“araby” by james joyce joyce is one of the most

8/14/2019 ARABY by James Joyce Joyce is One of the Most

1/6

ARABY

By James Joyce

Joyce is one of the most famous writers of the Modernist period of literature, which runs

roughly from 1900 to the end of World War II. Modernist works often include characters who

are spiritually lost and themes that reflect a cynicism toward institutions the writer had been

taught to respect, such as government and religion. Much of the literature of this period is

experimental.

Araby was one of the short complex stories from James Joyces short story collection called

Dubliners first published in 1907, that are a reflection of his own life as a boy growing up in

Dublin. As James Joyce was born in Dublin, he chose to write stories about the everyday lives of

men, women and children of this place during the late Victorian period. The schools, streets,

businesses, hotels, and public figures generally appear under their real names and it accounts to

the realistic style of the story.

Although each story from Dubliners is a unique and separate depiction, they all

have similarities with each other. Each of the stories in Dubliners consists of a portrait in which

Dublin contributes to the dehumanizing experience of modem life. The story focuses on escape

and fantasy; about darkness, despair and enlightenment and it is a retrospective of Joyces look

back at life and the constant struggle between ideals and reality. The boy in the story Araby is

intensely subject to the citys dark, hopeless conformity and his tragic yearning toward the exotic

in the face of drab, ugly reality forms the center of the story.

On its simplest level,Araby is a story about a boys first love. On a deeper level, however, it is a

story about the world in which he lives a world inimical to ideals and dreams. This deeper level

is introduced and developed in several scenes: the opening description of the boy's street, his

house, his relationship to his aunt and uncle, the information about the priest and his belongings,

the boy's two trips-his walks through Dublin shopping and his subsequent ride to Araby.

On the surface, the storyAraby, found in James Joyces collection of short stories, Dubliners, is

the story of a young man with a lustful crush on his friends sister. Careful examination of the

religious symbolism found in Joyce uncovers a story with deeper meaning; the story of a young

man torn between his religious beliefs and hisfeelings.

Araby is one of fifteen short stories that together make up James Joyces collection, Dubliners.

Although Joyce wrote the stories between 1904 and 1906, they were not published until 1914.

Dubliners paints a portrait of life in Dublin, Ireland, at the turn of the twentieth century. Its

1


2/6

stories are arranged in an order reflecting the development of a child into a grown man. The first

three stones are told from the point of view of a young boy, the next three from the point of view

of an adolescent, and so on.Araby is the last story of the first set and is told from the perspective

of a boy just on the verge of adolescence. The story takes its title from a real festival which came

to Dublin in 1894 when Joyce was twelve years old.

In the following excerpted essay, he discusses some of the autobiographical elements ofAraby,

which include Joyce's childhood in Dublin, Ireland, and how the exoticism of the real-life Araby

festival, with its Far Eastern overtones, impacted the young Joyce.

In the opening paragraphs of James Joyce's short story, "Araby," the setting takes center stage to

the narrator. Joyce tends carefully to the exquisite detail of personifying his setting, so that the

narrator's emotions may be enhanced. To create a genuine sense of mood, and reality, Joyce uses

many techniques such as first person narration, style of prose, imagery, and most of all setting.

The setting of a short story is vital to the development of character.

The story begins with the presentation of North Richmond Street, described metaphorically, and

with the first view of the character world. The street is blind; it is a dead end, yet its

inhabitants are smugly complacent; the houses reflect the attitudes of their inhabitants. The

houses are imperturbable in the quiet, the cold, the dark muddy lanes and dark dripping

gardens. The first use of situational irony is introduced here, because anyone who is aware, who

is not spiritually blinded or asleep, would feel oppressed and endangered by North Richmond

Street. The people who live there (represented by the boy's aunt and uncle) are not threatened,

however, but are falsely pious and discreetly but deeply self-satisfied. Their prejudice is

dramatized by the aunts hopes that Araby, the bazaar the boy wants to visit, is not14some

Freemason affair and by old Mrs. Mercers gossiping over tea while collecting stamps for "some

pious purpose.

