• Dual nature:realistic and symbolic• Realistic: adolescent infatuation, romantic fantasies- tender moving story.• Symbolic: frustrated desires: political and religious

forces.• A story of: _ first romantic love _ blindness / quest for the ideal _ Journey to maturity at the cost of loss of

innocence. _ incompatibility b/w dream and reality/ illusion (

life not as it really is but as one wishes it to be).• Historical context: 1904: under British control.

ARABY

The question of independence: primary importance.

Roman Catholicism: dominated Irish culture: story filled with religious references.

Schools: run by Jesuit priest or convent run by nuns.

Araby: refers to long term political, religious and political tensions b/w the Irish and the British ( ruled Ireland until 1921)

Araby: real festival in Dublin in 1894, romanticized version of Arabia or Arab world, notion of romantic and exotic fulfilment.

protagonist: an unnamed boy: universal experience: reflection of human experience: each person life mirrored in the boy’s experience: appreciate how much we have in common

* Secularization+industrialization: left in a state of paralysis with no escape: epitome of paralysis-all citizens are victims

* Torment of youthful experience: ideals+ dreams destroyed by naked reality.

* Idealistic+ confused interpretation of love; religious terms and romantic ideals.

What do you think of youthful dream and illusion? Do you think adolescence is a difficult time for every youth?

Straightforward narrative encompassing a few weeks in the narrator’s life moving through winter days of growing infatuation for Mangan’s sister to the time of the Araby bazaar

Structure

Araby: key to the meaning-romantic view of the Middle East- the boy: romantic view of the world.

North Richmond Street: May 19, 1894-the boy:12 years old. Jimmy Joyce was 12, living at 17 NR st. The Joyce family lived there from !854-1896.

Being blind: boy’s relation to reality.Dead end: no way out.Set the boys free: religion: imprisoned the

boys.Uninhabited..Irish soul: empty/detached-

houses personified-more alive than residents

Brown: frequently used color in Dubliners: hopeless and discouraged mood.

• A priest..died: message: the Church represented by priest is dead. The Church: former tenant of the House: Ireland.

• Musty.. Waste.. Littered..useless -overwhelming drabness/dullness/lifelessness that surrounds the boy.

• The Abbot( Walter Scott): not casual-used to best advantage. ( 1820) Mary Queen of Scots: confusion of the boy.

• The Devout Communicant: religious book; influence of the devoutly pious language: the boy’s vocabulary+ outlook

•

• The Memoirs of Vidocq: Francois-Jules Vidocq( 1829): Parisian Police Commissioner: thief-hide his crime, escape capture by dressing as a nun( deception and dishonesty)-self-deception of the boy.

• ..because its leaves were yellow: romantic naïve view of life.

• wild garden..apple tree: reference to the Garden of Eden- fall from Grace.

• Charitable priest: hypocrisy of religion.• sombre: dreariness- gruesome sequence of

description: feeble lantern, silent street, dark muddy lanes, dark-dripping gardens, odours from the ashpits

• Shad0w: repeated 3 times; not living, but ghosts-boys very much alive surrounded by shadows- but they “ played till our bodies glowed”- youth and glowsouls not smothered by Dublin.

• Ran the gauntlet: association with the medieval world of holy quest/ Scandinavian word during the Viking conquest: running b/w 2 rows of men who struck the malefactor with sticks.

• Mangan’s sister: connection with popular but sentimental and romantic 19th century Irish poet, James Clarence Mangan( 1803- 1849)-fond of writing a/b Araby+ claimed his poems were translations from Arabic- theme of romanticism+ false sentiment.

By the railings: connection with railings in front of the Catholic Church-the boy standing by the railing-image of Mangan’s sister: one of the Virgin Mary- object of religious veneration- boy not recognize or under religious repression – that he is sexually attracted to her.

Soft rope of her hair: Gaelic word meaning abundant hair.

Her brown figure: associated with the dreariness of Dublin-disillusion of the boy.

accompanied me: routine shopping trip turned into a sacred trip/ a medieval quest for the Holy Grail

Come-all-you: street songs dealt with current popular events and heroes. Jeremiah O’ Donovan (1831-1915) revolutionary: use of violence in the struggle against British rule ( nickname Dynamite).

