Preview

Infatuation In Araby By James Joyce

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
944 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Infatuation In Araby By James Joyce
Araby is a short story written by James Joyce, in the story there a young boy that obsess with his friends sister, the girl which live next door to the boy. The young boy is unnamed however the entire story is from his perspective. The narrator infatuation is so intend that he can’t even speak with the girl that he like. One day she ask him if he is going to araby which is a town “bazaar”. The girl said that she won’t attend the festival in the town. Which triggers him to set his mind that he must go and bring her back something. The rest of his time he spend anxiously waiting until the evening so that he can go to araby. When he finally gets there, everything is close and shut down. He leave disappointed with nothing to give the girl. During the story Joyce formulates the reader for the boy’s discouragement at the end of the story.
The romantic language, details, and imagery of the passage create a joyful and physical tone. Drawing from the religious, chivalric, and emotional realms, Joyce balances words and details, the implications of
…show more content…
The boy carries no chalice, but instead “some of the parcels” from his aunt’s weekly shopping trip. Even the allusion to the Holy Grail is double-edged since, in addition to its religious and chivalric associations, it also carries with it reminder that the grail disappeared because its protector lusted for a young woman, just as the narrator lusts for Mangan’s sister, Furthermore, the foes he is not challenged by dark knights and dragons, but instead is “jostled by drunken men and bargaining women.” Whether the “bargaining women” are merely the haggling shoppers or, on a more sordid level, prostitutes propositioning the “drunken men,” his vision of the chaste lady fair is countered by the commercial pursuits of the “bargaining women.” For this reason, the boy’s illusions of courtly love seem

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Araby 's protagonist feels insignificant, as he is ignored in his requests to his uncle and treated as unimportant from his aunt. A hopeless desire arises in him as he glorifies his friend 's sister and it becomes his sole focus in life. His education suffers with a disinterest in class as he “...chafed against school”, and his Master hoped “...he was not beginning to idle”, as his attention span drifted from the pages he “...strove to read”.…

    • 1249 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The narrator in “Araby” was just leaving childhood, leaving his childlike innocence behind, and entering a questioning time in his life. He struggled with the concept of liking someone, what it meant to like his friend’s sister and how he should demonstrate his affection. The emphasis of the story was on the childhood that the narrator had, playing in the neighborhood with his friends, and the shift that takes place as people grow older and they begin to focus on other things. This story also demonstrates the naïveté of the narrator by making his motivations for traveling to the bazaar seem superficially motivated. This is vastly different from the narrator from “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”. This narrator has lived her life and is approaching…

    • 230 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Araby Hero

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The destination that the boy is given in “Araby” is the bazaar that will be coming to town, named Araby. When Mangan’s sister, a young lady he has a romantic interest in, informs him of the event, he decides…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    North Richman Street seems like a quiet street, until you discover the people and their interest. Araby is a novel written by James Joyce, his use of diction, imagery, and characterization creates a sense of desperation and anxiety. Although Araby is some what considered a love story, it has many surprising ironic twists and unexpected resolutions.…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The tests that Gawain undergoes and the moral trials that he has to endure become a metaphor for other problems facing the 14th century aristocracy and women and feminine symbols are the author’s devices in assembling blame for the end of the feudal economy and way of life.…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Araby vs. Macbeth

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the short story Araby, Joyce shows how a young boy develops a crush on Mangan's sister, a girl who lives next door. It all begins when Mangan's sister asked him if he planned on attending the bazaar known as Araby. The girl then explains that she will be away on a retreat when the bazaar is held and therefore unable to make it. The boy promises her that if he goes, he will buy her something. With the permission of his aunt and uncle, the boy was ecstatic. As the night arose, his uncle was nowhere to be found. After waiting a long time for his uncle to get home, he finally receives money for the bazaar. By the time the boy arrives to Araby, its too late. The event was shutting down for the night, and he didn't have enough money to buy Mangan's sister something nice like he promised. The boy left disappointed and heartbroken. The theme in the classic story of Araby can compare to the legendary play known as Macbeth.…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Isolation In Araby