The background or world of blindness extends from a general view of the street and its

inhabitants to the boys personal relation-ships. It is not a generation gap but a gap in the spirit,

in empathy and conscious caring, that results in the uncles failure to arrive home in time for the

boy to go to the bazaar while it is still open. The uncle has no doubt been to the local pub,

negligent and indifferent to the boys anguish and impatience. The boy waits well into the

evening in the imperturbable house with its musty smell and old, useless objects that fill the

rooms. The house, like the aunt and uncle, and like the entire neighborhood, reflects people who

are well intentioned but narrow in their views and blind to higher values (even the street lamps

lift a feeble light to the sky). The total effect of such setting is an atmosphere permeated with

2


3/6

stagnation and isolation.

The second use of symbolic description-that of the dead priest and his belongings-suggests

remnants of a more vital past. The bicycle pump rusting in the rain in the back yard and the old

yellowed books in the back room indicate that the priest once actively engaged in real service to

God and man, and further, from the titles of the books, that he was a person given to both piety

and flights of imagination. But the priest is dead; his pump rusts; his books yellow. The effect is

to deepen, through a sense of a dead past, the spiritual and intellectual stagnation of the present.

Into this atmosphere of spiritual paralysis the boy bears, with blind hopes and romantic dreams,

his encounter with first love. In the face of ugly, drab reality-"amid the curses of laborers,"

"jostled by drunken men and bargaining women"-he carries his aunt's parcels as she shops in the

market place, imagining that he bears, not parcels, but a "chalice through a throng of foes." The

"noises converged in a single sensation of life" and in a blending of Romantic and Christian

symbols he transforms in his mind a perfectly ordinary girl into an enchanted princess:

untouchable, promising, saintly. Setting in this scene depicts the harsh, dirty reality of life which

the boy blindly ignores. The contrast between the real and the boy's dreams is ironically drawn

and clearly foreshadows the boy's inability to keep the dream, to remain blind.

A young boy dream of Mangans sister, who lives nearby;every day begins for this narratorwith such glimpses of Mangans sister. Her image pursues him, even at night when he is trying

to say his prayers. One day, he actually encounters Mangans sister, and she asks whether he

plans to go to the bazaar (called Araby) on Saturday night. She herself would love to go, but

cannot, because she must attend a retreat at the convent. This is the boys big chance! He

promises to bring her a gift from the bazaar. On Saturday evening he waits for his uncle to come

home and give him some money, but the uncle doesn't arrive until nine oclock.

The boy rushes onto a deserted train, trying desperately to reach Araby before it closes, but when

he arrives the greater part of the hall was in darkness. A few stalls are still open. A few people

are still hanging around. The boy looks at some porcelain figurines, but suddenly realizes that his

quest is doomed to failure. The boys final disappointment occurs as a result of his awakening to

the world around him. The tawdry superficiality of the bazaar, which in his mind had been an

Oriental enchantment, strips away his blindness and leaves him alone with the realization that

life and love differ from the dream. Araby, the symbolic temple of love, is profane. The bazaar is

dark and empty; it thrives on the same profit motive as the market place (two men were

counting money on a salver); love is represented as an empty, passing flirtation.

Araby is a story of first love and it is a portrait of a world that defies the ideal and the dream.

3


4/6

Thus setting in this story becomes the true subject, embodying an atmosphere of spiritual

paralysis against which a young boys idealistic dreams are no match. Realizing this, the boy

takes his first step into adulthood.

The visual and symbolic details embedded in the story are highly concentrated and the story

culminates in an epiphany. An epiphany is a moment when the essence of a character is revealed,

when all the forces that bear on his life converge and the reader can, in that instant, understand

him, a sudden moment of insight and understanding.

Araby is centered on an epiphany, and is concerned with a failure or deception, which results in

realization and disillusionment. The meaning is revealed in a young boy's psychic journey from

love to despair and disappointment, and the theme is found in the boy's discovery of the bazaar.

