CC-8: Prose

1. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

Mrs Dalloway, a novel by Virginia Woolf published in 1925. It examines one day in the
life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class Londoner married to a member of Parliament. Mrs.
Dalloway is essentially plotless; what action there is takes place mainly in the characters’
consciousness. The novel addresses the nature of time in personal experience through multiple
interwoven stories, particularly that of Clarissa as she prepares for and hosts a party and that of
the mentally damaged war veteran Septimus Warren Smith. The two characters can be seen as
foils for each other.

Book Summary

Mrs Dalloway covers one day from morning to night in one woman’s life. Clarissa
Dalloway, an upper-class housewife, walks through her London neighbourhood to prepare for the
party she will host that evening. When she returns from flower shopping, an old suitor and
friend, Peter Walsh, drops by her house unexpectedly. The two have always judged each other
harshly, and their meeting in the present intertwines with their thoughts of the past. Years earlier,
Clarissa refused Peter’s marriage proposal, and Peter has never quite gotten over it. Peter asks
Clarissa if she is happy with her husband, Richard, but before she can answer, her daughter,
Elizabeth, enters the room. Peter leaves and goes to Regent’s Park. He thinks about Clarissa’s
refusal, which still obsessed him.
The point of view then shifts to Septimus, a veteran of World War I who was injured in
trench warfare and now suffers from shell shock. Septimus and his Italian wife, Lucrezia, pass
time in Regent’s Park. They are waiting for Septimus’s appointment with Sir William Bradshaw,
a celebrated psychiatrist. Before the war, Septimus was a budding young poet and lover of
Shakespeare; when the war broke out, he enlisted immediately for romantic patriotic reasons. He
became numb to the horrors of war and its aftermath: when his friend Evans died, he felt little
sadness. Now Septimus sees nothing of worth in England he fought for, and he has lost the desire
to preserve either his society or himself. Suicidal, he believes his lack of feeling is a crime.
Clearly, Septimus’s experiences in the war have permanently scarred him, and he has serious

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mental problems. However, Sir William does not listen to what Septimus says and diagnoses “a
lack of proportion.” Sir William plans to separate Septimus from Lucrezia and send him to a
mental institution in the country.
Richard Dalloway eats lunch with Hugh Whitbread and Lady Bruton, members of high
society. The men help Lady Bruton write a letter to the Times, London's largest newspaper. After
lunch, Richard returns home to Clarissa with a large bunch of roses. He intends to tell her that he
loves her but finds that he cannot because it has been so long since he last said it. Clarissa
considers the void that exists between people, even between husband and wife. Even though she
values the privacy she is able to maintain in her marriage, considering it vital to the success of
the relationship, at the same time she finds slightly disturbing the fact that Richard doesn’t know
everything about her. Clarissa sees off Elizabeth and her history teacher, Miss Kilman, who are
going shopping. The two older women despise one another passionately, each believing the other
to be an oppressive force over Elizabeth. Meanwhile, Septimus and Lucrezia are in their
apartment, enjoying a moment of happiness together before the men come to take Septimus to
the asylum. One of Septimus’s doctors, Dr Holmes, arrives, and Septimus fears the doctor will
destroy his soul. In order to avoid this fate, he jumps from a window to his death.
Peter hears the ambulance go by to pick up Septimus’s body and marvels ironically at the
level of London’s civilization. He goes to Clarissa’s party, where most of the novel’s major
characters are assembled. Clarissa works hard to make her party a success but feels dissatisfied
by her own role and acutely conscious of Peter’s critical eye. All the partygoers, but especially
Peter and Sally Seton, have, to some degree, failed to accomplish the dreams of their youth.
Though the social order is undoubtedly changing, Elizabeth and the members of her generation
will probably repeat the errors of Clarissa’s generation. Sir William Bradshaw arrives late, and
his wife explains that one of his patients, the young veteran (Septimus), has committed suicide.
Clarissa retreats to the privacy of a small room to consider Septimus’s death. She understands
that he was overwhelmed by life and that men like Sir William make life intolerable. She
identifies with Septimus, admiring him for having taken the plunge and for not compromising his
soul. She feels, with her comfortable position as a society hostess, responsible for his death. The
party nears its close as guests begin to leave. Clarissa enters the room, and her presence fills
Peter with great excitement.

