Thursday, January 2, 2020

How can "Araby" be read as a story of adolescent love?

James Joyce has brought many themes under the limelight in his work 'Araby'. It can be read as a story which shows adolescent love of a young boy.
The young boy who is the central character of the story lives in Dublin street with his uncle and aunt in Ireland. He falls in love with a girl who lives across the street. Her name is unmentioned in the story. The love takes the boy to a romantic world. He thinks about this girl, dreams her, wishes to talk to the girl. Once his desires came true. The unnamed girl, the queen of his heart, tells him to attend a bazaar named 'Araby' on behalf of her. The boy stops reasoning and starts for Araby. Moreover, he plans to present her a beautiful gift. But he reaches there late at night when shops are closed. The darkness and the emptiness of the place remove his love feelings and bring him in the reality of the world. Then his cuff love runs away and he comes back in his real life.
The first love of this teenage boy comes blindly but leaves giving him the view of the reality. James is successful to give his readers the feeling and reminder of the time of adolescent love.


The unnamed boy narrator has fallen for Mangan's sister, and in a big way. He's still young and incredibly naive when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex. Mangan's sister stirs up all kinds of exciting feelings and emotions, so much so that he develops something of an infatuation with her. And when a young boy, inexperienced in the ways of love, becomes infatuated with a girl, he's liable to do all kinds of things that he really shouldn't do—things that can lead to hurt and disappointment.
In "Araby" the object of the narrator's puppy love provides him with a glimpse into a world of fantasy, one far removed from the drab, humdrum environment that he normally inhabits. Having set foot in this fantasy world, the boy doesn't want to leave. The Saturday bazaar has come at an opportune moment; it allows him to keep the fantasy of adolescent love going just that little bit longer. He's going to go there and buy Mangan's sister a little gift, a token of his boyish crush. But he arrives there too late, just as the bazaar is closing. Although we cannot be sure of what happens next, there is a strong suggestion that the boy's sudden disillusionment with his experience of "Araby" will be followed by a similar loss of innocence in relation to the juvenile obsession he's developed for Mangan's sister.

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