Araby is an attempt by the boy to escape the bleak darkness of North Richmond Street. Joyce

orchestrates an attempt to escape the short days of winter, where night falls early and

streetlights are but feeble lanterns failing miserably to light the somberness of the dark muddy

lanes. Metaphorically, Joyce calls the street blind, a dead end; A recurrent theme of darkness

weaves itself through the story; the boy hides in shadows from his uncle or catch a shy glimpse

of his friend Mangans sister, who obliviously is his first love. In Araby, the allure of new love

and distant places mingles with the familiarity of everyday drudgery, with frustrating

consequences. Mangans sister embodies this mingling, since she is part of the familiar

surroundings of the narrators street as well as the exotic promise of the bazaar. She is a brown

figure who both reflects the brown faades of the buildings that line the street and evokes the

skin color of romanticized images of Arabia that flood the narrators head. Like the bazaar that

offers experiences that differ from everyday Dublin, Mangans sister intoxicates the narrator

with new feelings of joy and elation. His love for her, however, must compete with the dullness

of schoolwork, his uncles lateness, and the Dublin trains. Though he promises Mangans sister

that he will go to Araby and purchase a gift for her, these mundane realities undermine his plans

and ultimately thwart his desires. The narrator arrives at the bazaar only to encounter flowered

teacups and English accents, not the freedom of the enchanting East. As the bazaar closes down,

he realizes that Mangans sister will fail his expectations as well, and that his desire for her is

actually only a vain wish for change.

The narrators change of heart concludes the story on a moment of epiphany, but not a positive

one. Instead of reaffirming his love or realizing that he does not need gifts to express his feelings

for Mangans sister, the narrator simply gives up. He seems to interpret his arrival at the bazaar

as it fades into darkness as a sign that his relationship with Mangans sister will also remain just

4


5/6

a wishful idea and that his infatuation was as misguided as his fantasies about the bazaar. What

might have been a story of happy, youthful love becomes a tragic story of defeat.

Araby is about escaping into the world of fantasy. The narrator is infatuated with his friends

sister; he hides in the shadows, peering secluded from a distance trying to spy her brown figure

She is the light in his fantasy, someone who will lift him out of darkness. The boy sees the

bazaar at Araby as an opportunity to win her over, as a way to light the candle in her eyes. His

adolescence is an impediment to his quest and he lost for words to speak, as well as his lack of

experience to get through this moment. He fantasizes about her, how bringing her a gift from the

bazaar will capture her heart. He has promised her a gift and he anguishes over his uncle late

return home and his forgetfulness. Nevertheless, he is undeterred and catches an empty train to

reality. He finds Araby much like North Richmond Street, empty and dark with few people. The

female clerk at the booth ignores him while she flirts with the men. When she finally approaches,

he freezes in stare, transfixed by his awkwardness. As the woman turns and walks away, he

realizes the opportunity of winning his friends sister through a souvenir has slipped away. The

sensitive boy confused a romantic crush and religious enthusiasm and when he sees the bazaar is

closing down, he realizes that he has allowed his imagination to carry him away. He leaves

without a souvenir, feeling foolish and angry with himself. Anguish burns in his eyes as the cold

grip of reality takes hold of him as he fumbles with the coins in his pocket.

Araby is a story of first love; even more, it is a portrait of a world that defies the ideal and the

dream. James Joyce uses setting to symbolize a key concept of the story. The dark illusions the

boy experiences are all part of growing up. He is no longer young and naive, he has grown up

and become disappointed with life.Araby shows how we all get ideas about what may happen in

the near future and then feel disappointed with ourselves when nothing happens as expected.

The setting inAraby reinforces the theme and characters by using imagery of light and darkness.

The experiences of the boy in James Joyces Araby illustrate how people often expect more than

reality can provide and become disillusioned and disappointed. The author uses dark and obscure

references to make the boys reality of living in a gloomy town more vivid. He uses gloomy

references to create the mood of the story, and then changes to bright light references when

talking about Mangans sister. Darkness is used throughout the story as the prevailing theme.

Joyce begins the story at dusk and continues through the evening during the winter. He chooses

this depressing setting to be the home of a young boy who is infatuated with his neighbors

sister.

Light and darkness are two symbols present in Joyces work; he uses darkness to make the boys

5


6/6

“araby” by james joyce joyce is one of the most

Documents