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 Interpretation

Mrs Dalloway, through its depiction of Clarissa and Septimus, who can be seen as foils
for each other, and of the political atmosphere in Britain during the 1920s, explores the
fragmented yet fluid nature of time and the interconnectedness of perception and reality across
individuals and social spheres. Clarissa, a woman of high society, is primarily concerned with
giving a good party—perhaps as a means of affirming life and fending off death. When news of
Septimus’s death is interjected into her party, she is annoyed, as it might dampen everyone’s
spirits. She appears at times to be concerned only with the surfaces of things, but her seeming
disillusionment with reality can be understood as a coping mechanism. Clarissa tries to ignore
the uncomfortable realities of her surroundings—the residual horrors of World War I and her
own implied mental illness—and instead engages at the superficial level of societal rules and
expectations. Septimus, on the other hand, represents the breakdown of such a society: unable to
live with the idea of confinement, he jumps to his death. Clarissa does not face the same sort of
confinement, but her freedom is shown at times to be an illusion. She does not commit suicide of
the body, but, by shielding herself from uncomfortable realities, she commits emotional suicide,
some critics argue. However, Clarissa’s identification with Septimus at the end of the novel also
implies that she is somewhat aware of the limits on her freedom. It also seems to relieve her of
her disillusionment, if only momentarily, as she praises Septimus for having the courage to
escape the confinement that she sees in her own life despite her efforts to ignore it.

Character Sketch

a. Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf is a celebrated writer who lived at the beginning of the twentieth century.
She is best known for perfecting the concept of stream of consciousness - a writing style which
imitates the free, impressionistic flow of human thought Virginia Woolf's struggle with mental
illness led her to commit suicide which she presents through the character of Septimus Warren
Smith. For the rest of the novel, Mrs Dalloway presents the consciousness of Clarissa and Peter
Walsh back and forth in time. Virginia's struggles with death and life could be seen through the
thought of Clarissa. Virginia sees her writing as something that happens to her rather than as
something she has fully under her control. She is incredibly sensitive to the world around her and
unusually receptive to small details of her environment, which she believes have incredible

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significance. Her sensitivity makes her a great writer, but she also is subject to incredibly strong
emotions that are set off by events that other people might not even notice. Though she wants to
be healthy, she perceives the world in such a profound way that the feelings of madness haunt
her. She presented her lonely self through Mrs Dalloway who thought Septimus to be a brave
man as he liberated himself from the constraints of life. Thus, we can see that this novel has
autobiographical elements which create a connection between the consciousness of Clarissa,
Septima Warren Smith and the author herself.
b. Clarissa Dalloway
Mrs Clarissa Dalloway, the central character in the novel, is a woman of fifty-one years.
She belongs to an upper-middle-class family. Her husband, Richard Dalloway, is a member of
Parliament. Clarissa is intelligent, cultured, educated and sensitive. Compared to her, her
husband is a mediocre person. Their social circle is wide and parties and get-togethers at lunch
and dinner are a common phenomenon in their circle. Clarissa has developed a particular type of
knack for holding such parties and they are a sort of mechanical routine for her. These parties are
arranged by her in a business-like manner as if they were a part and parcel of their life. The
guests are welcomed to the party apparently with warmth and with the remark that it was
heavenly to meet them, but actually, they are a source of boredom to her. They are a sign of the
artificiality of her life and she does not look upon them with favour.
She is one of those women who can feel women with the same intensity as men for
women. Her love for Sally Seton is intense and passionate. She loves her with an overtone of
homosexuality. On being first introduced to her she is fascinated by her face and it is difficult for
her to take her eyes from her. She is also a loving wife. She has a love for her husband and is
loyal to him in all her actions and thoughts. She considers it a pleasure to accept a present from
him. Mrs Dalloway is an affectionate mother. She is proud of her daughter. She does not like
Doris Kilman, because she thinks that the teacher is taking away the love of her daughter for her.
Clarissa Dalloway has a strong sense of independence. She at least had this trait in her to
a pronounced degree before her marriage with Richard. Peter Walsh was her companion from
childhood and temperamentally she feels attracted to him more than to Richard. But she selected
Richard, and not Peter Walsh, when she was confronted with the question of marriage, and never
regrets what she had done. Her reason for so doing is to be traced to the fact that Peter Walsh

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would not allow her independence: “With Peter, everything had to be shared, everything gone
into.” She would not hesitate to sacrifice her love for the sake of her independence.
Apparently sociable and happy in the midst of the round of parties and get-togethers at
her home, Mrs Dalloway seems to suffer from a sense of insecurity and a strange kind of
inadequacy in her life. She is like Virginia Woolf, who too kept herself aloof from her
environment and even from the Bloomsbury Group of which she was an important member. She
is a woman of fast-changing moods. Her temperament works by fits and starts. She acts on
impulse and it is difficult to predict when she will be overtaken by a destructive mood. She is in
this respect like Virginia Woolf who in spite of her happy marriage with Leonard Woolf, had to
end her life by drowning. It means that her personality was a disturbed one. Mrs Dalloway too,
although apparently happy and comfortable, was disturbed and upset from within. Something
within them both seemed to cut their hearts, making them extremely uneasy and suffering from
an inexplicable malady.
c. Septimus Warren Smith (Septimus as the “double” of Mrs Dalloway)
Throughout the novel, Clarissa is contrasted with Septimus Warren Smith, a
shell-shocked World War I hero who suffers from mental illness. In many ways, Septimus serves
as Clarissa's alter-ego or double. The two never meet, but Septimus' eventual suicide is
mentioned during Mrs Dalloway's party. Septimus Warren- the shell-shocked victim of the First
World War, experiences these pressures related to the disorder, degradation, futility, sordidness
and corruption of modern life in the following words: “The world has raised its whip; where
will it descend?”
This emotional paralysis is the earliest symptom of mental illness in Septimus. When his
officer Evans gets killed in the war just before the Armistice in Italy, Septimus, far from showing
any emotion at the end of such a valuable relationship, congratulates himself upon feeling very
little and very reasonable. Later on when Evans's memory begins to haunt him that the panic that
“he could not feel” dawns over him and he is overpowered by feelings of shame and self-disgust.
His sense of guilt and crime is further extended when he gets married to an Italian girl- Lucrezia
without really loving her.
His doctor has ordered Lucrezia, Septimus’s wife, to make Septimus notice things outside
himself, but Septimus has removed himself from the physical world. Instead, he lives in an
internal world, wherein he sees and hears things that aren’t really there and he talks to his dead

