Araby James Joyce Characters

The Boy or the Young Lover

Like his female counterpart the boy in Joyce’s Araby remains unnamed. Being the
principal character of the story he has every right to be called its hero. Very likely
he had lost both his parents at an early age and was now living in the house of his
uncle and aunt.

The boy was very much sensitive and imaginative by nature. For this he had often
to face unpleasant situations. His play took him to places he did not like at all. In
the dark muddy lanes he was roughly treated by cottagers. He passed by dark
dripping gardens whose odorous ashpits offended his delicate taste. Sometimes
stables too gave out a foul smell making it hard for him to stay there. On Saturday
evenings he had to accompany his aunt for the sake of carrying some of her
parcels. This made him come near crowded places where he had to face a number
of unpleasant experiences like getting pushed by drunken men and bargaining
women and hearing curses coming from labourers, shrill cries from shop boys and
nasal chanting from street-singers. All these appeared to him like a throng of foes
and he imagined that he bore his chalice–his pure love for the girl safely through
them. This shows that he loved to raise himself to the position of a dauntless
knight.

Though he could give vent to his anger before his aunt by clenching his fists, he
was somewhat afraid of his uncle. So he hid himself in the shadow as soon as he
saw his uncle turning the corner and did not come out of it until he saw him safely
housed. From certain signs he could easily understand when his uncle returned
home in a tipsy state. Understanding little of his difficulty his aunt frequently
detained him in the tea-table when she was engaged in long boring gossip with Mrs
Mercer.

The boy loved the girl intensely. His hungry heart loved to look at her. The swing
of her dress, the movement of her body, the tossing of her slender hair, the white
curve of her neck, and the sight of the border of her petticoat either roused his
curiosity or gave him joy. He devised clever tricks for the sake of seeing her. Every
morning he lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door through a small
opening in the window. When he came out his heart leaped up in joy. He ran to the
hall, seized his books and followed her. He kept her brown figure always in front
of him and when they came near the point at which their ways diverged, he
quickened his pace and passed her.

Besides seeing her, he adopted other means to keep her always in the focus of his
attention. Her name was like a summons to all his foolish blood. Her name sprang
to his lips in strange prayers and praises he could • not tell why. He felt that his
body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers playing upon the
wires. He was so full with emotions for her that his eyes were often full of tears
and at times a flood from his heart seemed to pour itself out into his bosom. One
rainy evening when there was no sound in the house he felt the pressure of
emotions so much on him that it seemed he was about to slip from his senses, and
pressing his palms tightly together he murmured repeatedly : O love! O love! He
also dreamed of her. One evening we went upstairs, stood there for an hour, and
leaning his forehead against the cool glass he saw nothing but the brown-dad figure
of the girl cast by his imagination. From the time when she spoke to him and urged
him to go to the bazaar his soul luxuriated in the thought that she was calling the
syllables at the word Araby to him through the silence of the night.
Despite the meanness and sordidness of his surroundings the boy was able to help
himself about from them. With the help of imagination he thought himself as one
capable of fulfilling his desires. With high expectation went to Araby dreaming
that he would be able to bring a nice object for his beloved. The closed stalls, the
darkness of the hall, the sound of the counting at cash, and the small talk among
the young sellers chilled his spirit to some extent But the discouraging tone with
which the young lady asked if he wished to buy anything gave a severe jolt and
placed him face to face with reality. He felt his money to be too small for the Na
jars he selected for her and returned home there without any gif for her. He
realized that it was his vanity that brought him to the bazaar and turned him into a
laughing stock. His powerlessness and dependence on his uncle made him suffer
from deep anguish and burned his eyes in anger at himself.

The boy is vitally important for the story for its theme dream and disillusionment
would have found no figure for its representation except him.

Mangan’s Sister or the Girl

The girl or Mangan’s sister is an important character of Araby. Her name has not
been disclosed by the author. She is simply known as Mangan’s sister because she
happened to be the sister of Mangan, a friend of the boy. In the story she occupies
such an important position than it will be no exaggeration if we take her to be the
heroine of the narrative.

The houses of the boy and the girl were situated on either side of a narrow street.
When the boys played on the street till evening, Mangan’s sister came out on the
doorstep to call her brother in to his tea. It was a kind of pleasure to them to see
from their shadow whether she would remain on the door-step peering up and
down the street or go back. If she remained they came out of their shadow and
walked up to her steps. The boy particularly stood by the railings looking at her.
He got much joy when her dress swung as she moved her body, and when the soft
rope of her hair tossed from side to side.

The girl did not know that the boy watched her every morning through a chink of
the window keeping himself unobserved. Nor did she know that she was followed
by him when she went to school. What is clear is that she did not have any
antipathy or dislike for the boy.

When the necessity of conversation arose it was she who took the lead. She did not
feel confused as the boy did. On the other hand, she was free and frank in her
speech. It was she who informed him that there would be a splendid bazaar in
Araby. When she explained why she could not go there, we understand that she
was a student in a convent that had asked her to observe the retreat and that like
every good girl she must observe this Roman Catholic practice. It was for her
encouragement that the boy decided to go to Araby and bring a gift for her from
there.

The girl knew how to draw the attention of the boy. While she spoke she turned a
silver bracelet round and round her wrist. Again, she stood in such a manner that
the light that fell on her from one side revealed the beauty of the white curve of her
neck, of her hair and of her hand that lay on the railing. As she bowed her head
towards him the white border of her petticoat which she wore below her skirt
became just visible to the great joy and curiosity of the boy.

There is no doubt that Magnan’s sister was an object of infinite attraction to the
boy. The main function served by her is the gradual arousal and full flowering of
the feeling of love in the boy’s heart. Had she not encouraged him, the boy would
not have gone to the bazaar where he meet with disenchantment and self-
awareness which is the main objective of the author. We, thus, conclude that the
girl had a vital role to play in Joyce’s short story ‘Araby’.

