"Araby"

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews the short story, "Araby" written James Joyce. The paper presents a critical examination of women, Catholicism and Irish national identity through a discussion of Joyce's short story "Araby". The paper highlights scenes from the story of the young man's experiences at the fair, relating to Lady Madonna, Lady Love and Lady Ireland.

From the Paper:

"In James Joyce's short story "Araby," the male narrator's coming-of-age is transposed against a tale of an innocent woman's supposed falling from grace, in the eyes of the young man. The young man promises to go to a fair called Araby. The name "Araby" was often thought to comprise the fictional or romanticized version of Arabia or Arab world, such as in the then-popular song "The Sheik of Araby." ("Araby, 2005) The young man promises to bring the young woman something from the far-off and exotic fair. However, when the young man goes to the fair and sees what goes on there between English men and women in the foreign and carnival context, his pure image of the woman is broken and destroyed. This fall from grace not only parallels the Original Sin narrative of Genesis, where the woman's sin causes her husband to be cast from the garden, and the broken quest for the Holy Grail, where purity and the real world cannot co-exist. "

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