¶ … Araby," by James Joyce, "The Aeneid," by Virgil, and "Candide," by Voltaire. Specifically, it will look at love as a common theme in literature, but more often than not, it does not live up to the romantic ideal of love. Various authors employ this emotion as a theme that allows them to demonstrate some truth about the human condition that lies outside of the terrain of love.
ARABY"
The third story in Joyce's "The Dubliners" is "Araby." At first it seems simply a story of a young boy experiencing his first love. However, there is much more to the story. The boy reveals his feelings about the Church in the first paragraph, when he says the Christian Brothers' School "set the boys free." The girl he likes cannot go to the fair with him because she has a "retreat at her convent." These simple statements show the restrictions of the Church that apply even to the Catholic children, and how they affect their lives. What they do revolves around the Church. Even in the bazaar that is nearly closed for the night, he likens to a "...silence like that which pervades a church after a service" (Joyce 13). He cannot get away from the influence of the Church, no matter where he goes.
This is at first glance the first truly romantic story of the three. The young boy has his first adolescent crush, and it brings back memories of first love. It is a charming story until it contents with the Church, and with the young boy's own anguish at...
When the day of the bazaar finally arrives the narrator begins experiencing one disappointment after another, which slowly chip away at his idealistic notions towards romance. First, he is unable to spy on his beloved from his window like he always used to. Second, he starts having uneasy feelings about the day as he walks to school that morning. Third, his uncle's late return home significantly delays him from attending
I chafed against the work of school." These "follies" are also seen by the boy's school master as "idleness," which juxtaposes the perceived importance of the feeling for the boy with the more rational views of outsiders. This rational view is also represented by the boy's uncle, who is reminded more than once that the boy plans to go to the bazaar. The climax of the story occurs with the boy's
"I had never spoken to her," he admits (30). When finally he does he is at a loss for words. "When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer," (31). He communicates better in a fantasy world, just as he sees better in his fantasy world: "Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and
Importance of the setting in understanding the story A successful story needs to have several components linked together in order to help the reader build up the story in their minds. The setting of a story is one of the powerful elements that are often used as a link of symbolism between the character and his life. It sets the mood for the story as well as depicts the mental state
John Updike's "A&P" and James Joyce's "Araby" are very alike. The theme of the two stories centers on a young men who are concerned over thinking out the dissimilarity between reality and the imaginations of romance that dance in their heads. They also examine their mistaken thoughts on their respective world, the girls they encounter, and most importantly, themselves. One of the main comparable aspects of the two stories is
The following quotation, in which he leaves the bazaar empty-handed, emphasizes the fact that the narrator had egregiously deluded himself about his perceived romance. "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger" (Joyce). The "anger" the narrator experiences is understandable and is in reaction to this dearth of money and inability to produce
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