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friend Evans. He is sometimes overwhelmed with the beauty in the world, but he also fears that
the people in it have no capacity for honesty or kindness. Woolf intended for Clarissa to speak
the sane truth and Septimus the insane truth. On the surface, Septimus seems quite dissimilar to
Clarissa, but he embodies many characteristics that Clarissa shares and thinks in much the same
way she does. He could almost be her double in the novel. Septimus and Clarissa both have
beak-noses, love Shakespeare, and fear oppression. More important, as Clarissa’s double,
Septimus offers a contrast between the conscious struggle of a working-class veteran and the
blind opulence of the upper class. His troubles call into question the legitimacy of the English
society he fought to preserve during the war. Because his thoughts often run parallel to Clarissa’s
an echo hers in many ways, the thin line between what is considered sanity and insanity gets
thinner and thinner. Septimus chooses to escape his problems by killing himself, a dramatic and
tragic gesture that ultimately helps Clarissa to accept her own choices, as well as the society in
which she lives. Septimus’s detachment enabled him to judge other people more harshly than
Clarissa is capable of. The world outside of Septimus is threatening, and the way Septimus sees
that world offers little hope.
d. Peter Walsh
Peter Walsh’s most consistent character trait is ambivalence: he is middle-aged and fears
he has wasted his life, but sometimes he also feels he is not yet old. He cannot commit to an
identity, or even to a romantic partner. He cannot decide what he feels and tries often to talk
himself into feeling or not feeling certain things. For example, he spends the day telling himself
that he no longer loves Clarissa, but his grief at losing her rises painfully to the surface when he
is in her presence, and his obsession with her suggests that he is still attracted to her and may
even long for renewed romance. Even when he gathers his anger toward Clarissa and tells her
about his new love, he cannot sustain the anger and ends up weeping. Peter acts as a foil to
Richard, who is stable, generous, and rather simple. Unlike calm Richard, Peter is like a storm,
thundering and crashing, unpredictable even to himself.
Peter’s unhealed hurt and persistent insecurity make him severely critical of other
characters, especially the Dalloway. He detests Clarissa’s bourgeois lifestyle, though he blames
Richard for making her into the kind of woman she is. Clarissa intuits even his most veiled
criticisms, such as when he remarks on her green dress, and his judgments strongly affect her
own assessments of her life and choices. Despite his sharp critiques of others, Peter cannot

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clearly see his own shortcomings. His self-obsession and neediness would have suffocated
Clarissa, which is partly why she refused his marriage proposal as a young woman. Peter
acquiesces to the very English society he criticises, enjoying the false sense of order it offers,
which he lacks in his life. Despite Peter’s ambivalence and tendency toward analysis, he still
feels life deeply. While Clarissa comes to terms with her own mortality, Peter becomes frantic at
the thought of death. He follows a young woman through the London streets to smother his
thoughts of death with a fantasy of life and adventure. His critical nature may distance him from
others, but he values his life nonetheless.

Time and Space in Mrs Dalloway

According to psychologists at the beginning of the 20th century, consciousness did not
move in a straight line. It was a sort of flux which existed simultaneously at a number of points.
In order to portray the character realistically, it was necessary to catch him in a flux of his
consciousness, when his mind instead of moving chronologically was incessantly moving back
and forth. In such a treatment and framework the treatment of time is of vital significance.
Virginia Woolf disliked the chronological movement of the story. Time had to be dissolved, and
the division between the past and present and future had to be summarily rejected. Time may be
of three kinds: "mechanical or clock-time", "psychological time or inner time" or what Bergson
called duree or inner duration", and "the historic time, or time in relation to nation-wide and
world-wide events" The first, that is, mechanical or clock time concerns with the passing
moments or hours, measured by the striking of the clock. By the psychological or inner time of
duree we mean the voyage from youth to age, from the present to the past and to the future. The
historic time brings into scope nationwide and worldwide events of the past and the present,
which are closely knit in the inner consciousness of the characters.
While the reader remains inside Clarissa's consciousness for most of the novel, five
different perspectives are experienced, in the example above, within the span of only three pages.
Lucrezia Warren Smith, and, finally, Septimus are all observing the same exciting event trying,
more or less enthusiastically, to decipher the plane's writings in the sky. It is one single event
and, therefore, one specific period of time. Yet, the perspective and consequently the space itself,
changes from one character to the next, resulting in a prime example of space-montage in
modernist fiction.

