Araby Analysis 4436e

In "Araby" Joyce contrasts seeing and blindness. The very first line of the story describes North Richmond Street as a 'blind' street. By the time the narrator and his friends are free to play in the street, it is 'dark' and somber. Even the lanterns can only provide 'feeble' light. When his uncle would approach or when Mangan's sister would come out to call her brother in, the narrator and his friends would hide in the shadow. And, every morning, the narrator, unseen behind his window 'blinds', would watch Mangan's sister leaving for school. Mangan's sister is the one point of light in the narrator's world. He describes how the light back-lit her hair, how light defined her figure, and how he would hold her image in his mind's eye like a chalice, like the Holy Grail. He describes his devotion to her using from the Age of Chivalry, "[running] the gauntlet," "[bearing] ...[a] chalice safely through a throng of foes," and hearing her name like "a summons." His unrequited, idealized love for the sister follows the classic patterns of chivalry -- it is never realized, never physical or actual, only love from afar. Joyce uses the intertwined imagery of blindness and medieval romance to undercut the narrator's selection of ideal over substance, romance and unrequited devotion over reality. Only at the very end of the tale does the narrator see his true self, visible for the first time: "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity." He should have tried for reality, for true substance, not some shabby fantasy.

Questions for Discussion 1. Why does the narrator want to go to the bazaar? 2. why does he arrive so late? 3. What doesn't he buy anything for Mangan's sister? 4. Enumerate the activities taking place at Araby. To what extent do they sustain its "magical name"? 5. What had the narrator expeced to find at Araby? What was the basis of his expectation? 6. Define the narrator's feelings for Mangan's sister. To what extent is she the cause of those feelings? What, as they say, does he see in her? 7. What purpose might Joyce have had in choosing not to mention the object of the narrator's affections until the middle of the third paragraph? Describe the context into which she is introduced. In what ways is she part of the world of North Richmond Street? 8. What is the role of the narrator's uncle in the story? What values and attitudes does he represent? Are they preferable to those of the narrator?

9. Find patterns in the story that show relevance to "light," "vision," and "beauty." 10. What is the search for the Holy Grail and how is it like the story? 11. Make two lists: 1) record ideas, images, and allusions that suggest contexts remote from the immediate situation, jotting down associations that they bring to mind; 2) note anything mentioned in the story with which you are unfamiliar. Look some of these items up. Creative writers:1) Write an informal paragraph or two showing to what extent tracking Joyce's mind in this fashion helped you to understand and enjoy the story. 2) Narrate an experience in which were disappointed. First show how your erroneous expectations were generated; then, describe what youactually encounted in such a way that its contrast with your expectations is clear. . Some of the dynamic patterns repeat themselves, that develop and broaden their scope, and lead to other vistas of significance: the Homeric references, the motifs of direction, of sacramental rejuvenation, of paralysis, of kinesis and stasis, and of living death, the presentations of moral, intellectual, and spiritual degeneration and deterioration, of the living dead, of the contrast between the banal and tawdry and the sensuous, romantic visions of youth, or hard cash versus purity of heart. Araby by James Joyce 1. Reread the opening paragraph. How does it set the tone for the story? The first paragraph really sets the dark, dreary, cold place that completely lacks life. Some of the words used to describe the neighborhood, such as uninhabited, square ground, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces, sound as if they are describing a cemetery. The only life in the neighborhood is of that of the kids as they are let out of school, to play in the alleys and streets of the neighborhood. 2. What does the tone of this story, particularly its lack of humor, tell us about the kind of significance the adult narrator attaches to this child hood experience? It gives you a sense of the boys thoughts and mindset, They express their interest in the adult word. They are on the brink of understanding their sexual identity. But though these boys run around the neighborhood like typical kids. However, they are also becoming interested in the adult world, such as spying on the narrator's uncle as he comes home from work and, more importantly, on Mangan's

