An Analysis of the Short Story ‘Araby’

“Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my
eyes burned with anguish and anger.”

In the entire text, this line is that which gives me the most anguish since this is that

which I find hardest to understand. About four paragraphs earlier, the narrator seemed happy

and excited about the future and yet the short story ends in this mood.

The fact that this is the last line that anyone reads probably suggests the importance of

this line in understanding the selection. Anything that is written last is that which is intended to

be remembered the most and, it is something that the reader will probably remember the most

as well.

From our understanding of plot, we also know that the last part of a short story is

usually identified as the resolution where the outcome of the story is revealed. This ending

seems to suggest an awakening or at least a rather painful realization. It is also interesting to

note that before the said resolution, there were at least four sentences that started with ‘O’

and all of them ends with an exclamation mark. This somehow foreshadows this assumption:

that the story is an awakening, an important, but painful realization. It is like saying O, I realized

something! As it is in the text:

`O, I never said such a thing!'

`O, but you did!'

`O, but I didn't!'

`Didn't she say that?'

`Yes. I heard her.'

An Analysis of the Short Story ‘Araby’

`O, there's a... fib!'

So, what else leads to this realization? Most short stories start with the exposition

where the background, characters, and setting of the story are introduced. And here we find

more clues to the theme of the story. The story starts with the setting.

“North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the

Christian Brothers' School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the

blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground.”

What is striking from this is the fact that the word ‘blind’ was used twice. This further

supports our claim that the theme is about an awakening or from this light, the experience of

seeing something for the first time. From being somebody who is blind to somebody who is

able to “gaze up into the darkness” unfortunately with burned eyes. Much like somebody who

is able to see light from the first time, their eyes are often described as burning as light initially

hurts a person’s eyes during its first encounter with it. The light hurts, much like the learning

about the truth hurts.

Another important aspect of plot that can help us see better is conflict. Conflict is

generally either internal or external. Based on the text, Araby, can be said to have an internal

conflict where the main character struggles with himself or at least a part of himself. It can be

said that the struggle is between his old self and his new self or at least his old way of thinking

versus his new way of thinking that eventually leads to his painful realization. This experience is

also effectively expressed using the first-person point of view where the narrator is said to use

the stream of consciousness technique. This technique proves to be very much compatible with
An Analysis of the Short Story ‘Araby’

the experience of an awakening where we are able to learn about it and experience it through

the eyes of the narrator…through his consciousness as it were.

The fact that the first character to be introduced was the narrator seems to further help

the central theme of an awakening, an experience that is best experienced in the first-person

point of view.

But, what kind of awakening are we talking about? The first two paragraphs point us to

the realization that it is a religious or spiritual awakening. The mention of the Christian

Brother’s School and the religious books: The Abbot, by Walter Scott, The Devout

Communicant, and The Memoirs of Vidocq clearly points toward this conclusion. Further down

the text we see “litanies” and “chalice”. As such, it is but logical to conclude that these are not

accidental, but rather an important part of the narrative.

Finally, the reader is left to ask: what kind of spiritual or religious awakening leads to

anger and anguish? To this, the word disillusionment comes to mind. The story seems to point

to this realization as well. The trip to Araby leaves the narrator disillusioned. Disillusionment

brought about by growing up… realizing the dullness of reality compared with imagination or at

least disillusionment brought by unrealistic expectations both of people and perhaps even of

what we expect of the divine.

Ernesto Ramos Jr.