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 Virginia Woolf achieved with her space-montage not only provides the reader with a
cross-section view of London by having several different characters respond to the same
stimulus. She also Unks two of her central characters by means of time and space. Clarissa and
Septimus have a very uncertain relationship and never meet in the novel. Thus, the only apparent
connection is their response, that is their simultaneous reaction, to the same incident. This
assumption is supported by the fact that the plane incident is "framed" by Clarissa's interior
monologue at the beginning and Septimus's interior monologue at the end. An unlinked "cut"
between her consciousness and his would appear rather awkward and, most likely, too abrupt for
the reader to tolerate. However, the smooth transition created by a repeated shift of perspectives
that are all linked by the same time entity makes the desked switch of consciousness acceptable
and, perhaps, almost seamless for the reader. She uses the device of memory when the transition
of thought takes place in the mind of the characters, whose thoughts are pursued at the moment.
Sally Seton encounters Peter Walsh at Clarissa's party and finds him in none too good a shape. At
this time she recollects the past and remembers many incidents connected with it, which reveals
that Peter Walsh is an awkward and sentimental sort of person. We get here an instance of the use
of the device of memory.
The line between the past and the present is obliterated in Mrs Dalloway. Mrs Dalloway
on going to the market to buy flowers is reminded of her youth when she was a girl of eighteen
and in love with Peter Walsh. She remembers suddenly that Peter Walsh would come and talk to
her while she was standing at the French window. When she begins to think of Peter Walsh as an
interior monologue, a flood of light is shed on Peter Walsh, his career, his love for her, the reason
which led her to refuse to marry him, his eccentricities and a host of other things. Mrs Dalloway
is an experiment with Time in the words of Bernard Blackstone. The clock-time is suggested by
the action on a single day in June, and the passing of time is represented by the chiming of Big
Ben and other clocks in London. Peter Walsh makes his appearance at her house at 11 o'clock; it
is half past eleven when a strange sort of illusion flashes across Peter's mind in Trafalgar Square,
at quarter to twelve Septimus smiles at the man in the grey suit, who is dead; and such other
events. It is half-past one when Hugh Whitebread and Richard Dalloway meet at lunch, three
o'clock when Richard comes home with flowers and at six when Septimus commits suicide by
jumping from the window. Time is represented as an inexorable stream.

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 There is also space-montage. The striking of the clock also marks the transition from one
personality to another, from the past to the present, or from one space to another, that is from
London to Bourton. This device of space-montage enables the novelist to focus attention on the
character amidst the labyrinth of the streets of London and the deafening din of its activity.

Consider Mrs Dalloway as an Autobiographical novel

The theme of Mrs Dalloway has much to do with the sufferings of man, his isolation, his

despair, his inability to communicate his sense of loneliness and agony from which he suffers,

his decay and disintegration over time, questions of death and its defiance. The novel is

consequently a deeply moving account of human life. Virginia Woolf's own life was quite tragic

in spite of her happy marriage and solicitous care bestowed throughout by her husband on her.

She felt at odds with her life and suffered from occasional nervous breakdowns. The tensions and

the mental malady she suffered from became so acute as she advanced in life that it was difficult

for her to bear them. So she shocked the world by drowning herself and thus bringing to an end a

life of great promise. Her mental malady is difficult to be analyzed. It is something deep or

internal, which cuts at the very soul and mind of an extremely sensitive person like her. In spite

of her best efforts, she could not free herself from the malady and ultimately succumbed to it by

drowning.

Mrs Dalloway is more or less an autobiographical novel. It reveals significant aspects of

Virginia Woolf's life. Virginia Woolf's life was indeed tragic. She was a social being, keenly

interested in giving parties and going shopping herself. Notwithstanding she was a terribly lonely

creature. She was married to Leonard Woolf, who was extremely affectionate to her and gave her

all the freedom she required. But she did not find anything common between her sensitive,

dreamy and contemplative attitude toward life and death and the world as she was, and her

husband, who was dull, mundane and interested in politics and affairs of the world.