Her name sprang….religious terms and undertone: not understand about himself and his situation.

One evening: not try to represent continuous time- no specific passages of time- move from one significant scene to another without providing transitional paragraphs- not know how many weeks or months have passed- one intense emotional moment to another.

Fighting for their caps: Biblical scene of the Roman soldiers deciding a fight over the possession of Christ’s clothes by throwing dice.

Light from the lamp: halo and light streaming from heaven.

falling, lit up the hand upon the railing: confusion b/w religion and sensuality.

It’s well for you: overtones of envy and bitterness.

I will bring you something: climax: a sacred vow-the quest of a medieval knight suggested

Laid waste ..thoughts: the romantic quest has taken precedence over everyday reality for the boy-hint of a new understanding-critical of his past.

Mr.Mercer: theme of the mercenary- the widow of a pawnbroker-collect ued stamps to sell for money to be given to the church-money/church. The boy’s shopping trip/ religious quest: irony: what the boy thought of as a holy quest: just a sordid mercantile affair.

This night of our Lord: Saturday evening church service dedicated to the veneration of the Virgin Mary.

I could interpret these signs: uncle talking to himself and clumsy handling of the hall coat stand=show how the boy has begun to interpret signs correctly-foreshadow his final interpretation of his trip to Araby.

Told him the second time: minded clouded by alcohol: an emotional gap.

The Arab’s Farewell to his Steed: by Caroline Norton (1808-77): the Arab boy sells for gold coins what he loves most in the world: his horse. However as the horse is being led away, the boy changes his mind and rushes after the man to reclaim his love

floring: two shillings or 24 old pence. Late 19th century: image of Queen Victoria one side and the legend on the other: “ by the Grace of God, defender of the Faith”- colonialism pervasive: Irish Catholic must carry a coin proclaiming the Queen as defender of the British Church of England and as ruler over Ireland.

It crept onward..medieval tales knight errant journeys through wasteland in his search for the Holy Grail.

A special train for the bazaar: the other side of Dublin 2 miles away: a special journey for him – end up with his moment of enlightenment.

* The magical name: only to the romanticized view of the boy.

• shilling: urgency of the quest- instead of just a sixpenny entrance.

• Café Chantant: French coffee house- entertainment provided.

• Counting money: a mercantile place- fall of the coins- fall of the boy- money and religion.

• salver: plate on which sits the chalice that holds the wine for the mass: stark image of the mixing of money and religion.

Remembering with difficulty: turning point- everything goes bad; enemy territory for the Irish boy-the British are running the bazaar

Conversation: commonplace, ordinary, vulgar-The British, Ireland: vulgar ( uncle. Mercer), and the boy: vulgar (quest not spiritual he thought it was) theme of deception and self-deception.

I knew my stay was useless: Epiphany-grasp of reality; sudden flash of insight: passion blind= foolish blood turned secular things as symbols of true Faith.

A story of the boy’s disappointment, general sense of intolerable isolation:

_description of the street, the dead priest, his abandoned belongings, relation with the aunt and uncle, with the girl, at school ( impatient with both), Christian Brothers’ school), at the bazaar.

_ disappointment with the adult world: hypocrisy _isolated from a world that doesnot

accommodate love, romance and beauty ( ignorant of, even hostile to his experience of love). His estrangement: painful +triumphant: separate from and raised above his ordinary surroundings

Epiphany: the Christ child revealed to the Magi, traditionally celebrated Jan 6th- eastern enchantment disappears and he has only himself to blame.

I saw myself: quest fails, not achieve his aim; buy a present for the girl

society has defeated him. his own rashness: too little money for the

purchase of the gift. A final accounting of the boy’s financial

standing: ironic: 24 pence/ round trip ticket: 4 pence/ 12 pence to enter the fair/ eight pence left for the gift.

Told by the boy after he has grown up ( style not of an adolescent boy; formal, complicated, rich , subtle implications)- a man matured well beyond the experience of the story

The man is looking back upon the boy; detachedly and judicially-ironic viewpoint-maintain a full sensitivity to his youthful anguish.

The ironic view :impossible for the immature emotionally involved mind of the boy himself

POINT OF VIEW