Before Reading -- Title: Like "A & P," the title of this story is a proper noun: it refers to a real festival which came to Dublin in 1894, when Joyce was twelve years old. -- Style: Unlike "A & P," "Araby" has a long and descriptive introduction before this boy takes action. Be patient in your reading; you are about to enter the emotional world of a sensitive young boy. After the 1st Reading: (Please the general questions suggested for making your annotations.) 1. The setting & the language The story reads slowly because 1) not much happens in the first six paragraphs(the first action being Mangan's sister's talking to the boy: "At last she spoke to me"), and the real action does not take place until paragraph [25]: "I held a florin tightly in my hand..." 2) the boy narrator feels a lot more than what he expresses outwards in his speech to others or action. Find some descriptive ages, try to find out how images and the other figurative speech are used, and what their connotations are. It would be the best if you can find the ages by yourselves, if not, the following are some examples: Read the first two paragraphs carefully and see what kind of environment the boy is in. (What can the following details mean? The house which is"blind," or in a dead end of the street, the other houses "with brown imperturbablefaces"; the musty room, the dead priest with his three books; the rusty bicycle pump; the apple tree and the garbage odors. These images seem to be unrelated to the plot, but they define the boy's environment as well as the story's atmosphere.) 2. The characters • children vs. authorities: -- In the third paragraph, the boy describes the wild games they play after school and out on the street. Do you have any similar experience of playing in a group of kids, maybe with some "rough tribes" as your "enemies"? (A city child nowadays does not have the freedom to run around after school freely and beyond bounds, because it is considered unsafe (or unworthwhile) to do so. How about your childhood?) -- Who are the authority figures in the story? The dead priest? The uncle and aunt? Or Mangan's sister? Do they serve any roles in offering guidance to the boy?

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the boy's infatuation with Mangan's sister: -- In paragraphs 3-6, we get to see that the boy secretly loves an older girl who is Mangan's sister. How does he describe his feelings for her? How is the attention he pays to the girl different from that of Sammy in "A & P"? -- Why does the image and name of Mangan's sister appear in the boy's mind and his fervent prayer in the noisiest moments? Why does the boy feel as if he went on a crusade (quest) for the girl? Have you ever had such a ionate sentiment for any event or person? "These noises converged in a single sensation of life for me: I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom. I thought little of the future. I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires." (par 6) [In the priest's room]"I was thankful that I could see so little. All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: "O love! O love!" many times." (par 7)

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Mangan's sister: -- Most of Mangan's sister's words are presented in the boy's narration (but not in direct quotations). How much do we really know about her? What kind of "character" do you think Mangan's sister is? A round character? A flat character? A substitute for something else? A character serving as a symbol? Pay close attention to how Mangan's sister is presented in the 3d and the 10th paragraphs. What major color and images are associated with her? Which parts of her body are described? -- Why do you think she suggests that the boy go to Araby? Does she really care if he makes it or not? h e does it or not?

3. The plot & external elements • The boy's changes: As explained above, Mangan's sister initate the boy's desire for action (going to Araby) in paragraph 7, but the action

itself takes place only in paragraph 25. In between, the boy is emotionally concentrated on the quest while he finds daily routine to be "child's play," and his childhood companions distant from him. a. -- From the third paragraph, we see the narrator, a child, plays with his friends, but this is the last time he talks about this group of kids as "we." How would you characterize his subsequent changes? Does he grow older and wiser? b. -- What stops him from going till very late on Saturday evening? -- What kind of conflict/contrast does the boy experience in the story between himself and his environment, or between him and the adults (aunt, uncle and Mrs Mercer) ? c. -- When he finally get to Araby, why does the boy "with difficult" he goes there? Why does he not buy anything at the fair? d. -- What does the ending mean? "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned withanguish and anger." ¡@ Further Questions or After the 2nd Reading: 4. Language: Religious images vs. images of money • What kind of sentiment does the boy have in his love for the girl? Look at paragraphs 4-6 (e.g. the similes/metaphors used: "I bore my chalice"; "my body was like a harp" and his fervent prayer) and paragraph 13. 4. The trip to Araby (the bazaar) • How is the bazaar presented at the end of the story (e.g. the dialogue between the woman and men, the image of darkness)? What does this description, again, tell us about the boy's world? • Examine the role money plays in the trip to the bazaar (paragraph 25 and 32). 5. Theme • Why do you think the boy loves the girl so much, or, to put it in another way, in such a devout way? • What do you make of the ending? How do you explain the word "vanity"? Does the boy know where his vanity come from? •

The story is an initiation story, meaning that the boy experienced growth, or a rite of age, from one stage of his life (e.g. childhood) to another (young adulthood). What do you think the boy has learned? How is his growth similar to, or different from, that of Sammy's?