Mrs Dalloway is a prototype as it were of Virginia Woolf. She does not derive emotional

satisfaction like her from Richard, her politician-husband. She loved Peter Walsh and not

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Richard in fact. On Peter's return from India and his meeting her she feels the warmth of his

company and feels how happy and excited she might have felt if she had married Peter instead of

Richard. She is a woman and it is she who is lonely, cut off from her moorings in the midst of

crowds. She endeavours to fill in this lacuna in her life by throwing parties with her friends and

by wasting her energies on other flippant, silly, social activities. If she had not done this, she

might have suffocated to death. Death was better in any way than death-in-life and she craved for

it. When she was informed of Septimus' death at the party by Bradshaws she found that here was

something which afforded her comfort and joy. She applauded the daring spirit and courage

shown by the young man in committing suicide to release himself from the tyranny of life,

instead of considering him as a coward as the ordinary people would take him to be.

Death is a means of liberation to her and most of the people in the world need it, but they

being cowardly and weak actually refrain from it. Virginia Woolf sought liberation from the

tyranny of life by drowning. Whether this attitude towards life is unhealthy or healthy is not our

concern, we are not passing moral judgments here. Mrs Woolf and Mrs Dalloway possessed an

unhealthy mind and both had a negative attitude toward life. Their whole being is in a broken

state and they cannot come to terms with the world. The result is tragic. They lead a life of

alienation against their 'wishes, they struggle and meet with failure to live a life of adjustment

with the world, followed by peace and equanimity, but it was only anguish that they find in their

lot in abundance.

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 2. Araby - James Joyce

Analytical Summary of the story

In his boyhood, the author lived with his uncle and aunt at North Richmond Street. It was
a blind quiet alley. Its quietness was shattered only when the classes of the nearby Christian
Brother's School ended. The boys played in the street, full of mud and ash pits, and even stables.
The place also grew gloomy quite early in the daytime.
The author's friend Mangan's sister used to come to call her brother, as the boys played in
the street. As she waited, her figure was visible in the light falling from the half-opened door.
The author stood by the railings and watched her intently. She drew him instinctively.
The author was fascinated by the sister of his friend, Mangan. His heart leapt up as he
saw her every morning. Hiding behind the window, he used to watch her. He followed her
movements all through. Of course, he seldom talked with her, but she seemed to possess his heart
well enough.
Indeed, the author constantly carried the image of Mangan's sister Even when he was in
the midst of crowd and noise, in the market or in the street, she occupied him totally. He sprang
to his lips and thrilled him with an inexplicable sensation. Of course, he did not know what could
be the result of his future contact with her.
One rainy evening, the author was alone. He heard the sound of the rain falling on earth.
It was a time when he felt a deep passion of love for her, in which all his senses were lost. One
day, at last, the author had a meeting with Mangan's sister. She asked him to go to Araby, a grand
oriental fete to be held in Dublin at that time. She regretted her own inability to go there for a
retreat in her Convent school. The author was kept spellbound by her very figure and posture. He
promised to bring something for her if he could go to Araby.
The author resolved to go to Araby next Saturday. He was in a restless state in the
intervening period. He could not properly mind his school work. His teacher took note of that.
The very word Araby seemed to hypnotize him. The image of Mangan's sister haunted him in his
daily work. Everything appeared tedious, unbearable to him and he craved after her and Araby.
The author took his uncle's permission to go to Araby. His aunt, of course, was very
surprised. He waited for the visit to the dreamland, Araby. He reminded his uncle of his proposed
visit on the morning of the appointed day. The author waited for his visit after returning from his

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school. His departure was delayed for the late arrival of his uncle, who returned at about nine
o'clock. Of course, he expressed regret, for he had forgotten the matter and gave him the money
necessary for his visit. The author rushed through the streets and managed to catch the train
which was specially bound for the bazaar. The train reached the destination and he got down. He
saw the word Araby brightly shining on a large building.
The author was very excited. Ho could not find the cheap entrance. He paid one shilling
to enter the bazaar which comprised a big hall, surrounded by a gallery. It was about 10 p.m. The
greater part of the hall was dark and nearly all the stalls were closed. He found two persons,
engaged in counting money before a café. In one stall, still open, he found porcelain vases and
decorated tea sets. He stood before it and examined the articles. Two young men and a young
lady were gossiping there. The lady then asked him if he would buy anything. He did not like her
tone and left the stall in disgust. Two pennies fell down from his pocket on the floor. The whole
hall was Soon darkened. The author felt humiliated, frustrated and extremely annoyed. His visit
and wish to bring gifts proved all crashed.

“I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes.”

This symbolic image serves as the cornerstone on which the central theme of hostility
between reality and romance rests. The key word is 'imagined'-it is all in the fancy of the
adolescent speaker whose love is an idealized view of romance that has an association with
religious sublimity. His love is supremely sacred to him. It is always in danger of being profaned
and polluted in contact with the incessant vulgarity of the surrounding world of reality. The
purity of his love, in his belief, is comparable to that of the holy wine Christ had drunk from the
Holy Grail in his Last Supper. The boy's mind, containing the holy image of his love, becomes
that chalice or grail, which he must preserve from the filthiness of places like the clamorous
market and dingy streets of Dublin. The boy's feeling testifies to his determination to preserve
and uphold the sanctity of his pure love at the cost of his life. Passionate idealisation is
characteristic of over-sensitive adolescent psychology.

