Several viewpoints about "Araby"                          1997.6

1.Analysis of literature aspect

Novels are indeed marvelous forms of art. Novelists are the invisible hands of great originality behind the knitting of the story. As a result, appreciating how the author uses words and phrases to construct the atmosphere cannot be ignored in realizing the whole story. Now we are going to make some analyses about the story from the aspect of literature.

First of all, a diagram about the intersection of the three major roles, which are the boy (supposed that he is called John ) ,the girl (called Mary), and Araby is as follows:

           (a)
   John → Mary 
            ← 
            (b)

(e)↖↘(d) ↙(c)

           Araby 

(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f) stands for the relationship or interaction between two parts.
Let's analyze the several parts one by one:

(a) It is a process about how John loved Mary more and more. At beginning ,John was only a boy in reality explained and proved by the description "we ran the gantlet of the rough tribes from the cottages ." But the world of the childhood memories was broken by the appearance of Mary. That is, John made farewells to his childhood which seemed to be regarded vulgar and low class, and then he has a more sublime dream of appreciating Mary's nobility and sharing with her the features.

The image of Mary in John's mind is like the star in the terribly dark sky for she first appeared in brilliant light with the black background by nightfall. John has the feelings such like "her name like a summons","confused adoration ","like a harp played ", which all presents that he really fell in love with her .In later paragraphs, the passion for her was greatly strengthened by such expressions:

"I bore my chalices safely through the throng of foes ", "I was thankful that I could see so little ." These inner and sincere feelings all based on one psychological condition --- He is thoroughly convinced that he is nothing but a boy too inferior to be worth mentioning. In the scene that he pressed the palms of his hands together until they trembled murmuring: "O love! O love !" many times (just like a feverish religious believer or follower ), we can conclude that he had established the strong desire for the ideal state Mary existed in ,as is at least what he himself was certain of.

(b) But in Mary's eye, John was no more than a stupid and ignorant boy who could only fool around all day long. In addition, she was not aware of the passion of John .So, John did not receive as much replies as he had imagined or wished. However, to a person who regards himself as an inferior fellow, even a word is by far much enough. As a result, he took the request of going to Araby for Mary extremely serious and was sure of the divinity of the trip.

(c) In fact, the way Mary referred to Araby is just a very casual manner. She did not have any positive description about it. But we can see that John himself perfected it not, by the phase of the reality ,but by imagination or illusion in his mind, as is showed in (d)and (e).

(d) The part begins with the sigh ,"what innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening, "pointing out the awareness of the hallucination that he made for himself. Impatience of the routine business such as his absence of mind in classes, or the
unease of waiting such as getting up and down the stairs, and the repetition of the image --- that brown-clad figure, all showed up the fact that the importance of going to Araby seems equivalent to his love for Mary.

(e) Then we come to the most tasteless but also the most dramatic part of complication, which is also the last part of the story. Araby paid back him indifference and even suspicion instead of welcome or divinity as he imagined. He suddenly realized that everything never changed, and even love was created by his imagination not existing in reality. Much disappointed, he saw himself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; his eyes burned with anguish and anger.

What is so,called "vanity"? it is the loss of love and dream. What is so-called 'anguish'? it is the result of the consciousness that his dignity is deeply ruined and hurt by someone --yes,right himself ---the FOOL ! Indeed, the article does not have any climaxes until these last two lines appeared which present an ending full of nothing but thorough disappointment and disillusion. It is the ending but also the start of the tragedy.

2.Analysis of psychological aspect

Now, we divide the deeper meanings of the story into two parts, which will be more convenient for us to discuss. They are "loss of love" and" loss of ideals":

(A)Loss of love

If we try to analyze the story externally, then apparently the most important topic of it lies on "loss of love". To explain it, first, we pick out several cross sections to illustrate the development of the love and how it leads to an terrible end.

(1) People tend to tale the part for the whole. That is to say, we usually make sweeping comments unconsciously. From the view of the plot, the beauty of Mary's appearance ---"brown-clad figure " or "her figure defined by the half-opened door"---is taken to explain or conclude the thought that she must be perfect in every aspect. So, well the Chinese proverb goes," Love makes one blind to all imperfections ." Love is just such a unreasonable or sensible process.