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To be more specific, is the ending of this story similar to that of "A & P"? (When Sammy looks at Lengel, "His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he'd just had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter."

6. Point of View • Describe the narrator or point of view in this story. Is this narrator, like Sammy in "A & P," a young teenage boy or is he an older man ing an important incident when he was younger? Extension: 1. What do you think about the boy's love for Mangan's sister? Have you experienced puppy love or momentary infatuation before? How is your experience different from or similar to the boy's? 2. How would the story be told differently if the narrative perspective were that of Mangan's sister? 3. Joyce mentioned in several letters that he chose Dublin as the setting for Dubliners because for him the city seemed to be the center of paralysis. Without getting into the historical background of Dublin in and around World War I, we can discuss the where the sense of paralysis comes from in the story, and also how/why we feel it or not feel it in our hometown. If we do, with what sensory image and/or events do we concretize it? Type of Work and Year of Publication .......James Joyce's “Araby” is a short story centering on an Irish adolescent emerging from boyhood fantasies into the harsh realities of everyday life in his country. Joyce based this coming-of-age tale, which he wrote in 1905, on his own experiences while growing up in Dublin in the late nineteenth century. The London firm of Grant Richards Ltd. published the story in 1914 in Dubliners, a collection of fifteen of Joyce's stories. Background and Setting .......James Joyce based "Araby" on his own experiences as an adolescent resident of Dublin in 1894, when Ireland was chafing under British rule. Like the fictional narrator of "Araby," Joyce lived on North RichmondStreet (No. 17) in the central part of the city. And like the narrator, he was undergoing a period of self-discovery. However, unlike the narrator of "Araby," Joyce was not an orphan. .......In "Araby" and other stories in Dubliners, Joyce presents Dublin as a bleak city struggling against oppressive forces. Winter scenes of boys at play take place near the dead end of North Richmond Street and in nearby lanes, as indicated in the first and third paragraphs. The climactic scene takes place in South Dublin, across the River Liffey from central Dublin, at a bazaar in a large building. Such a bazaar— billed as “Araby: a Grand Oriental Fête” (or as “A Grand Oriental Fête: Araby in Dublin”) was actually held in Dublin between May 14 and May 19, 1894, to benefit a local hospital. Point of View .......An adolescent boy narrates the story in first-person point of view. He does not identify himself. But to readers familiar with the life and works of Joyce, it becomes clear that he represents the author. Joyce based characters, places, and events in the story on recollections from his boyhood, although he altered reality from time to time. For example, Joyce was not an orphan, as is the narrator.

Characters Narrator: Boy of about twelve who becomes infatuated with the sister of his friend, Mangan. Although she hardly notices him and converses with him only once, he fantasizes about her and tells her he will buy her a gift if he attends a bazaar called Araby. He seems to regard her as noble and pure of heart, like a maiden in a tale of chivalry. His trip to the bazaar to find her the gift then becomes something of a knight's quest on behalf of his lady fair. Mangan: Boy about the same age as the narrator. He is a companion and neighbor of the narrator. Other Neighbor Boys: Companions of the narrator. Mangan's Sister: Girl to whom the narrator is attracted. Narrator's Uncle, Aunt: Relatives who are rearing the narrator. The uncle, a drinker, addresses the narrator as "boy" (paragraph 14), suggesting that he is not close to his nephew. Mrs. Mercer: Widow of a pawnbroker. She visits the narrator's home to collect used stamps to what the narrator "a pious cause." Schoolmaster: Narrator's teacher. Stall Attendant: Young Englishwoman who sells vases, tea sets, and similar wares at the Araby bazaar. To the narrator, the fact that she is English diminishes the Middle Eastern atmosphere of the Araby bazaar. Two Englishmen: Young men with whom the stall attendant flirts. Dubliners: Pedestrians, shop boys, laborers, drunks. Porters at Train Station Attendant at Bazaar Turnstile .

