class 13 ewrt 1c

1. EWRT 1C Class
13
The Short Story

2. AGENDA
 Author Review
 James Joyce
 Anton Chekhov
 Short Story Discussions:
 “Araby”
 “The Bet”
 Historical Content
 Literary Style
 Questions/ QHQs

3. .

4.  Joyce's father, John Joyce even though
he was a good-natured man, was a
drinker who wasted the family's
resources. The family’s prosperity
dwindled, forcing them to move from
their comfortable home to the
unfashionable and impoverished area
of North Dublin.
 Nonetheless, Joyce attended a
prestigious Jesuit school and went on
to study philosophy and languages at
University College, Dublin. He moved to
Paris after graduation in 1902 to
pursue medical school, but instead he
turned his attention to writing.
James Joyce Age 6

5.  In 1903 he returned to
Dublin, where he met his
future wife, Nora
Barnacle, the following
year.
 From then on, Joyce made
his home in other
countries. From 1905 to
1915 he and Nora lived in
Rome and Trieste, Italy, and
from 1915 to 1919 they
lived in Zurich, Switzerland.
Between World War I and
World War II, they lived in
Paris. They returned to
Zurich in 1940, where Joyce
died in 1941

6. Politics
 Ireland was ruled by the British
monarchy, which, of course, many of the
Irish resented. The British government
had an open hostility to both the Irish (for
their general lack of education and their
superstitious ways) and the Catholic
Church. That the British profited from its
presence in Ireland only served to further
inflame the Irish at the British presence.

7. Charles Stewart
Parnell
 Charles Stewart Parnell was a
political leader in the 1880s.
Because of his influence, political
savvy and staunch support of
home rule, the achievement of
Ireland’s independence seemed
more likely under Parnell’s
leadership than ever before.
However, a romantic scandal in
1889 damaged Parnell’s
reputation, allowing his opponents
and groups of zealous Catholics
(Parnell was Protestant), to
discredit him and undermine his
power base. This broke Parnell,
leading to his political defeat and—
ultimately—his death in 1891.
CHARLES STEWART PARNELL
(1846-1891). Irish nationalist
leader, on an American
advertising circular of the 1880s.

8. The Catholic Church
 An overwhelming force in the Ireland of Joyce’s period
was that of the Irish Catholic Church, since a vast
majority of the Irish were Catholics. According to his
biographer, Richard Ellmann, Joyce believed that the
“real sovereign of Ireland [was] the Pope” (Ellmann,
James Joyce, 256). Although Joyce left the Church,
Ellmann adds, he “continued to denounce all his life
the deviousness of Papal policy,” finding the Church
and the papacy “deaf” to Irish cries for help (Ellmann,
James Joyce, 257).

9. James Joyce
(1882-1941)
 Joyce regarded himself as a genius
and refused to make any compromises
in his writing to achieve commercial
success. His difficult personality
alienated many people who came into
contact with him, but he enjoyed the
devotion of Nora, his brother Stanislaus,
and a number of close friends and
patrons who recognized and helped to
nurture his exceptional talent. Since his
death in Zurich in 1941, readers, critics,
and scholars have continued to study his
works. He is regarded today as one of
the most important authors of the
twentieth century and as a giant of
literary modernism.
Major Works:
Dubliners 1914
A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man 1916
Exiles and Poetry 1918
Ulysses 1922
Finnegan’s Wake 1938
Joyce talking with publishers
Sylvia Beach and Adrienne
Monnier at Shakespeare &
Co., Paris, 1920

10. “Araby”
 “Araby” is the third of the fifteen stories in Dubliners (1914). These
stories examine the hazards of the various stages in life, and “Araby”
marks the end of childhood and the beginning of adolescence.
 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 Richmond
Street (No. 17) in the central part of the city. He was also undergoing a
period of self-discovery.
 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.

11. Historical Context
 As he portrays it in his work, Joyce’s Dublin was
composed mostly of lower-to middle-class residents
oppressed by financial hardships, foreign political
dominance, quarrelsome rival Irish nationalist groups, and
the overwhelming influence of the Irish Catholic Church.
 In the late 1800s, Ireland was still reeling from the
agricultural disasters of mid-century and the massive Irish
immigration (mainly to the United States) that followed.
Consistently throughout the stories, characters agonize
over a crown or even a shilling; this underscores the
prevailing financial difficulties among most citizens.

