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Araby~ James Joyce (1882-1941)
Kaushal Desai
Assistant Professor of English Language &
Literature
http://desaikaushal1315.blogspot.com
http://www.slideshare.net/kaushal111
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Let us see…
About Author The artistic features of “Araby” Themes Setting Symbolism in the story Characters Plot Overall Synopsis Conflict
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James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2
February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most popular writers in the early 20th century.
Major WorksChamber Music (poems)Exiles (play)Ulysses (novel) (1922)Dubliners (short story
collection),publication in 1914A Portrait of the Artist as a Yong Man
(1916)Finnegans Wakes (1938)
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The artistic features of “Araby”
Two Epiphanies gives the story its structure.
Setting is very important in the story.
The central symbol of the story is the Church.
The quest for beauty is lonely and of an archetype myth.
The narrator is ironic.
The character grows from innocence to knowledge.
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Themes Araby touches on a great number of themes:Coming of agea) The loss of innocenceb) The life of the mind versus poverty (both physical and
intellectual)c) The dangers of idealizationd) The Catholic Church's influence to make Dublin a place of
asceticism where desire and sensuality are seen as immoral
e) The pain that often comes when one encounters love in reality instead of its elevated form
These themes build on one another entirely through the thoughts of the young boy, who is portrayed by the first-person narrator, who writes from memory.
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Setting
Time: At the turn of the twentieth century. Place:
North Richmond Street in the central part of Dublin city.
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Symbolism in the story Araby: the beauty, mystery, and romance that the boy longs
for in his life. Priest: religious symbol. Blind street symbolizes dead ends in the story or in the real
life (It suggests pessimism). Brown , imperturbable, descent: Joyce uses these words to
draw attention to the dreariness and plainness of Dublin. Empty house: Joyce mentions it perhaps to suggest an empty
future awaiting the boys playing on the street. Other symbols are; Ashpits, Café Chantant, Florin(British
coin)…etc.
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Characters
Major:
The boy who narrates the story is the central
character.
Minor:
• Mangan: narrator’s friend.
• Mangan’s sister: girl to whom the narrator is
attracted.
• Narrator’s uncle and aunt, Mrs. Mercer, school
master, stall attendant, Dubliners as; laborers, boys,
pedestrians.
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Plot
A young boy living with his aunt and uncle in a dark, untidy home in Dublin that was once the residence of a priest. The boy is in love with his friend's older sister, never having the courage to talk to her. Finally she speaks to him, asking him if he is going to attend a visiting bazaar,-“Araby.” where she cannot attend, he offers to bring her something from the bazaar. On the night he is to attend, his uncle is late coming home from work. when he makes his way to the bazaar, most of the people have left and many of the stalls are closed. As he looks for something to buy, he overhears a banal young salesgirl flirt with two young men. When the disinterested salesgirl asks him if he needs help, he declines, and he walks through the dark, empty halls, disillusioned with himself and the world around him.
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Overall Synopsis
Araby
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As with "The Encounter," this story deals with longing for adventure and escape, though here this longing finds a focus in the object of the narrator's desire. The title, "Araby," also suggests escape. To the nineteenth-century European mind, the Islamic lands of North Africa, the Near East, and the Middle East symbolized decadence, exotic delights, escapism, and a luxurious sensuality. The boy's erotic desires for the girl become joined to his fantasies about the wonders that will be offered in the Orientalist bazaar. He dreams of buying her a suitably romantic gift.
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The third story of the collection, it is the last story with a first-person narrator. It continues with the ages-of-life structure: we have had young boys for our protagonists in both "The Sisters" and "An Encounter," and here we have a boy in the throes of his first passion. As the boy is becoming a man, the bazaar becomes emblematic for the difficulty of the adult world, in which the boy proves unable to navigate. Boyish fantasies are dashed by the realities of life in Dublin.
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"Araby"s key theme is frustration, as the boy deals with the limits imposed on him by his situation. The protagonist has a series of romantic ideas, about the girl and the wondrous event that he will attend on her behalf. But on the night when he awaits his uncle's return so that he can go to the bazaar, we feel the boy's frustration mounting. For a time, the boy fears he may not be able to go at all.
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When he finally does arrive, the bazaar is more or less over. His fantasies about the bazaar and buying a great gift for the girl are revealed as ridiculous. For one thing, the bazaar is a rather tawdry shadow of the boy's dreams. He overhears the conversation of some of the vendors, who are ordinary English women, and the mundane nature of the talk drives home that there is no escape: bazaar or not, the boy is still in Dublin, and the accents of the vendors remind the reader that Dublin is a colonized city.
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The boy has arrived too late to do any serious shopping, but quickly we see that his tardiness does not matter. Any nice gift is well beyond the protagonist's price range. We know, from the description of the boy's housing situation and the small sum his uncle gives him, that their financial situation is tight. Though his anticipation of the event has provided him with pleasant daydreams, reality is much harsher. He remains a prisoner of his modest means and his city.
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Conflict
Internal: Lustful feelings toward Mangan girl; feelings that his
religion tells him he must control.
“All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: `O love! O
love!' many times.“
External: Environmental forces including; economic, social, cultural
conditions arising from British dominance of Ireland.
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