Plot Summary By Michael J. Cummings...© 2010 .......The year is 1894. The place is North Richmond Street in Ireland's largest city, Dublin. The street dead-ends at an empty house of two stories, says the unidentified narrator, a boy of about twelve who lives on the street with his uncle and aunt. A priest was once a tenant in the house they occupy. After he died, the narrator explored his quarters. He reports that Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers. Among these I found a few paper-covered books, the pages of which were curled and damp: The Abbot, by Walter Scott, The Devout Communicant, and The Memoirs of Vidocq. I liked the last best because its leaves were yellow. .......The narrator says the priest was a good man, for he bequeathed his money to institutions and his furniture to his sister. .......In winter, the narrator and his friends, including a boy named Mangan, play in the street and in the muddy lanes along and behind the houses. If the narrator's uncle turns into the street, everyone hides until he enters his house. If Mangan's sister comes out and calls her brother to tea, everyone keeps in the shadows. If she stands there and waits, the boys reveal themselves and Mangan answers her call. The narrator always observes her closely, for he is strongly attracted to her even though he hardly knows her. .......On school mornings, he waits for her to come out, then grabs his school books and follows her until their paths diverge. She is constantly in his thoughts even though they had never had a conversation. One rainy evening in the kitchen of the priest's empty quarters, he presses his hands together as if to pray and says, “O love! O love!” .......Finally, a day comes when she speaks to him. She asks whether he is going to the Araby bazaarSaturday evening, noting that she herself wants to go but cannot because she must attend a retreatscheduled at her convent. He tells her that if he goes to the bazaar, he will bring back something

for her. .......During the next several days, having received permission from his aunt to attend the event, all he can think about is the bazaar and Mangan's sister. On Saturday morning, he reminds his uncle that he will be attending the bazaar that evening. The uncle, who is in the hallway looking for a hat brush, curtly replies, "Yes, boy, I know." .......After the narrator returns from school, he sits downstairs staring at a clock, waiting for his uncle to come home and give him money for the bazaar. Irritated by the ticking of the clock, he goes to the highest part of the dwelling and looks out at the Mangan girl's house while neighbor boys are playing in the street. For fully an hour, he stands there thinking of her, imagining he sees her in front of her house—her curved neck, her dress, her hand on the railing. .......When he returns downstairs, his uncle has still not returned home. But Mrs. Mercer is there sitting at the fire. She is a pawnbroker's widow who collects used stamps for a charitable cause. She is also waiting for the narrator's uncle, but the narrator does not say why. It may be that the uncle owes her money or has promised to give her stamps. While dinner awaits his return, Mrs. Mercer gossips with the narrator's aunt over tea. Just after eight o'clock, Mrs. Mercer says she can wait no longer and leaves. .......“I'm afraid you may put off your bazaar for this night of Our Lord,” the narrator's aunt says. .......At nine, the narrator hears his uncle come through the door. He is talking to himself, which means he has been drinking. When the narrator asks him for money for the bazaar, the uncle says people are going to bed by this time. But the aunt presses him on behalf of the boy. The uncle then gives the boy a florin and asks him whether he has heard of "The Arab's Farewell to His Steed." In a hurry, the boy leaves while the uncle prepares to recite the first few lines of the poem to his wife. .......The narrator takes an empty third-class train across the river to the site of the bazaar. When he walks down the street to the bazaar building, it is nearing ten o'clock. He pays his way and walks through a turnstile only to discover that most of the stalls are already closed. In front of a curtain at one stall, Cafe Chantant, two men are counting money. When the narrator finds a stall that is still open, he goes inside and looks over a display of tea sets and porcelain vases. .......A young lady is talking with two gentlemen. All have English accents. She comes over and asks the narrator whether he wishes to make a purchase. Her tone is perfunctory; she exhibits little enthusiasm. “No, thank you,” he says. He lingers a moment, then walks away. The lights of the gallery in the upper part of the building go out. Of this moment, the narrator tells the reader: .......“Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”