12. Literary Style

13.  The first-person point of view in "Araby"
means that readers see the story
through the eyes of the narrator and
know what he feels and thinks. When
the narrator is confused or conflicted
about his feelings, then readers must
figure out how the narrator really feels
and why he feels that way. For
example, when the narrator first
describes Mangan's sister, he says that
"her figure [is] defined by the light from
the half-opened door.'' In other words,
she is lit from behind, giving her an
unearthly "glow," like an angel or
supernatural being such as the Virgin
Mary. Readers are left to interpret the
meaning behind the narrator's words,
because the boy is not sophisticated
enough to understand his own desires.

14.  Joyce is famous for using a stream-of-consciousness technique for storytelling.
Although stream of consciousness does not figure prominently in "Araby,'' a
reader can see the beginnings of Joyce's use of this technique, which he used
extensively in his subsequent novels, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. A major
feature of stream-of-consciousness storytelling is that the narration takes
place inside the mind of main characters and follows their thoughts as
they occur to them, whether those thoughts are complete sentences or
not. Although this story uses complete sentences for its storytelling, the
narration takes place inside the boy's mind. Another feature of stream-of-
consciousness narration is that the narrator's thoughts are not explained
for the reader. This is true of "Araby" as well, especially during and after the
boy's epiphany.

15. In Teams:
Questions for Thought
1. Identify and discuss one or more of
the numerous religious symbols in
the story.
2. The narrator of "Araby" moves from
innocence to experience through his
epiphany. What has he learned by
the end of the story?
3. Write a short psychological profile of
the narrator based on a passage
from the story.
4. Tensions, Ambiguity, Paradox, and
Irony?

16. Tensions, Ambiguity,
Paradox, and Irony?

17. 1.Identify and discuss one or more of the
numerous religious symbols in the story.
2.Write a short psychological profile of the
narrator based on a passage from the story
3.The narrator of "Araby" moves from
innocence to experience through his
epiphany. What has he learned by the end
of the story?
“Araby”

18. QHQ “ARABY”
1. Q: Does the title “Araby” suggest anything, and if
so, how does that play into the story itself?
2. Q: How do the themes of “Araby” play into the idea
of fantasy that is derived from the stories title?
3. Q: Why does the narrator of “Araby” use first person
details to deeply describe the setting of the short
story?
4. Q: How does “Araby’s” use of light and darkness
relate to the passage of “innocence to experience?”
5. Q: Could the speaker of Araby be tied to the
author’s personal experiences? If so what
psychoanalytical elements can be retrieved from
the text and applied?

20. Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov was one of the most
influential literary artists to usher in the
era of modernism, particularly in short
fiction. When his stories were first made
widely available in English, they were
termed mere sketches, lacking in all the
elements that constituted the short-story
form. Critics soon began to realize,
however, that Chekhov’s freedom from
the prevailing conventions of social
realism and formalized plot indicated the
beginnings of a modern kind of narrative,
which combined the specific detail of
realism with the poetic lyricism of
Romanticism.
1860-1904

21. Chekhov’s most significant contributions to the
short-story form include the following:
1. The presentation of character as a psychological
mood rather than as a realistic personality
2. The conception of a story as a lyrical sketch rather
than as a highly plotted tale
3. The assumption of reality as basically
impressionistic and as a function of narrative
perspective or point of view.
The final result of these innovations has been
the modernist and postmodernist view of
reality as a fictional construct.

22. Context
Just prior to the birth of Chekhov, Russia
underwent a widespread uprising to
bring about the end of the autocracy of
the tsar and the feudal system. In 1861,
Alexander II issued an emancipation that
freed the serfs and set in motion the first
civil rights in Russia. The gentry, without
their serfs, were unable to maintain their
position in society. The law was codified
during this time, a process that led to the
creation of the legal profession, to which
one of the protagonists in “The Bet”
belonged.

23. During these years, the issues of literacy and education
came to the forefront. The gentry formed into a group called
Populists, putting forth the idea of a united population that
included the peasants. Industrialization brought more
workers to major cities, and educated men like those in “The
Bet” gathered together to discuss sociopolitical ideals.
Literature had been highly censored prior to the
emancipation, and now writers began to find ways to criticize
the current regime and its politics. However, they had to
approach it cleverly, because reform was not so complete
that open opposition was tolerated. Chekhov managed by
simply depicting the inequities of the system without
commenting on their moral implications.

