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"I had never spoken to her," he admits (30). When finally he does he is at a loss for words. "When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer," (31). He communicates better in a fantasy world, just as he sees better in his fantasy world: "Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand," (31). Sensory deprivation is at times total: "All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves," (31). Silence and muteness, while not as prevalent as blindness, contribute to an overall sense of darkness and death in "Araby." Sensory deprivation is also a part of religious esotericism. At Araby, the narrator "recognized a silence like that which pervades a church after a service," (34).
His lack of real or symbolic sight indicates his lack of connection to his daily life and thus his strong need for escapism. The narrator notes, "I thought little of the future," (31). His obsession with Mangan's sister prevents him from concentrating: "her image came between...
In fact, he has so lost touch with reality that while at Araby, the narrator forgets why he came in the first place. Thus, the obvious coming-of-age theme of "Araby" is superceded by more subtle themes of the quest for self and for the discovery of one's identity. The exotic, foreign, magical nature of the market evokes the narrator's epiphany. He undergoes a type of spiritual initiation. "I looked humbly at the great jars that stood like eastern guards at either side of the dark entrance to the stalls," (35). Thus, the themes of blindness, death, and sexuality converge. Throughout "Araby," the narrator focuses on darkness and uses darkness as a means to escape from an unfulfilling life and to hide his identity. The darkness of the streets permits him and his playmates to hide from his uncle and from Mangan; the darkness of the buildings cloaks the true lives of those that dwell within them; and the darkness of Mangan's sister's skin represents an exotic, foreign world that the narrator wishes to…
Works Cited
Joyce, James. "Araby." Dubliners. New York: Viking, 1967
Dubliners stories deal mortality/death . For, "Eveline," a young girl lives a promise made dying mother. There is no denying the fact that morality is one of the principle themes in James Joyce's collection of short stories Dubliners, and in the tale "Eveline" in particular. Joyce is regarded as "one of the brightest stars of European literary modernism" (Spinks 1). In many ways, this short story functions as a precaution about
A shameful consciousness of his own person assailed him. He saw himself as a ludicrous figure, acting as a pennyboy for his aunts, a nervous, well-meaning sentimentalist, orating to vulgarians and idealising his own clownish lusts, the pitiable fatuous fellow he had caught a glimpse of in the mirror. Instinctively he turned his back more to the light lest she might see the shame that burned upon his forehead." Not
Mr. Duffy finds romance -- love, even -- but he is too unaware to realize what this could mean for him and for the woman he realizes he loves too late. Both Mr. Duffy and this would-be lover are isolated, caught in their own middle-aged loneliness through what are essentially a series of cowardly choices, while Araby's hero is somewhat brave if ultimately ineffective (Corrington, 182). The differences between these
Araby," by James Joyce, "The Aeneid," by Virgil, and "Candide," by Voltaire. Specifically, it will look at love as a common theme in literature, but more often than not, it does not live up to the romantic ideal of love. Various authors employ this emotion as a theme that allows them to demonstrate some truth about the human condition that lies outside of the terrain of love. ARABY" The third story
Other characters serve as more direct and specific symbols in the story. Mrs. Mercer, the guest of the narrator's aunt on the evening that the narrator finally manages to get to the bazaar, is one such character. She, like the narrator, has been waiting for the narrator's uncle to return, and both expected him much earlier than he eventually appears. Mrs. Mercer, in fact -- a "garrulous woman, a pawnbroker's
Illusion and Reality in "Araby" In James Joyce's short story "Araby," written in 1905, but first published in 1914 in Dubliners (Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, p. 611) a young boy experiences his first sexual awakening, and finds himself endlessly fantasizing about "Mangan's sister," who lives in a house near his own. As Joyce describes Mangan's sister, from the boy's perspective "Her dress swung as she moved her body and the