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In James Joyce's Araby, a young boy finds himself in love with an older girl. The girl, Mangan's sister, refuses to love him back and instead ignores him. This crushes the boy and makes his hunger for her even more stronger. He sometimes finds himself hopelessly alone in the darkness thinking about her, awaiting for the day she would recognize his devotion to her. " At night in my bedroom…her image came between me and the page I strove to read (805)." "At last she spoke to me (805)." She asked him if he was going to attend a popular carnival called Araby. Unfortunately, she was unable to go, and it was up to him to bring her something back. This became his journey and adventure that he could not wait…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Araby is a story about a young boy who has an intense attraction to this girl. He goes out of his way to watch her every morning, and eventually talks to her. She says how she wants to go to the bazaar but cannot due to the fact that she’s going away on some church related trip. He wants nothing more than to impress this girl so he offers to travel to the bazaar himself and get her something. His uncle is late returning home on the day the boy is to go shop, so the boy ends up having to pay more to get into the bazaar. After looking around for a while, a lady that works there asks if he is interested in anything, and he responds saying no. As he turns to leave, the bazaar is beginning to close for the night, the light shuts off on him as he walks back to return home.…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Crush Have you ever had a crush, and if so how did it affect you? “Araby” by James Joyce is a story that is narrated by an unnamed boy and his struggles with love or the idea of it. The narrator falls into an infatuation with Mangan’s sister and because of his feelings he is having trouble in day-to-day life but after a fair share of missteps he realizes that his feelings and actions are all for nothing. The narrator falls into an infatuation with Mangan’s sister.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Araby, By James Joyce

    • 170 Words
    • 1 Page

    In the story “Araby,” written by James Joyce from the book Dubliners. A teenager is in love with his friend’s sister, but he cannot express it. He goes on a quest to buy a gift for a girl that he lust for. Joyce uses three symbols to help readers understand his epiphany. The three symbols include the tree, a chalice, and the table/coins.…

    • 170 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Araby by James Joyce is a coming of age story about a boy who is looking for love. He likes this girl and he decides that he will go to a bazaar in Araby that she cannot attend to try and bring something back for her. Despite his efforts, he was met with failure because by the time he got to the bazaar, it was closed and he could not purchase anything for the girl. The Boy, at the end of the story, learns an important lesson about the vanity of life and fleeting feelings for human love that does not always work out. Throughout the story, James Joyce shows the Boy’s motivation to seek love and salvation in a dark and seemingly Godless world through the use light as symbolism of love and salvation.…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    James Joyce's "Araby"

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages

    this culture by showing a boy's love for a girl throughout the story. This young…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Setting the scene for the reader, the vocabulary within “Araby” invokes an immediate feeling of loneliness. Throughout the short story, Joyce’s word choice enlightens the reader as to the emotions and state of maturity within the boy. The young boy uses diction such as “detached” “uninhabited” and “blind” to describe North Richmond Street, despite the obvious happiness of other children on the street. Although he interacts with other children his age, the boy has a longing and curiosity to explore the actions and emotions…

    • 1252 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In James Joyce’s short story Araby he is successful in creating an intense narrative. He does this in such a way that he enables the reader to feel what it is actually like to live in Dublin at the turn of the century when the Catholic Church had an enormous amount of authority over Dubliner’s. The reader is able to feel the narrators exhausting struggle to escape this influence of the Catholic Church by replacing it with a materialistic driven love for a girl.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The protagonist found himself falling in love for his friend, Mangan's sister, a girl who lives across the street. He began to fantasize about her and watches her from a distance, “Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door” (Joyce F-142). Every day he tried getting her attention by walking to where their paths would intercept. But, they never had a full conversation. Until one day she started a conversation about the Araby. She could not attend the Araby for personal reason, he promised her that if he went he would buy something for her. Excited that he had a conversation with his love. He begins to imagine the perfect gift for her, how she would be happy with the gift and would love him. As days passed by until the day of the Araby, the boy became more anxious. Finally, the day of the Araby has come, the boy was excited and nervous. The boy waited the whole day for his uncle to bring him to the Araby. The boy’s uncle gave him the money he had in his pocket. When the boy arrived at the Araby it was almost too late to buy anything. However, the stores that were open the item were too expensive for the boy. The boy came to a realization, that he would not be able to buy Mangan's sister a gift and she would never be in love with him. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger”…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays