Love and Fantasy

Paper Summary:

The paper focuses on the short stories "Araby," written by James Joyce and "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning," authored by Haruki Muraka that deal with the same theme of love fantasy versus reality. The paper discusses how, in both stories, the protagonists wish love to be like the imagined erotic idealism that is read about in a fairy tale with a perfect union that ends "happy ever after." The paper then shows how the protagonists come of age and are unable to return to the innocence of youth and its fantasies.

From the Paper:

"Love is a central theme in many of Joyce's stories and novels, yet his characters always find it difficult to define. Even Joyce, himself, found it a problem to use the word "love." When Nora asked him if he loved her responded in a round-about way that he "was very fond of her, desired her, admired and honored her, and wished to secure her happiness in every way; and if these elements were what is called love then perhaps his affection for her was a kind of love" (Ellmann 6). Joyce's confusion about love and its many varied sides is voiced in a number of his characters. In his works, he writes about all kinds of love from the most ideal and unrealistic to that of friends, family, God, and husband and wife."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bloom, Harold. James Joyce Dubliners. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1988
• Ellmann, Richard. Joyce in Love. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Library, 1959.
• Joyce, James. "Araby" 4, May 2007. http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/araby.html
• Kimbles, Samuel. The Cultural Complex: Contemporary Jungian Perspectives on Psyche and Society. New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2004.
• Literature Online Biography. Murakami Haruki, 2006 Proquest.

More papers on Love and Fantasy:

• Essay # 1894 : "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
• Poem Review # 118634 : "T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
• Comparison Essay # 17164 : "Courtly Love"

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