The document provides context and analysis of James Joyce's short story "Araby". It discusses: 1) The story's placement in Joyce's collection Dubliners and perspective of a boy on the verge of adolescence. 2) The significance of the title "Araby" referring to both an actual bazaar in Dublin symbolizing exoticism and satisfying the boy's desires. 3) Analysis of why the main character is infatuated with his friend Mangan's sister, seeing her as an escape from his mundane life.

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1. Araby in James Joyce’s “Dubliners”
“Araby” is one of the fifteen short stories that make up James Joyce’s collection,
“Dubliners”. Although Joyce wrote the stories between 1904 and 1906, they were not
published until 1914. “Dubliners” is a portrait of life in Dublin, Ireland, at the turn of the
twentieth century. Its stories are arranged in order of development, reflecting on growth
from a child to an adult. “Araby” is the last story of the first set, and is told from the
perspective of a boy just on the verge of adolescence. The story takes its title from a real
festival which started to Dublin in 1894 when Joyce was twelve years old.
(By Farah)
2. Significance of the Title “Araby”
“Araby” is an actual marketplace on the outskirts of Dublin. It is the name of an
upcoming bazaar with an Arabian setting. To the nineteenth-century European mind, the
Islamic lands of North Africa, the Near East, and the Middle East symbolized exotic
delights, and a luxurious sensuality. Similarly to the young boy character, it is a place of
exotic place to satisfy his first desires of reaching out to a girl by fetching her a gift from
Araby. Therefore, Araby suggests the foreign-originated yet exciting affection that
captures the heart of the young boy, driving him out of his mundane, everyday life into
the journey of self-discovery and manhood. It suggests not just a marketplace but a place
of wonder and romance.
(By Farah)
3. Why the MainCharacter Hasthe Adoration toHis Friend Mangan’s Sister?
In the beginning of the story, it tells us the neighbourhood where the main character lives is a quiet street.
The houses of the street, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces. On contrast, the main

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character with his friends plays behind the houses till their bodies glowed. Their activities set off by
contrast the silence of the neighborhood and the tediousness of life. The narrator uses a word “career” to
describe their play to tell readers that playing is the most important event in these boys’ daily life. They
have nothing else to do to satisfy their dynamic body. The writer shows this conflict between the
environment and physical and emotional needs during the development of a child into a grown man in an
indirect way. Before this conflict, the narrator seems to find a way to release his emotion. In the story,
describes as: Every morning, he lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. When she came
out on the doorstep, his heart leaped. He ran to the hall, seized his books and followed her. “When they
came near the point at which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her. He has never
spoken to her, but her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood. Here the narrator uses “foolish
blood” shows himself even confused these feelings on this girl who is possible a little bit older than him.
Then, the narrator tells us his feeling when he walked through the streets on Saturday evening to help his
aunt marketing. “We walked the flaring streets, jostled by drunken men and bargaining women, amid the
curses of labourers, the shrill litanies of shop-boys…, the nasal chanting of street-singers,…”, he imagines
that “I bore my chalice safely through athrong offoes”.
(By Julie)
4. Who Is Mangan’s Sister
This is the narrator's first love, this girl is regarded as the most major character in
the story. Just the image of her makes the narrator's heart leap. He follows her
everywhere mutely. The narrator's describing his first encounter with her, as "her figure
defined by the light from the half-opened door (431)”. Her image, itself, makes the
narrator blinded from his real life. He feels that the reality of his life offers no hope or
happiness because of its setting. "North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street

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except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free (430)". The word
'blind' especially, implies dullness of the place where he lives, and the girl motivates him
to forget this gray outlook. Also an escape from such reality is driven from passages of
the story, where it says: "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. It
fell up over one side of her dress and caught the white border of a petticoat, just visible as
she stood at ease (432)". The light makes him escape from darkness which he believes is
the only reality. Although Mangan's sister is only a minor character and with no name,
she has an important impact on the young boy as he falls in love with her but she makes
him feel confused and wrapped in his first encounter with love.
The passion and the need to show his affection by buying the gift is about to
change when he finally makes his trip to Araby. Arriving too late to do any serious
shopping, not affording to buy much of a worthy gift, and overhearing the two men and
one lady talk about something which seems just a superficial love, the narrator feels
angry and vain. According to the quote “I lingered before her stall, thought I knew my
stay was useless, to make my interest in her wares seem the more real (434)”, he finally
realizes that his interest of first love is not regarded important compared to those people
who think that love can be sold and bought. In short, a girl’s image turns into darkness
again to the narrator because he mistakenly thought of his love as being beautiful and
innocent while he is as wrong as he was about romantic Araby. The love for Mangan’s
sister seems an ever unreachable goal for him at the end as he finds out his love was not
as innocent as he thought.
(By Diana)

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5. The Theme of “Araby”
The theme of the story “Araby” by James Joyce, is a young and romantic boy for his first
love, he experienced many difficulty things to get to his desired place - Araby to buy
something for the girl. For example, he needed to wait for his uncle to come home and
ask his uncle give to the money to him. Then, he took the train which was also delayed.
Finally, he walked into the center, but he did not see his expected Araby. He expected
Araby to be a charming, beautiful and romantic place, but it wasn’t. After he listened to
the young lady and two young gentlemen’s conversational mode, he realized Araby was
common and is not distinguished like he thought. When the street closed the light, he
found out deep inside by himself is a “creature driven and derided by vanity (434)”. In
that part, it show the narrator's strongest emotion when he realizes how vain his love is
after he goes to Araby. He also realized his love is not pure because his real motive for
loving a girl that is out of vanity and not passion as he wanted to prove his love by means
of a material gift.
(By Yunyan)