantly that the best days are already behind him. Simon, once a medical student, is a financially inept man whose blunders plunge the Dedalus family deeper and deeper into poverty. He finally comes to realize that Ireland is a trap for him, and that he must escape the bonds of family, religion, and country if he is to be able to create. Although he keeps the core traits of imaginativeness and sensitivity throughout his life, Stephen evolves from a shy, almost awkward boy to a brave and brilliant young man. Stephen is an extremely dynamic character. Because of his intellectual gifts and his position as the oldest child, the family scrapes together enough money to pay for his education. He is the oldest son of Simon and Mary Dedalus, Irish Catholics with ten other children. He is extremely sensitive and imaginative, and we watch as he develops into a fiercely independent young man. Stephen is the hero of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and all events of the book are filtered through his consciousness.

Artist as a young man