Instruction
Introduction
Araby is one of the most fascinating works by James Joyce. It is about a young lad who narrates the story and who leads a blithe life in a Dublin surrounding. The boy falls in love with a friend’s sister and watches her steps every morning. Hen the boy and the girl finally spoke, she mentions about a foreign bazaar right in town. The speaker later became obsessed with the plan of buying the girl presents from the bazaar.
One major theme in the Araby is disappointment. The narrator is eventually faced with realism when he visits Araby and finds out that stuff sold at the bazaar were exceedingly expensive. Notably, Joyce in the story concentrates with the dichotomy of desire against reality and gives it a cynical approach, where both veracity and its negativity stand. Another theme is restrictive routines and repetitive humdrum details of everyday life of the characters. Joyce’s has marked her Dubliners and trapped them in circles of restraint, frustration and violence. Arguably, routine affects characters that are facing complicated predicaments as well as those with little open conflict in themselves.
Fundamental aspect in “Araby” is the existence of symbols and images all over the story particularly those that contain religious connotations. Religion seems to play a major role in Joyce work and religious theme. For example the house had religious symbolism. Firstly, its former tenant was a priest. Behind the house was a bush that had an apple tree in the middle. This resembles the biblical garden of Aden and at this point the narrative evokes imagery of garden of Aden in the scripture where Adam and Eve were persuading to eat the prohibited fruit. Conspicuously, Mangan’s sister is depicted and the narrator’s object of affection. In keeping with the story, the narrator is devoted to his lovebird just as a devoted person gets dedicated to the God or church. The link between Magan’s sister and the church is apparent in the point where the speaker goes shopping with the aunt while walking through a packed and jumbled street (Joyce 179).
The feelings of the narrator towards the girl are so intense that at some point they are compared with religion experience. He even mentions the girl in inappropriate prayers where he describes the powerful affection to have similar force as that of Jesus Christ of the Bible. Gillespie (20), affirm that when the speaker speaks of having confused adoration; this depicts that religious love are mixed with romantic love in him thinking (95). As such the narrator is far from discovering the reality and is still trapped in illusion where physical desire and pure religion seem blurred.
Arguably, the bazaar extends illusion in Araby. More so, the name of the bazaar also evokes images of an exotic place for from the narrator. The bazaar also depicts religious symbol in the story. In reference to Gillespie (20), the church is depicted as an oriental foundation and an ecclesiastical suggestion of Araby. Considerably, the Araby can be portrayed as a religious institution that has taken over the life of the narrator. The narrator’s anticipation to visit bazaar is shown as the focal point of his life and this has interfered with his everyday activity (Joyce 375).
On the whole, conclusion of the story is filled with disappointment and aggravation when the speaker arrives at the fête only to find out that the stalls are closed and even he was to find them open he could not have afforded the merchandise. This meant that he did not manage to buy his girl a gift. He finally understands that life is tough. “Araby” as used in the story presents an instant of epiphany. Even so, Joyce has broken the conventional model of epiphany. Epiphany is often associated with positive growth and enlightenment, but in “Araby” it is associated with negativity. Gillespie (175) has supported this idea where she argues that inability to purchase anything for the young woman and the narrator’s acuity of absurdity of flirtation just is an indication of epiphanic vision of darkness. Gillespie (175) acknowledges that patterns of illusion, cynicism and awareness turn to be a full circle. Gillespie, notes that instead of enlighten, epiphany cause the narrator to become bitter. Narrator’s disappointment seems to be with the church and the prevailing values.
In conclusion, this narrative of this young love demonstrates an instant of chimera in most parts. Nonetheless, illusion is crushed by the narrator’s dim epiphany. Notably, the dead seem to be a reflection of the present and draws attention to the failures and mistakes that are made by people although generations. Such emphasizes Joyce’s interest in repetition and life cycle and his concern regarding the dead figures like Maria. Irrefutably, closer analysis of the story reveals a lot in the story but not the boy’s first love. The profusion of pious imagery in the story is much on the criticism of the role of the church in people’s lives and how religion effects on a population that is fraught politically to be liberated from United Kingdoms ideologies and influences and the acrimony flanked by Catholics and Protestants (Müller 54).
Works Cited
Gillespie, Michael P. James Joyce and the fabrication of an Irish identity. Amsterdam Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 2001. Print.
Joyce, J. "Araby." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. 4th Compact Ed. New York. Pearson Longman, 2005. 372-377
Müller, Sarah. Adolescence, love and sex in James Joyce's short stories "Araby" and "An Encounter. München: GRIN Verlag GmbH, 2009. Print.
