An Analysis of Araby in James Joyce's Dubliners

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An Analysis of Araby

There are many statements in the story "Araby" that are both

surprising and puzzling. The statement that perhaps gives us the most

insight into the narrator's thoughts and feelings is found at the end of

the story. "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven

and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger. (32)" By

breaking this statement into small pieces and key words, we can see it as a

summation of the story's major themes.

At this point in the story, many emotions are swirling about in the

narrator's head. His trip to the bazaar has been largely unsuccessful. He

was late arriving, was unable to find a gift for Mangan's 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 other situations caused him to feel driven and derided by

vanity. His reflections of the "charitable" life of the priest who

occupied the narrator's house before the narrator make us wonder if the

priest led a life of vanity. His early obsession with Mangan's sister now

seems in vain. "I had never spoken to her ... and yet her name was like a

summons to my foolish blood. (4)" He feels ashamed and ridiculed by his

earlier inability to communicate with Mangan's sister. He sees how

distracted he was by his anticipation of the bazaar. He recalls that he "

had hardly any patience with the serious work 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 Mangan's

sister regarding the bazaar drives him to direct all his thoughts toward

the glory that will be the bazaar. A sort of irony can be found in the

fact that something that he devoted all his "waking and sleeping thoughts"

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