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 “But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers
running upon the wires.”

The boy's idealized love taught him complete self-surrender to the object of his devotion.
In fact, he renounced his own will and submitted to the governance of the girl whom he defied
and extolled as the supreme power of life. He imagined his deity to be living in a sublime region
far above the mundane level, and though there was little direct communion, in spirit he was
intensely ready to carry out whatever he might wish him to do.
His relationship with her is interpreted with an explicit simile. He's the instrument, every
string of which is ready to vibrate with melody. But it will yield only to the fingers of that unique
lady of his love. She will play on the strings of his extremely sensitive and responsive sensuous
frame. The contact, however, is slightly remote, rather than direct. His words and gestures are
enough to make him react in compliance with these. The idea is, that whenever he hears her
voice and watches her movements he is affected, so to say, by a vividly intimate physical contact
offering him both pleasurable and painful sensations. It is all, however, a subjective dream of a
romantic mind.

“The syllables of the word 'Araby' were called to me through the silence in
which my soul luxuriated and cast an eastern enchantment over me.”

This intensely poetic impression results from the thrill that pulsed through the heart of the
boy when his inmost yearning for a personal talk with his goddess of romance was fulfilled and
more so because she entrusted him with a particular task of bringing her something from Araby.
The occasion of Araby and the special conversation with the girl coincided to make the resultant
effect almost magical.
In the highly romantic imagination of the boy, Araby was already conceived as a very
special place of exotic joy and superior splendour. It seemed natural and inevitable that the
special girl, the symbolic incarnation of refined romances, should be interested in it. The boy's
master passion assimilated the two factors, and he allowed himself the pleasure of being under a
great spell of reverie.
He seemed to hear the three syllables of the word Araby forming themselves into a
strangely beautiful and haunting melody. His imagination spread its wings to the accompaniment

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of this exotic melody and built up a strange and colourful world as suggested by the stories of the
Arabian Nights. His dreams carried him away into the far east, totally freed from the drab and
ugly reality of life. Fancy and romance are allowed to thicken to a climactic point at this juncture
of the story.

“I recognized a silence like that which pervades a church after service.”

With a simple but acutely appropriate analogy, the speaker conveys the poignant pathos
of a missed occasion. His arrival to the Araby is delayed, he is just too late to witness the fete in
its glory. The business has almost ended, the crowds have dispersed, there is no joyous humming
about the place, and the lights are being put off, a desolate silence is about to descend the place.
The boy came to Araby with an especially ambitious expectation but found it an empty, desolate
place that had 9nothing charming, not even consolatory, to offer him. Inherent in this statement is
the eternal tragedy of human life: how often we have to feel our highest pleasures are infinitely
delayed and finally denied due to lateness. Time seems always to take a cruel pleasure by
mocking our inability to compete with its speed.

Themes of Araby

Theme 1: Escapism
The story takes place in the late 19th century in Dublin, on North Richmond Street. The
unknown narrator lives in North Richmond Street. The street has a number of houses where
religion seems to dominate the lives of the people. The narrator talks about the dead priest. The
priest had some non-religious books which show that they were bothered by the religious
restrictions. Moreover, the street has a dead end and several houses along with a Christian
Brother’s school, and a Catholic school for boys are situated on this street. The street remains
quiet, except when the schoolboys play in the street until dinner.
Further, the boys discussed in the story are all children but they are at the threshold of
adulthood. They take interest in the world of adults around them. They watch the narrator’s uncle
when he comes home from work, and they follow Mangan’s older sister. They are more inclined
towards the opposite sex because they are eager to know more.

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 The sister of Mangan comes out regularly to call Mangan when it gets dark. Mangan who
is a friend of the narrator usually teases her sister while the narrator keeps staring at her. The
narrator begins to notice her physical characteristics. Every morning, he waits for her to leave so
that he can walk behind her on the way to school. One day, the girl finally speaks to the narrator.
She asks him if he is going to Araby- an upcoming bazaar with Arabic themes. She is unable to
go; she has to attend a religious ritual on the weekend. So, the narrator promises that if he goes to
the bazaar, he will find some gift for her.
The narrator gets permission from his uncle to attend the bazaar. The day finally arrives,
and the boy reminds his uncle that he wishes to go to the bazaar the same night. His uncle
promises him that he will come on time to give him money so that he can go to the bazaar.
However, the uncle of the narrator gets late that night. Due to this, the boy gets disappointed.
Finally, his uncle arrived drunk and late and tried to stop the narrator from going to the bazaar.
For this, his uncle hesitates to give him coins. But ultimately he gives him some coins as his wife
convinces him. The boy takes the money and heads off to the bazaar. He arrives at the Araby
market which is nearly closed, and the narrator’s idealized notions of the bazaar are abated. Most
of the stalls are closed, and when he stops at the only shop opened. The girl at the shop is busy
serving two young men in a flirtatious way. However, she doesn’t pay any particular attention to
the narrator. This encounter destroys his vision of the Araby bazaar and his idealized vision of
Mangan’s sister. He rethinks his romanticized ideas of love, and with shame and anger, he is left
alone in the bazaar.
Theme 2: Coming of Age
The story is told from an adult perspective. One may find the language used to explain
the youthful experiences of a grown man. It is elaborated on the protagonist’s behaviour towards
his friends and family. He no longer enjoys playing outside and doesn’t laugh at the lame jokes
of his uncle. Rather, he builds up a defiant personality towards them. Also, he develops a crush
on a friend’s sister and starts praising her physical appearance. This tells about the budding
sexuality of the narrator. Moreover, his desire to escape from his boredom and dull life also
suggests his mature behaviour. Though, the aforementioned things are the starting point towards
his adulthood. His full-grown maturity is represented in the Araby market.