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Joyce, Religion, and "Araby" .......James Joyce grew up a Catholic and attended Clongowes boarding school, operated by priests of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits. But his father's heavy drinking and incompetence in home finances plunged the family into debt. Consequently, Joyce had to withdraw from school and return home, where he kept up his studies with the help of his mother. Two years later, Jesuits at Belvedere school itted Joyce free of charge. He flourished academically, rising to the top of his class. .......At University College in Dublin, also run by the Jesuits, he received an excellent education in languages and participated in literary activities. By this time, however, Joyce had renounced Catholicism, mainly because of its unbending rules and strict enforcement of them. In his stories, he repeatedly accuses the Catholic Church of oppressing and debilitating Ireland. He also frequently mocks the church, its clergy, and its rituals even though Jesuit priests generously provided him an education at a crucial time in his life. .......In Araby, Joyce presents the church from two perspectives: that of the young narrator—who is a practicing Catholic, as Joyce was in his youth—and that of the irreligious adult author. The following sentences from the second paragraph exhibit this double perspective. The former tenant of our house, a priest, had died in the back drawing-room. Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers . . . He had been a very charitable priest; in his will he had left all his money to institutions and the furniture of his house to his sister. Here, the boy attaches no special meaning to the condition of the room or the “useless papers.” Nor does he look down on the priest, for he notes that he had been a charitable man. However, it appears that the author himself—in looking back on his adolescence—intended the musty air and the useless papers to suggest that the church was an outdated institution with effete rules and doctrines. Like the priest, it would die. As to the generosity of the priest, Joyce seems to be raising the question of why he had money and property in the first place. .......One may argue that Joyce felt conscience-bound to criticize the Catholic Church in "Araby" and other short stories, as well as in novels such as Ulysses. But his unfair generalizations about the church and the mean spirit in which he delivers his criticism bring into question the reliability and objectivity of his criticism. Conflicts .......The narrator contends with environmental forces that inhibit and oppress him and other Dubliners. These forces include adverse economic, social, and cultural conditions arising from British dominance of Ireland. He also struggles against lustful feelings toward the Mangan girl, feelings that his religion tells him he must control. These feelings are most obvious in the following sentence at the end of the sixth paragraph: "All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: `O love! O love!' many times." .. Theme Awakening to the Humdrum Life of Dublin .......The working-class street on which the narrator resides is a dead end, suggesting that he and his friends are going nowhere. They will grow up to live in the same dreary Dublin, with its dreary weather, dreary people, and dreary houses. In the third paragraph, the narrator describes the depressing atmosphere: .......When we met in the street the houses had grown sombre. The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent street. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses, where we ran the gantlet of the rough tribes

