WorldLit #3-1: Revised Araby Paragraph

* I totally changed the topic T.T

             From a distance, James Joyce's "Araby" might appear to be a tragic love story. After all, when the nameless narrator becomes angry at the very last part, he seems to be angry because he failed the quest of love as he was late for the bazaar. However, on the other hand, his anguish contains a lot more meaning than a mere failure in love has. His epiphany is that his ideal cannot exist in reality, the banal life of Dubliners. Throughout the story the narrator’s ideal is described as desperate, pure, and even holy. While he carries images of Mangan’s sister, he imagines that he “bore his chalice safely through a throng of foes.” In a room where a priest had died, he presses his palms together and desperately prays, “O love, O love!” Araby, in his dreams, luxuriates his soul and “casts an Eastern enchantment over him”. However, such ideal loses its value by the dull schoolwork, his uncle’s lateness, and the train’s tardiness, which are the most typical aspects of his everyday life. When he reaches Araby, which should be a festive and adventurous event, darkness and timidity greet him. The young lady and the two men speak with sexual undertones which insinuate an adulterate love. Finally he gives up buying his love a gift, abandoning the ideal of love. Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that <Araby> portrays a boy realizing the discrepancy between the ideal and the reality. In this sense, Mangan’s sister and Araby, which represent his ideal, finally turn out to be vain and empty.