Araby - James Joyce

 Araby - Short story by James Joyce 

Welcome readers! As a Part of my Bachelor's studies at shamaldas Arts college, affiliated with MK Bhavnagar university. In this Particular blog, I will discuss the short story 'Araby' by James Joyce, offering a comprehensive analysis enriched with additional insights. 

Araby is a short story by James Joyce, published in his 1914 collection Dubliners. The Story traces a young boy's infatuation with his friend's sister's.  Critics have thematically separated Dubliners into three sections—childhood, adolescence, and adulthood—and “Araby” falls under the first of these. In it, a young boy falls in love with a girl and vows to buy her a gift at the eponymous local bazaar to prove his love for her. But “Araby” isn’t so much a love story as it is a bleak look at the loss of childhood innocence and the stifling nature of religion. The narrator has romantic ideas about love, yet cannot completely understand his emotions outside the context of his religious education, which does not necessarily make room for ideas of romance in its teachings. Joyce was influenced by his Catholic upbringing in Ireland to paint a portrait of childhood disillusionment and the futility of romance in a strictly religious society. 'Araby' is among the collection's best known stories. 

"Araby" by James Joyce is a story that revolves around the themes of adolescence, idealism, disillusionment, and the loss of innocence. The story is narrated by a young boy who develops an infatuation with his friend Mangan's sister. He promises her that he will bring her something from the bazaar known as Araby, which symbolizes the exotic and the mysterious to him. The boy's journey to Araby represents his idealistic quest for love and fulfillment. However, when he finally arrives at the bazaar, he is confronted with the harsh reality of the adult world: the bazaar is not the magical place he imagined, but rather a mundane and disappointing event. This disillusionment marks the boy's transition from innocence to experience, as he realizes the futility of his romantic dreams.

"Araby" is often interpreted as a coming-of-age story, where the protagonist learns the painful lesson of the disparity between illusion and reality. It explores the theme of the loss of innocence and the awakening to the complexities and disappointments of the adult world. 

About the Author :- 

One of the most influential and innovative writers of the 20th century, James Joyce was the author of the short story collection Dubliners (1914) and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegans Wake (1939). His collections of poetry include Chamber Music (1907) and Pomes Penyeach (1927).  

Joyce was born in a suburb of Dublin. He attended a Jesuit school until his parents could not afford the tuition, and then Belvedere College (where he was awarded tuition) and University College, Dublin. Upon graduation, Joyce moved to Paris and, after 1904, returned to Ireland only sporadically. He lived in Trieste with his partner and later wife, Nora Barnacle, and their children. During World War I the family lived in Zurich, moving to Paris after the war, and then to the South of France before the Nazi invasion. The family was living in Zurich when Joyce died.

Joyce’s novels, with their innovative language, use of dialogue, characteristic modernist forms, and social frankness, met with resistance when they first appeared in print. Ulysses was serialized in the United States and England before Sylvia Beach, of the bookstore Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, published it as a complete book. It was banned in the United States from 1922 until 1933. 

 Dubliners ( 1914) :- 

Dubliners is a collection of vignettes of Dublin life at the end of the nineteenth century written, by Joyce’s own admission, in a manner that captures some of the unhappiest moments of life. The work contains fifteen short stories with some of the dominant themes including lost innocence, missed opportunities, and an inability to escape one’s circumstances.  Joyce’s intention in writing Dubliners, in his own words, was to write a chapter of the moral history of his country, and he chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to him to be the ‘centre of paralysis’. He tried to present the stories under four different aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life. 

“The Sisters”, “An Encounter”, and “Araby” are stories from childhood. “Eveline”, “After the Race”, “Two Gallants”, and “The Boarding House” are stories from adolescence. “A Little Cloud”, “Counterparts”, “Clay”, and “A Painful Case” are all stories concerned with mature life. Stories from public life are “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, “A Mother”, and “Grace”. “The Dead” is the last story in the collection and probably Joyce’s greatest. As the title suggests, it is concerned with mortality, the culmination of life’s varied and bitter experiences. It stands alone as one of the greatest short stories ever written in the English language. 

After seven years engaging in bitter disputes with various publishers, Dubliners was eventually published in 1914, not in Dublin as Joyce had originally hoped but in London by Grant Richards. Technical innovations of Joyce  in the art of the novel include an extensive use of interior monologue; he used a complex network of symbolic parallels, drawn from the mythology, history, and literature, and he created a unique language of invented words, puns, and allusions. 