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 There he realizes his mistaken beliefs. He gains knowledge about his naïveté that how he
was trying to impress his crush through gifts. Also, how naively he developed a fanciful idea
about the Araby market which in reality is in contrast.

Character Analysis of the boy

The central figure in Joyce’s short story Araby is a boy. The author speaks in the first
person through the boy, who is as such his own self. Joyce actually presents here his own
boyhood experience during his stay in the city of Dublin with his uncle and aunt. Of course,
Araby is no conventional story of external action and sensations. It is, in fact, all about a young
boy’s fascination for a young girl not much known to him, and his lingering longing for Araby,
an oriental fete held in Dublin, in 1894. The story also shows his frustration after visiting Araby,
considered so much a place of ideal beauty and charm. As a matter of fact, the story has
symbolic overtones in a realistic setting. The central character here is not merely an individual
but rather the symbol of the frustrated human search for the ideal of beauty and romance. The
character of the boy is to be studied from that particular perspective.
Joyce gives some touches of his own boyhood nature to the boy’s character. He makes his
hero a psychologically interesting figure. The symbolic aspect of the story serves to present the
boy from a psychological angle. What is more conspicuous in the boy’s nature is his romantic
sensibility. He is no normal figure in the world. He is possessed of too much vigour of the
romantic sensibility that is found active all through. The romantic sensibility draws the boy
somewhat inexplicably to Mangan’s sister. His romantic mind is fascinated by her. He is eager to
have a little sight of or contact with her. Of course, he has the least communication with her, and
there is no scope for the development of any relationship between them. But the boy is haunted
by her dream and her image seems to accompany him even in the noisiest commercial
environment of Dublin.
The boy’s romantic sensibility seems to develop a kind of passion of love in him. Of
course, he is too young to understand what love is or to know the significance of sex. Yet,
somehow or other, he is drawn to her absolutely and this is nothing but love, though different
from the conventional view of love. The boy’s own words to himself reveal the inexplicable
sense of love that possesses his mind. He murmurs within himself ‘O love!, O love!’ many times.
Another strongly noted feature in the boy’s psychology is his strong imaginative power. Of

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course, this follows naturally from his romantic temper. He is fascinated by his vision of Araby.
His romantic imagination is allured by the call of Araby which he looks upon as an ideal centre
of pomp and splendour. He has no actual knowledge of Araby, noted for oriental magnificence.
But in his mind’s eye, he has an enchanting vision of Araby that spells him.

Bring out the essential features of a good short story. How does the story of
Araby fulfil them?

Edgar Allan Poe describes a short story as a brief prose narrative. He even claims that
this requires from half an hour to one or two hours for its perusal. Hudson calls that
prose-narrative a short story which can be read in a single sitting.
The first and foremost characteristic of a short story is its brevity As a work of art, it
depends specifically on the impression produced. The brevity of the short story is achieved in an
artistic way through the singleness of the situation. Because of its limited length, it cannot afford
to incorporate a good many characters The paucity of characters is a part of its brevity. This
brevity is also artistically achieved through the structural design in which there is smooth
progress from the exposition through the development to the climax leading to a conclusion.
Lastly, the short story follows an utmost economy in its words and expression, so necessary to
achieve brevity.
Joyce's short story Araby is a specimen of a modern short story It covers some six pages
and is truly brief in length. The story deals with a matter of profound psychological interest of a
boy's fascination for some ideal of life. It is not a conventional story. It has no exposition or
development from the point of view of the plot. It is all about the psychology of a boy who was
irresistibly drawn to a girl, the sister of his friend. He was haunted by the dream of Araby, an
oriental fete held in Dublin. The climax of the story comes with the author's utter frustration after
his visit to Araby. Though there is no conventional structure, the singleness of the effect is
achieved through the boy's psychology. Lastly, the precision found in this story is to be
mentioned. Joyce is not found to play with words but has employed concise expressions. Judging
from the above-mentioned features, Araby may be called a good short story.

