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, some
readers would think that his anguish is because his love has miserably failed
as he was late for the bazaar. However, on the other hand, in my point of view,
his love never has existed. At first, attracted by the lady's appearance, he
acts as if he has a passionate love in mind. He watches her through the window
blinds every morning, thinks of her at every moment, and murmurs "O love!
O love!" However, his uncle comes home late, and the train departs late,
and due to these slightest ordeals, suddenly he forgets the desperate feeling.
He "remembers with difficulty" the reason why he had come, which is supposed
to be 'love'. If his love has been real, how can it be so easily forgotten?
Moreover, he does have the opportunity to buy the flowered tea-sets, but he
simply gives up. Why can't he buy them and give them to the lady, saying that
those were the last products left in Araby at 10 o' clock at night? Wouldn't it
be a romantic ending? It is because he realizes that what he has considered as
love is actually a mere attraction. In fact, at the beginning of the story, the
priest shows a love that is not vain. In the sentence "He had left all his
money to institutions and the furniture of his house to his sister", the
priest had preserved love even as he died. The narrator's attitude contradicts
to that of the priest. Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that he
has never loved the lady. He has been merely attracted by her appearance, and
has deluded himself that his feeling is love. In this sense, at the last part,
he becomes angry because he finally realizes what his true feeling was: vanity
and emptiness.
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