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1. Araby in James Joyce’s “Dubliners”

“Araby” is one of the fifteen short stories that make up James Joyce’s collection,

“Dubliners”. Although Joyce wrote the stories between 1904 and 1906, they were not

published until 1914. “Dubliners” is a portrait of life in Dublin, Ireland, at the turn of the

twentieth century. Its stories are arranged in order of development, reflecting on growth

from a child to an adult. “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 started to Dublin in 1894 when Joyce was twelve years old.

(By Farah)

2. Significance of the Title “Araby”

“Araby” is an actual marketplace on the outskirts of Dublin.  It is the name of an

upcoming bazaar with an Arabian setting. To the nineteenth-century European mind, the

Islamic lands of North Africa, the Near East, and the Middle East symbolized exotic

delights, and a luxurious sensuality.  Similarly to the young boy character, it is a place of

exotic place to satisfy his first desires of reaching out to a girl by fetching her a gift from

Araby. Therefore, Araby suggests the foreign-originated yet exciting affection that

captures the heart of the young boy, driving him out of his mundane, everyday life into

the journey of self-discovery and manhood. It suggests not just a marketplace but a place

of wonder and romance.

(By Farah)

3. Why the Main Character Has the Adoration to His Friend Mangan’s Sister?

In the beginning of the story, it tells us the neighbourhood where the main

character lives is a quiet street. The houses of the street, gazed at one another

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with brown imperturbable faces. On contrast, the main character with his friends

plays behind the houses till their bodies glowed. Their activities set off by

contrast the silence of the neighborhood and the tediousness of life. The narrator

uses a word “career” to describe their play to tell readers that playing is the most

important event in these boys’ daily life. They have nothing else to do to satisfy

their dynamic body. The writer shows this conflict between the environment and

physical and emotional needs during the development of a child into a grown

man in an indirect way. Before this conflict, the narrator seems to find a way to

release his emotion. In the story, describes as: Every morning, he lay on the floor

in the front parlour watching her door. When she came out on the doorstep, his

heart leaped. He ran to the hall, seized his books and followed her. “When they

came near the point at which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and

passed her. He has never spoken to her, but her name was like a summons to all

my foolish blood. Here the narrator uses “foolish blood” shows himself even

confused these feelings on this girl who is possible a little bit older than him.

Then, the narrator tells us his feeling when he walked through the streets on

Saturday evening to help his aunt marketing. “We walked the flaring streets,

jostled by drunken men and bargaining women, amid the curses of labourers,

the shrill litanies of shop-boys…, the nasal chanting of street-singers,…”, he

imagines that “I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes”.

(By Julie)

4. Who Is Mangan’s Sister

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This is the narrator's first love, this girl is regarded as the most major character in

the story. Just the image of her makes the narrator's heart leap. He follows her

everywhere mutely. The narrator's describing his first encounter with her, as "her figure

defined by the light from the half-opened door (431)”. Her image, itself, makes the

narrator blinded from his real life. He feels that the reality of his life offers no hope or

happiness because of its setting. "North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street

except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free (430)". The word

'blind' especially, implies dullness of the place where he lives, and the girl motivates him

to forget this gray outlook. Also an escape from such reality is driven from passages of

the story, where it says: "the light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve

of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing. It

fell up over one side of her dress and caught the white border of a petticoat, just visible as

she stood at ease (432)". The light makes him escape from darkness which he believes is

the only reality.  Although Mangan's sister is only a minor character and with no name,

she has an important impact on the young boy as he falls in love with her but she makes

him feel confused and wrapped in his first encounter with love.

The passion and the need to show his affection by buying the gift is about to

change when he finally makes his trip to Araby.  Arriving too late to do any serious

shopping, not affording to buy much of a worthy gift, and overhearing the two men and

one lady talk about something which seems just a superficial love, the narrator feels

angry and vain. According to the quote “I lingered before her stall, thought I knew my

stay was useless, to make my interest in her wares seem the more real (434)”, he finally

realizes that his interest of first love is not regarded important compared to those people

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who think that love can be sold and bought. In short, a girl’s image turns into darkness

again to the narrator because he mistakenly thought of his love as being beautiful and

innocent while he is as wrong as he was about romantic Araby. The love for Mangan’s

sister seems an ever unreachable goal for him at the end as he finds out his love was not

as innocent as he thought.

(By Diana)

5. The Theme of “Araby”

The theme of the story “Araby” by James Joyce, is a young and romantic boy for his first

love, he experienced many difficulty things to get to his desired place - Araby to buy

something for the girl. For example, he needed to wait for his uncle to come home and

ask his uncle give to the money to him. Then, he took the train which was also delayed.

Finally, he walked into the center, but he did not see his expected Araby. He expected

Araby to be a charming, beautiful and romantic place, but it wasn’t. After he listened to

the young lady and two young gentlemen’s conversational mode, he realized Araby was

common and is not distinguished like he thought. When the street closed the light, he

found out deep inside by himself is a “creature driven and derided by vanity (434)”. In

that part, it show the narrator's strongest emotion when he realizes how vain his love is

after he goes to Araby. He also realized his love is not pure because his real motive for

loving a girl that is out of vanity and not passion as he wanted to prove his love by means

of a material gift.

(By Yunyan)

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