from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables . . . . .......Nevertheless, the narrator bears up. He has friends, keeps active, and nurtures a dream: to win the attentions of the Mangan girl. After she speaks to him one day about the Araby bazaar, his spirits soar; he can think of nothing but her and of the gift he will buy her at the bazaar. For him, she is an exotic, lovely creature, foreign to Dublin. And the bazaar—Araby, as it is called—represents a distant, mystical land to which he will travel on behalf of his beloved to obtain for her a splendid keepsake. He is like a knight planning a quest. .......But when he goes to the bazaar late one Saturday evening, the third-class train he rides to the site of the bazaar, the nearly empty bazaar hall, the English accents of the saleswoman and her men friends all disillusion him. In this moment, he suddenly awakens to the bleakness of the humdrum life around him. Foresahdowing .......As a young adult Joyce turned hostile toward Roman Catholicism and its clergy, believing that they had been a negative influence on Ireland over the years. Consequently, he makes the priest (paragraph 2) part of the dreary, decaying Dublin environment. .......One may interpret his depiction of the priest as a foreshadowing of what will happen to the youthful narrator. Consider, for example, that the priest in his youth was probably hopeful and optimistic, like the narrator. After he was ordained, he may have attempted to maintain the ebullience of his youth and reaffirm the importance of religion by reading the books mentioned in the second paragraph of "Araby." However, he eventually awakened to the bleakness of life around him and to the barrenness of religion, as Joyce would have the reader believe. His backyard garden—a sort of Eden, complete with an apple tree—then began decomposing, reflecting the destruction of the priest's idealism. There is a rusty bicycle pump in the garden, suggesting the deflation of his vicarious travels. .......The priest's experience thus foreshadows the awakening of the narrator from his dreamy adolescent idealism to the harsh reality of Dublin life. .. Glossary of Allusions, Symbols, and The Abbot: Novel by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Its central character is Roland Graeme, a young man reared by relatives (like the Araby narrator). Graeme becomes involved in romance and adventure, as the narrator of "Araby" dreams of doing after meeting Mangan's sister and then going on a knightly "quest" to the bazaar. "The Arab's Farewell to His Steed": Alternate title for "An Arab's Farewell to His Horse," a popular poem by the English writer and social reformer Caroline Norton (1808-1877), granddaughter of the famed Irishborn British playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. "In Araby," the narrator's uncle is about to recite the opening lines of the poem when the boy leaves for the Araby bazaar. Here is the first stanza of the poem: My beautiful! that standest meekly by, With thy proudly arch'd and glossy neck, and dark and fiery eye, Fret not to roam the desert now, with all thy winged speed; I may not mount on thee again,—thou'rt sold, my Arab steed! Fret not with that impatient hoof,—snuff not the breezy wind,— The farther that thou fliest now, so far am I behind: The stranger hath thy bridle-rein,—thy master hath his gold,— Fleet-limb'd and beautiful, farewell; thou'rt sold, my steed, thou'rt sold. At the end of the poem, the former owner returns the money and reclaims the horse. Araby: Name of a bazaar (“Araby: a Grand Oriental Fête”) held in Dublin May 14-19, 1894, to benefit a local hospital. In Joyce's short story, the young narrator views Araby as a symbol of the mystique and

allure of the Middle East. When he crosses the river to attend the bazaar and purchase a gift for the Mangan girl, it is as if he is crossing into a foreign land, like a knight-errant, on a mission on behalf of his lady fair. But his trip to the bazaar disappoints and disillusions him, awakening him to the harsh reality of life around him. Ashpits: Perhaps symbols of the hellish life of many Dubliners. Blind Street: Street that dead-ends. In the story and in real life, Dublin's North Richmond Street is a dead end, as Joyce points out in the first four words of "Araby"—perhaps to suggest that the boys playing on it are going nowhere. They will grow up to live in the same dreary Dublin, with its dreary weather, dreary people, and dreary houses. In the third paragraph, the narrator describes the depressing atmosphere: When we met in the street the houses had grown sombre. The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent street. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses, where we ran the gantlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables . . . . Brown: Color that Joyce uses in "Araby" to draw attention to the plainness and dreariness of Dublin. (See the first paragraph.) He also uses it to describe the figure of the Mangan girl, for she conjured up for him images of the Middle East, in particular the people of Arabia. But after he attends the bazaar, he no doubt begins to associate the brownness of her figure with the dreary brownness of Dublin. Café Chantant: In Europe, a café in which singers, dancers, and other entertainers performed for patrons. Sometimes bawdy performances were featured. In "Araby," the presence of a café chantant at the Grand Oriental Fête suggests that the bazaar is actually less than grand. Devout Communicant: Abbreviation of a book title. The full title is The Devout Communicant, or Pious Meditations and Aspirations for the Three Days Before and Three Days After Receiving the Holy Eucharist. The author was Pacificus Baker (1695-1774), an English Franciscan priest. Joyce mentions the book in "Araby" perhaps as a hint that the narrator equates his attraction to the Mangan girl to a religious experience. Mention of the book also obliquely foreshadows the narrator's trip to the bazaar to obtain a gift for the girl—a trip that to him is a like a quest for the Holy Grail. Empty House: Two-story dwelling at the end of North Richmond Street. Joyce mentions it perhaps to suggest an empty future awaiting the boys playing on the street. Gantlet: Military punishment in which an offender was forced to run between two lines of men who beat him with clubs when he ed. Garden of the Priest: Garden of Eden, from which the priest and his religion emerged to labor in a lessthan-perfect world. Mangan: James Mangan (1803-1849), whom Joyce read and wrote about. Mangan adopted a middle name, Clarence, when he was a teenager. Mangan wrote poetry on romantic and patriotic themes, notably poems ing Irish nationalism. He also translated poetry from German and other languages, including Ireland's Celtic language (sometimes referred to as Irish Gaelic). Some of his translations include his own original writing, and some of his original poems are presented as translations from Oriental languages. By giving the name Mangan to the girl with whom the young "Araby" narrator is infatuated, Joyce links her with an author who sometimes wrote about exotic eastern locales—in other words Araby. O'Donovan Rossa: Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (1831-1915), a revolutionary who worked to overthrow British rule in Ireland. Florin: British coin worth two shillings. Circulation of it began in 1849 and continued until 1971. In the late nineteenth century, the coin bore the image of Queen Victoria on one side. The florin was a bitter reminder to the Irish that they were under British rule. Retreat: In Roman Catholicism, a period of seclusion for praying, meditating, receiving advice, and discovering ways to improve one's moral life. Salver: Tray. Spike: Perhaps a phallic symbol. Joyce uses the word in the ninth paragraph. Here is the paragraph:

