An Analysis of Araby in James Joyces Dubliners :: Joyce Dubliners Araby Essays

An Analysis of Araby There be many statements in the story Araby that are both surprising and puzzling. The statement that perhaps gives us the most cortical potential into the fabricators thoughts and feelings is found at the end of the story. Gazing up into the darkness I power saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity and my eyeball burned with anguish and anger. (32) By breaking this statement into small pieces and reveal words, we can see it as a summation of the storys major themes. At this point in the story, many emotions are swirling about in the narrators head. His stumble to the bazaar has been largely unsuccessful. He was late arriving, was unable to find a gift for Mangans sister, felt scorned by the merchants, and suddenly found himself in a dark room. These surroundings left him feeling both derided, and with a sense that this eagerly anticipated trip had been in vain. Many otherwise situations caused him to feel driven and derided by vanity. His reflections of the charitable life of the non-Christian priest who active the narrators house before the narrator make us wonder if the priest led a life of vanity. His early obsession with Mangans sister promptly seems in vain. I had never spoken to her ... and yet her name was care a summons to my foolish blood. (4) He feels ashamed and ridiculed by his previous inability to communicate with Mangans sister. He sees how distracted he was by his prospect of the bazaar. He recalls that he had hardly any patience with the serious trim of life. (12) The narrator is embarrassed by the time he had wasted, and the ease with which he became distracted. The near total worthlessness of the bazaar at the time the narrator arrives is an extreme example of vanity. Not only does the narrator feel ridiculed by the vanity involved in this situation, he also feels driven by it. The simple conversation he carries on with Mangans sister regarding the bazaar drives him to admit all his thoughts toward the glory that will be the bazaar. A sort of badinage can be found in the fact that something that he devote all his waking and sleeping thoughts