ARABY

“Araby” is my favourite story out of the fifteen stories in Dubliners, a story

collection written by the Irish novelist and poet James Joyce in 1914. It is known
that this Joyce’s collection presents a naturalistic depiction of the Irish people
around Dublin, and so it is “Araby”. This short story is about a young boy,
probably 12 years old, growing up in Dublin, he comes from a catholic
background, and he is secretly in love with his friend’s sister, but far from being
“a love romantic story”, this focuses on the constant struggle between ideals and
reality. The name of the story “Araby” represents an ideal life, romance, and
beauty of the young author. I consider that the main themes in this story are
Christianity and first love. Moreover, in order to get a deeper understanding into
this Joyce’s story, it is necessary to include important information in this essay,
therefore I will describe the life of James Joyce, early 20 th Ireland, Joyce literary
movement, the plot of the story, and lastly my point of view towards this story.

The life of James Joyce, early 20th century Ireland and literary movement

James Joyce was born in Ireland in 1882. His father had several jobs, and his
mother was a pianist, whose life was dominated by religion. When he was 22
years old, he left Ireland with his wife Nora, and they went on a journey that
took them across Europe. While working and living outside Ireland, he could
notice a huge difference in people’s daily life and way of thinking in comparison
with Irish people. He realises that people from Ireland, especially Dublin, were
living into a ‘paralyses’, this means they were not able to move forward, but
being hindered from making progress. And so was right Joyce, in the early 20 th
century, Ireland citizens were struggling with issues such as nationality,
language, religion, and even politics. Joyce saw these elements of Irish life as
‘nets’ that could trap anyone, but only the determined ones, like him, would be
able to escape from them. In this way, he decided to write stories to criticize all
these elements and to show Irish people what they seemed to be missing as well
as encouraging them to leave the old routine and reach something good and new.
Therefore, most of his works: Dubliners, A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
and Ulysses are all set in Ireland and most of the main characters in the stories
has an epiphany. It is important to mention that Joyce’s literary movement is
Modernism, thus main features of this movement such as blended imagery,
nonlinear narratives, and stream of consciousness can be seen in most of his
works.

Summary of the Plot

The story is written in the first person, the narrator is an unnamed young man
who lives with his uncle and aunt, and his parents are not mentioned. He starts
the story describing the North Dublin Street where his house is located. Then, he
remembers the priest, a man who died in the house before he moved in, and the
games that he and his friends would play in the streets every day. They would
usually hide in the shadows, avoiding people in the neighbourhood, especially
his uncle or his friend Mangan’s sister. The girl comes to the front of their house
to call her brother, and the narrator glimpses at her. Every time, his friend’s
sister leaves her house, he tries to bump into her. The narrator is quite timid, he
does not dare to talk to her, but she is always in his mind. The young narrator is
closer to his aunt than his uncle, he helps her with the shopping every Saturday
evening. One morning, Mangan’s sister talks to the young boy if he plans to go
to Araby, a bazaar. The narrator was in shock but what he remembered of the
conversation is the promise he made about buying something for her. He feels
that going to the bazaar is the opportunity to reach her love, but instead he feels
restless and nervous. He cannot focus on his studies, he finds the lessons
tedious, and he even thinks that they distract him from thinking of Mangan’s
sister. The day of going to the bazaar finally came, in the morning he reminded
his uncle to return home early and provide train fare. Yet dinner passes, but the
uncle does not return, until at 9 p.m, the uncle finally came back home. After
reciting the epigram “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, the young
narrator received the money from his uncle. The boy goes to the bazaar as fast as
he can, but due to the slow trains in Dublin, he arrives at the bazaar Araby just
before 10 p.m. when the stores are starting to close. He goes to one store that is
still open, he hears English accent from a conversation of a lady and two other
boys. The lady watching over the goods asks him if he is going to buy
something, yet the young narrator feels unwanted by her and says no. In a matter
of minutes, the last store closed down, he did not buy anything for Mangan’s
sister, therefore he is angry and feels like a failure.

Final Opinion

Having into consideration the life of Joyce, the 20th Ireland, and the plot itself,
this part will include my point of view towards this story. Firstly, I want to
analyse the name of the story and bazaar ‘Araby’ (which means Arabia). I do
consider that this name is like a romantic representation of an exotic place,
though this name does not represent the real country, but a fantasy land created
by the young boy. I also believe that Mangan’s sister is an exotic representation
of what might be considered a fantasy or dream for the young narrator, as he
describes her ‘brown figure’, it evokes the skin colour of romanticized images of
Arabia. Like the bazaar, Mangan’s sister gives the young narrator a new feeling
of joy and delight. However, as it was stated before, this is not a romantic love
story but a story about a young boy who is unable to express his feelings. It
seems to me that in this narrative, Joyce points out the main problems of Irish
people, such as Religion. This boy, the main character, comes from a Christian
background, and Joyce seems to imply that such background has repressed his
emotions and therefore he cannot express his feelings for Mangan’s sister freely.
In fact, Joyce had a complex relationship with Religion, he used to blame the
Catholic church for repressing and restricting people from expressing
themselves. In the story, it is important to point out the priest, he was described
by the young narrator as “a very charitable priest; in his will he had left all his
money to institutions and the furniture of his house to his sister.” This fragment
tells that the priest gave all his possessions to his sister, but not a wife or
children, because obviously he did not have a romantic love. For this reason, I
do believe that the ideas of losing love or never having a love are present in this
story. Another point that is interesting to note is the house (religious imagery)
where the boy grows up. After the priest died there, the house has not been
changed, the narrator says that the windows have not been opened yet and the
priest’s things are still in the house. It seems obvious that the boy is encaged by
his religion, and he cannot escape from there.

Also, another topic I would like to discuss is first love. I think that it is normal
that the boy felt confused because romantic feelings are powerful and so it is the
first experience. “My body was like a harp and her words and gestures were
like fingers running upon the wires” this quote from the young narrator
expresses his confusion and awkwardness at this situation. The story does not
mention his parents but his uncle and aunt, probably this young boy is an
orphan, I consider this an important detail because even though his aunt and
uncle care about him, by the time he feels confused for falling in love with a girl,
he does not have a mom or dad to talk or ask about it.

In the end of the story, he reached ‘Araby’ but due to his uncle’s lateness and the
slow Dublin trains, he arrives too late to buy his friend’s sister a good gift. Being
there, he simply encountered teacups and English accents, nothing new, not the
freedom, not the joy that the narrator has been waiting for and, consequently, he
feels disappointed with it. Furthermore, as the baazar closes down, he feels that
Mangan’s sister will fail his expectations just like ‘Araby’ did. He realises that
his desire for her was actually his vain wish for change, he feels anger and
returns to home (paralysis). As a whole, I think this is a tragic story of love
defeat, he could not express what he felt for her, he did not have enough
determination to pursue his loved one, he simply gave up.

Student: Fatima Gonzales