.......While she spoke she turned a silver bracelet round and round her wrist. She could not go, she said, because there would be a retreat that week in her convent. Her brother and two other boys were fighting for their caps, and I was alone at the railings. She held one of the spikes, bowing her head towards me. The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing. At fell over one side of her dress and caught the white border of a petticoat, just visible as she stood at ease. Westland Row Station: Train station in South Dublin. Today it is known as Pearse Station. Vidocq, Eugène François: Celebrated French adventurer. Between his adolescence and age twenty, he was a thief, traveling entertainer, duelist, prison inmate, prison escapee, soldier, and forger. After later being imprisoned again, he spied on inmates for the police. When he was thirty-six, he founded a police unit in Paris that later became the national security police, or Sûreté Nationale. He left police work in 1827 to operate a paper mill, but the business failed. He went back to work for the police as a detective but in 1832 was accused of theft and fired. He then founded a detective agency. He was an acquaintance of great writers, including Balzac and Victor Hugo, and served as a model for many fictional characters. He wrote his memoirs with the assistance of other writers. Entitled Mémoires de Vidocq, chef de la police de Sûreté, jusqu'en 1827, it became a best seller. The reference to Vidocq in "Araby" appears to suggest that the dead priest had escaped from the austerity of his clerical life and the drabness of Dublin by reading about the adventuresome Vidocq. The reference also foreshadows the young narrator's "escape" across the river to the Araby bazaar. Climax .......The climax occurs when the narrator, disillusioned by what he finds at the bazaar, realizes that life in Dublin is humdrum and that the Mangan girl probably has no romantic interest in him. Belief that she was attracted to him was a result of his vanity, he believes. Figures of Speech .......Following are examples of figures of speech in "Araby." Alliteration Paragraph 3: the back doors of the dark dripping gardens Paragraph 5: Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. Paragraph 25: girded at half its height by a gallery. Irony When the Araby bazaar darkens, the narrator "sees the light," realizing that his perception of reality has been distorted. Metaphor Paragraph 3: shook music from the buckled harness (comparison of music to an object that can be shaken from something) Paragraph 5: the shrill litanies of shop-boys (comparison of the cries of the shop boys to a repetitive prayer) Personification Paragraph 1: The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces (comparison of houses to persons) Paragraph 6: All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves (comparison of senses to persons) Simile Paragraph 5: But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires. (Comparison of body to a harp and of words and gestures to fingers) Study Questions and Essay Topics 1...Write an essay that speculates on what the narrator's life will be like when he is in his early thirties. 2...Write a short psychological profile of the narrator. your views with ages from the story

and quotations from scholarly works that analyze the story.. 3...In what ways did British rule of Ireland affect the everyday life of the Irish people? 4...Are the coachman and horse (paragraph 3) symbols of Britain and Ireland, respectively? 5...What are "the troubles in our native land"? (Paragraph 5).