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 Sketch the character of the Girl, that is, Mangan's sister.

The girl or Mangan's sister is an important character in the story. She is unnamed, only
known as 'Mangan's sister. Mangan was the author's friend. The houses of the boy and the girl
were situated on either side of a narrow street. When the boys played on the street till evening,
Mangan's sister came out on the doorstep to call her brother into his tea. The boy particularly
stood by the railings looking at her. He got much joy when her dress swung as she moved her
body, and when the soft rope of hair tossed from side to side. The girl did not know that the boy
watched her every morning through a chink of the window keeping himself unobserved. When
the necessity of conversation arose it was she who took the lead. She did not feel confused as the
boy did. On the other hand, she was free and frank in her speech. It was she who informed him
that there would be a splendid bazaar in Araby. But she herself declined to go to the bazaar
because she had to observe Retreat.
The girl knew how to draw the attention of the boy. While talking she always turned a
silver bracelet round and round her wrist. Again, she stood in such a manner that the light fell on
her and the white curve of her neck could be noticeable. As she bowed her head towards him the
white border of her petticoat which she wore below her skirt became visible to the great joy and
curiosity of the boy. Thus, Mangan's sister was an object of infinite attraction to the boy. Had she
not encouraged him, the boy would not have gone to the Bazar when he was totally disillusioned
and frustrated. Thus we know that the girl had a vital role in the story.

Bring out the significance of the title Araby.

James Joyce's Araby has an Indubitable title. It inherits in itself the very motif of the
story in a most comprehensive manner. The centre of both the emotional responses and outward
actions is the Araby which has realistic, literary and symbolic implications at the same time.
The Araby, on the realistic plane, refers to the Grand Oriental Fete which is actually held
in Dublin in May, 1894. In that sense, it has a bot of historical significance too. The fete provides
the occasion of the story. The very name 'Araby' has, indeed, a magic association about it. One at
once remembers the atmosphere of The Arabian Nights and the romantic fancies as conjured up
in Walter de la Mare's poem Arabia. But here in the story, it denotes an Oriental bazaar.

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The central emotion of the story is the adolescent boy's untold love for a girl, who was his
friend's sister. He had an idealistic devotion to anything associated with her. It is a strangely
obsessive sentimental passion, somewhat akin to what we find in many a love-lyric of Shelley.
Urged by this emotion the boy acts as a worshipping voyeur whenever the girl stands in the
doorway or is out on the streets. It was under her influence that he decided to go to Araby to
bring some beautiful presents for her.
A bit like Wordsworth's Yarrow, Araby, when actually visited, proves tragically
disappointing to the adolescent lover. He discovers that the distinction between the marketplace
and this special fete was only apparent. Araby is as materialistic and gross as any bazaar, with its
cheap wares, idly conversing men and women, and jingling of coins on a salver. This is no place
for a romantic idealist to get a suitable present for his dream love. Thus, we find that Araby
dictates and controls the entire mood and atmosphere of the story. So, the title is profoundly and
inseparably related to the story and is apt and justified.

What idea of adolescent love is given by the author in the story Araby?

The story Araby begins with the growing child's impression of the dull and depressing
surroundings, his sensitiveness to sad and deserted things like the yellow pages of an ownerless
old book and the rusty thrown-away bicycle pump. A sense of religious mystery is there from the
very moment a child grows into adolescence and acquires a personality. This influences his
concept of love, which is not so much assured by a sense of togetherness as by a fear of acute
loneliness.
In the story, the boy suffers from an excessive imagination, which makes the image of the
beloved idealized and defiled. She is to him the goddess of love rather than a mere object of love.
Hence the yearning is more of a devotee for the worshipped than any sensuous urge of a real
lover. She is not mentioned by any name, but just as Mangan's sister. There is no usual
description of her eyes, lips and figure; only a few impressionistic details like the curve of her
neck, the swaying of her dress, her hand on the railings, and the soft rope of her hair. But the
chiaroscuro, by its paradoxical vagueness, sharpens the effect on the adolescent psychology of
the boy. The boy just cannot forget the image.

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 Adolescent love is over-sentimental and childishly unrealistic. It is evident from the boy's
confession: "I had never spoken to her- and yet her name was like a summon to all my foolish
blood." He asks himself, is it, love? And wants to believe it must be. It sharply detaches him
from childhood simplicity and innocence. The excitement he experiences when the girl asks him
whether he is going to Araby produces no less agony than ecstasy. From that moment Araby and
love become almost identified in the emotion of the adolescent protagonist. But the visit to
Araby makes the boy realize how facts tyrannize over dreams. The humiliation and anger which
overwhelm and mortify him, also help in sweeping away his unreal illusion of love. It is a
semi-autobiographical depiction of the author's own adolescent phase. It anticipates his first
full-length novel, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

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