The Priest

The unnamed priest, obviously a Roman Catholic, is one of the characters of James
Joyce’s short story Araby. He was the former tenant of the house in which the
boy hero later came to live along with his uncle and aunt. That he was not
methodical and tidy is clear from his keeping the extra room behind the kitchen
littered with old useless papers, from letting his garden have a wild look, and from
throwing his bicycle-pump into some irregularly spreading bushes.

The priest was perhaps not as much religious-minded as could be expected from
such a person. His reading attests to this. Excepting The Devout Communicant, a
manual which every priest must keep, he read only light entertaining books. One of
his favourite books was The Abbot by Sir Walter Scott, a book depicting the life
of a disappointed lover who finally became a monk. Another was The Memoirs of
Vidocq, a book delaing with the adventures of one who played in the roles of a
soldier, thief, and detective.

‘He was’, the author ironically comments, ‘a very charitable priest’. In his will, he
bestowed all his money to religious institutions leaving only his used furniture to
his sister. Thereby he forgot the proverb that charity begins at home. Thus we
notice some discrepancy between his professional duties and his day-to-day deeds.
We must observe that the priest is not vitally important in the plot development of
the story. This character has been introduced for the sake of padding. However, the
priest has some role to play in the raising of the overall sordidness of Dublin which
was one of the objectives of Joyce.

The Uncle

Though the boy’s uncle does not occupy much space of ‘Araby’ he is undoubtedly
an interesting character. He exhibits all the characteristics of a flat character and
provides enough amusement to readers by his attempts to keep up a genteel
exterior which his weak economic position constantly conspires to crack

Had he been a loving and kind-hearted character the boys would not have wanted
to avoid him. As soon as they saw him turning the corner, at once they hid under
the shadow until they saw him safely housed. An old man, he used to fuss at the
hallstand looking for the hat-brush or any other thing at the time of going out.
After spending long hours outside when he came back he used to talk to himself
and threw his heavy overcoat on the hallstand making it to rock. The boy could
interpret these signs as his returning home in a tipsy state.

When the boy reminded him that he wished to go to the bazaar he replied glibly
that he knew it. However, he was most unwilling to let his nephew have some
amusement, at his cost outside home. That is why he intentionally came home
quite late at night on the appointed day. He tried to dissuade the boy from going to
the bazaar by telling first that the people were already in bed, and then adding that
they were after their first sleep then. He also intentionally forgot the boy’s purpose.
Miser by nature, he was not at all willing to part with money. When his wife
intervened on behalf of the boy, he escaped from the unpleasant situation by giving
him two shillings with which he could buy little. From a discourager he quickly
changed himself to an encourager by foolishly quoting the old proverb : All work
and no play makes Jack a chill boy. He even tried to assume the stance of an
intellectual before his wife by reciting a few lines from a minor poem The Arab’s
Farewell to his Steed. The uncle, thus, presents himself as a self-centered,
pleasure-loving, closefisted man before us.

The uncle is an example of Joyce’s capacity of drawing the sketch of an impressive

figure with as few words as possible. He has an important role in the short story for
by giving only a florin to the boy he was entirely responsible for the breaking of
his dream-the dream of giving a nice present to his beloved. This rude shock also
serves to make the boy realize his foolish vanity and his object dependence which
filled him with anguish and anger. By creating characters like the uncle Joyce was
also able to hold his highly-polished looking-glass in the form of a story before the
contemporary people of Dublin, so that they might have look at their meanness and
rectify.

The Aunt

The aunt is a sketchy character, she has not been as developed as her husband. She
is an old loving lady, much sympathetic to her young nephew. On Saturday
evenings she took him to the market to let him carry her parcels although she knew
that such crowded places were not at all liked by him. Therefore she felt surprised
when he proposed to go to the bazaar on Saturday night. A pious Roman Catholic
by nature, she suspected her nephew’s involvement in some affair of the
Freemasons members of a secret Protestant organization reputed for their anti-
Catholicism. There is enough hints that like an average Irish woman she liked to
haggle over prices while out on shopping. When her husband did not turn up and
the boy began to walk up and down clenching his fists, she tried to soften him by
stating that perhaps he would have to postpone his visit to Araby till another day.
Her kindness to her nephew is clear when she energetically argued with her
husband and succeeded in making him give the money to the boy to let him go to
the bazaar that very night. However, like other Irish women of her age and status,
she was fond of a long gossip over the evening tea.

Whatever may her shortcomings be, we must admit that she is a more likable
person than her own husband. She serves one important purpose in the story.
Without her intervention the boy could have received permission and money to go
to Araby and to meet his eventual disillusionment there.

Mrs Mercer

Mrs Mercer is a minor character of Araby’. She was an old, garrulous woman and
a companion of the boy’s aunt. A pawnbroker’s widow, her hobby was to collect
used stamps from neighbours so that they could be used for some pious purpose.
This she did not so much for neighbourly charity as for her own benefit that would
result when her individual contribution for it would be much less than what it
would have been in the absence of such a collection. Like the boy’s aunt she was
also too much fond of a long evening gossip caring little how such tedious talk
would tell upon young ones who happened to be present at the tea-table. She made
no attempt to rise before eight o’clock when she remembered of the cold night air
that would be bad for her health. Whether or not she suffered from rheumatism, it
is clear that she took much care about her health, having no desire to pass away all
on a sudden.
She contributes nothing to the advancement of the plot. The author introduces her
possibly to show how dull and insufferable middle-class Irish homes could be in
the evening when they are peopled with such women as Mrs Mercer and her likes.