About the Story :- 

The narrator of Araby is an early Adolescent, who is suddenly consumed with infatuation for one of his neighbors, his friend Mangan's sister. He feels an intense need to impress her with a gift from the travelling bazaar, Araby, which she herself cannot attend. But he ultimately finds the market as banal as the rest of his Dublin life, which upon the reader's closer examination seems more likely to be the result of the natural exhaustion of intense, hormonal yearning - which he himself is incapable of understanding. Thus, he returns home with no gift for the girl he has derided himself for ever liking at all, feeling like a fool. Being but a boy in the fever of first love, he evokes a sympathy we would not feel for someone of greater years but no greater maturity.  

Summary :- 

 The nameless narrator of the story talks about life on North Richmond Street. The former tenant of their apartment was a priest who died. Some books have been left behind, and the young boy narrator sometimes looks at them. He is raised by his aunt and uncle. One of his playmates is a boy named Mangan , and the narrator develops a crush on his friend Mangan's sister. Mangan and his sister live in a building across the street. The narrator watches her stealthily, waiting for her to leave in the mornings so that he can follow her on part of his way to school.

One day, the girl finally speaks to him, to ask if he will go to Araby. Araby is the name of an upcoming bazaar with an Arabian theme. She can't go, because she is going on a religious retreat that weekend. The narrator, full of romantic notions, says that he will go and find some kind of gift for her.

The boy can think of little but the girl, the Orientalist bazaar, and the gift he will get for her. He gets permission to go, and for days he cannot concentrate. The day finally arrives, and the boy reminds his uncle that he wishes to go to the bazaar that night. His uncle will have to get home on time to give him the money for a ride to the bazaar, as well as a bit of spending money.

That night, his uncle is late. The boy despairs of being able to go at all, but finally his uncle comes home. His uncle has forgotten about the bazaar, and by now it is quite late. But the boy still wants to go, and he takes the small sum of money for the train and heads off.

He arrives at the bazaar just as it is closing. Only a few stalls are open. He examines the goods, but they are far too expensive for him. The lights are being shut off, and the narrator despairs: "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger."

Araby contains themes and characteristics common to Joyce in general and Dubliners in Particular. This short story involves a character going on a journey that ends in futility. Boy's idealized vision of Araby is destroyed, along with his idealized vision of Mangan's sister - and of love. With shame and anger rising within him, he is alone in Araby. 

Themes of the story :- 

 Araby touches on a great number of themes. Here are a few of the key themes in the story :

1. Coming of Age:   “Araby” is a classic coming-of-age story, as it follows a young boy’s journey from innocence to experience. The protagonist begins the story with a childlike fascination with his neighbor, Mangan’s sister. Still, as he becomes increasingly fixated on her, he becomes aware of the adult world around him. By the end of the story, he has learned some harsh truths about the nature of desire and disappointment.
2. Love and Desire: At its core, “Araby” is a story about love and desire. The protagonist’s infatuation with Mangan’s sister drives the narrative, and his desire for her motivates him to go to the bazaar in the first place. However, the story ultimately suggests that desire can be cruel and unfulfilling and that pursuing love can lead to disappointment and disillusionment.
3. Religion and Spirituality: Religion is pervasive in “Araby,” The story is steeped in Catholic imagery and symbolism. The protagonist attends a Catholic school, and his religious education informs his worldview. However, the story also suggests that religion can be confining and oppressive, as the protagonist feels trapped by the strictures of his faith.
4. Escape and Imagination: The protagonist’s love for Mangan’s sister is an escape from his mundane and oppressive reality. He imagines a romanticized version of the girl and their relationship, and his trip to the bazaar represents a chance to escape the confines of his everyday life. However, the story ultimately suggests that escape and imagination can be dangerous, as they can lead to disappointment and disillusionment.
5. Disillusionment and Disappointment: Perhaps the most prominent theme in “Araby” is disillusionment and disappointment. The protagonist’s journey to the bazaar is ultimately fruitless, as he discovers that the object of his desire is unattainable and that the bazaar itself is a tawdry and unremarkable place. The story suggests that life is full of disappointments and that pursuing happiness and fulfillment is often futile.

 Conclusion :- To Conclude, James Joyce's Araby is a powerful and poignant story that explores the themes of love, disillusionment, and the world's harsh realities. Joyce's use of symbolism, imagery and language creates a vivid and compelling narrative that captures the reader's attention from beginning to end. The story's ending, in which the boy realizes that his dreams of love and adventure are just illusions, is a powerful reminder of the complexities and uncertainties of life. 'Araby' - short story is a timeless classic that resonates with readers today. 

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