24. Style
The banker and the lawyer serve as voices of
two different viewpoints. Except for the letter
written at the end of the fifteen-year period,
Chekhov does not reveal the thoughts of the
captive. On the other hand, the story begins
with the banker’s memories and observations,
proceeds to his worries about money and his
resolution to kill the prisoner rather than pay
the bet, and concludes with the banker’s self-
contempt and with his self-protective gesture. It
might be that Chekhov is more interested in the
psychological and ironic possibilities of the
Banker’s account than in a didactic point about
the value of freedom or life.

25. Irony
The ironies in “The Bet” are numerous:
The arrogant banker is reduced to humility through the loss of his
fortune. Once considered an upstanding man of the community, he is
reduced to a man who intends to murder his adversary.
The lawyer's imprisonment changes him from a man assured of the
sanctity of preserving life in any way possible to one who cares nothing
for life or freedom.
Neither man wins, and neither man is considered morally good or bad,
but in the conclusion, irony takes over. The characters’ thoughtless last
acts serve to free one another. Instead of killing the lawyer, the banker
plants a kiss on his head. The prisoner then escapes, freeing the banker
from having to pay his debt.

26. Point of View
“The Bet” is told from the point of view of an objective
narrator. Laura Merlin explains that Chekhov used what T.
S. Eliot would later call the “objective correlative,” an
element that often appears in the modern short story. The
narrator's identity is unknown, and he relates little
commentary on the actions of the characters, except that
which is entirely visible to one watching the plot unfold;
there are no prejudices toward the characters and no moral
for the ending.. The narrator gives himself the license to
add an exclamation mark when describing how the bet
finally was agreed upon, to show the ridiculous nature of it,
but he denotes no hero, no winner, and no lesson to be
learned from the debacle.

27. Usually Chekhov’s imagery, too, reflects his psychological
interest. Certainly in “The Bet” it is appropriate that the story
begins on a dark rainy night and that the banker’s
temptation to murder occurs on a dark, cold, rainy night, that
he passes a bare bed and a cold stove on the way to the
sealed room, and that the prisoner’s room is dark, with a
dimming candle. All these images of death are consistent
with the banker’s resolution, as well as with the lawyer’s
death-in-life. Because they are seen through the banker’s
eyes, however, they are particularly important as reflecting
his own psychological condition, a despair that is itself a
death-in-life, and that may finally be Chekhov’s particular
interest in “The Bet.”
Imagery and Psychology

28. In Groups: Discuss “The Bet”
 Write a short psychological
profile of either the lawyer
or the banker in “The Bet”
based on a passage or two
from the story.
 Has the lawyer been
traumatized or
enlightened? Why do you
think so?
 Tensions, Ambiguity,
Paradox, and Irony?
 QHQ “The Bet”

29. 1. Can you identify Tensions,
Ambiguity, Paradox, or Irony?
2. Has the lawyer been traumatized or
enlightened? Why do you think so?
3. Who was more emotionally
impacted and/or traumatized- the
lawyer or the banker?

30. QHQ “The Bet”
 Q: Why was it imperative that the lawyer be kept
in solitary confinement?
 Q: How much of a difference did voluntary
imprisonment have towards the lawyer’s
transformation?
 Why did the lawyer decide to violate the
agreement only minutes before 15 years had
past?
 Why didn’t the lawyer take the money?
knowledge with a little money on the side does
not hurt.
 So what is the answer to the lawyer’s and
banker’s dispute: Is it better to be punished by life
imprisonment or capital punishment?

31. HOMEWORK
Read “The Story of an Hour”
Post #12: Choose one
 Discuss Mrs. Mallard as a
sympathetic character or as a
cruel and selfish character.
How might your own gender,
age, class or ethnicity
influence your response?
 Do you think Chopin's critique
of the institution of marriage,
as expressed by Louise, is
applicable today?
 Discuss the story through one
critical lens
 Discuss Trauma: who suffers
it and why?
 QHQ
Read: “A Very Old Man with
Enormous Wings”
Post #13: Choose one
 Speculate on the identity of the
“old man.”
 How does the manner in which
Garcia Marquez treats the
traditional idea of angels in "A
Very Old Man with Enormous
Wings" compare with the way
angels are represented or
interpreted elsewhere?
 Discuss the story through one
critical lens
 Discuss Trauma: who suffers it and
why?
 QHQ