James Joyce's story, "Araby" resembles much of Joyce's own
life. For, he himself lived on Richmond Street, a street with dull, brown houses that
sheltered those caught in "brown" lives, lives that are insipid and trapped. Joyce also
attended the Christian Brothers School and, as the story suggests at the end, Joyce and
probably the main character have rejected their dominating Catholic
faith.
That Catholicism dominates the young narrator's life
is evident in his romanticized ideal--almost an idolizing--of Mangan's sister. For, in
his romantic fervor that is confused with his religious devotion, the narrator perceives
her as a madonna on the dark street on which he and his companions played: "her
figure[was] defined by the light from the half-opened door." The boy stands "by the
railings" like the communion railings in church, watching her, later placing his palms
together in a prayer-like gesture as he mutters, "O love! O
love!"
This religious devotion is further intermingled with
the boy's thoughts of Mangan's sister. At the market, he imagines that he carries not
the groceries for his mother, but the holy grail as he weaves his way in and out of the
crowd. Still, in the dark hall of the bazaar, as the booths begin shutting down, the
narrator in the end perceives, in disappointment, Mangan's sister as the Protestant
English shop-girl who engages in idle conversation. His bitter tears as he stands
outside suggest that he will reject both his religious fervor and his romantic ideals on
his brown street in Dublin.
Critic Greg Barnhisel
in Short Stories for Students, points to the significance of the
cultural setting as he suggests that like Stephen Dedalus, the narrator of Araby "must
free himself from the 'nets' of [Dublin] society, family, and religion in order to be
entirely self-determined."
No comments:
Post a Comment