(2) The feelings are strengthened and developed by one's own imagination of unilateral willingness. The power and motive of the strengthening process is not on the basis of reality. From the whole article, we can find a very interesting fact that John's passion for Mary greatly increased even though at first she did not speak a word to him. If we take the theory that " to love another person is to love the special qualities that we do not have" into consideration, then the phenomenon would be explained more easily. He did not love Mary in the very reality but love the Mary in the imaginary world. That is, he loved the Mary perfected by his wishes instead of the Mary in the reality might be. Thus, the theory completely explained it.

(3) So, why the tragedy finally happens is fundamentally due to the absence of two-way communication. We can point out that Mary just spoke two sentences, but the passion in John's mind is greatly heightened--- even can be written in 5 full pages in the text.

(4) Just as the Chinese proverb says, "a falling flower has the passion but the flowing river does not have it ." Araby is probably mentioned casually by Mary, but it is John himself that regarded it seriously as the perfect and divine place, as is often the case in one-sided love.

(5) From the reasons and inferences above, I try to come up with the real reason why John was so much angrier than much disappointed. He must have found at last the fact that everything did not change at all even he loved her and Araby so sincerely. All things including his happiness, anxiety, good will toward the shopkeepers in Araby, excitement and so on, were nothing but the result of his own imagination .When they all disappeared suddenly, the he had to blame on is himself, for the foolishness of his mind leads to the embarrassment and the straitened circumstances. He must be angry at the stupid, which had unfortunately become the symbol of him !

(6) As I had said before, nothing changed even John came out of the childhood world, pursuing his perfect dreams, deeply hurt by disappointment---he had come over so many changes in mind, Yes, Mary did not change, as well as his uncle and aunt, and Araby ---every thing never changed a bit ! That is, it was his love that hurt himself, as is too bizarre to believe.

(B)Loss of dream

If we take the state of James Joyce's mind, and the background of the age in which the work was created into consideration, then the loss of dream would be a significant topic which is illustrated as follows:

James Joyce → Virgin Mary
   (Dubliner) ← 

          ↘↖ ↙

           Eastern
           culture

The Major role of the story, John, was born in Dublin in Ireland, where is also the hometown of the author James Joyce, so John can be seen as the symbol of James Joyce. But at that time about the beginning of the twentieth century, Ireland was a disturbed place full of hatred and vulgarness that people like the author there even can stand it no more. They appeared to have a very eager aspiration for another kind of culture style, and the eastern culture presented by Araby is a powerful one. But they still felt much disappointed at it for the indifference and vanity there. So even the "brown -clad figure", symbolic of the image of Virgin Mary in Ireland, could not give them any reliable
directions, and thus, they also felt disappointed at her. In the article, all of the real and original meanings are hidden deliberately behind the story. If we do not compare it with the situation at that age, then the overtones can never be found and discussed.

3.Additional discussion and conclusion

(1) The child always seems to have strong longing for the world the adults live in. As a result, in this sense, he will feel much disappointed and his dignity ruined if he finally touches the reality. The condition can also be seen in the movie played in the class" Listen to the singing of the mermaid (?)" in which the girl expresses her anger toward the hypocrisy of the adults. People having most sincere feelings, such as children, usually cannot bear the tragedy of disillusion.

(2) In 1920's to 1960's, the intelligentsia had much aspiration for the Communism which, they believed, will create a whole new perfect
world. However, after experiencing the continuous disasters and tragedies of human relationships and cultural properties, most of them
gradually changed their attitudes because facing too much disappointment. There is always great gap between ideals unrealized
and the cruel real life.

(3) The story wants to tell us that based on the reality, love for perfect and dreams are nothing but silly and fantastic notions which finally can not coexist with it and just troubled and tormented us. However, without dreams and love, we cannot live meaningfully; with dreams and love, we cannot live thoroughly cheerfully. Ah ! it is a paradox existing forever in human minds !