World Literature#3/ Araby/ Part of Darkness

Part of Darkness

             The Homer epics and King Arthur legends have protagonists who overcome difficulties and succeed in becoming a complete manly figure. Initially weak, flawed figures improve themselves by winning over adversary and fully maturing. However, modern day readers cannot sympathize or feel for those characters, at least less than how we used to. Why? Because we know that maturity comes not from victories, but from failures that make us realize how small we are….

             In such sense, classifying “Araby” as a modernist literature is quite appropriate. Unlike conventional novels or heroic epics that portray unrealistic victories, it carefully delineates the slow process of realization that a boy goes through. Through the course of action, the young protagonist experiences a slow yet painful death of its innocence and fantasy. While despising the world of adults, he notices that he is not much different from those adults, and that he is actually similar to them. Instead of the expected en—“light”—enment, he witnesses a fading of the light.

             The protagonist explains his love as something holy and divine. He sings her name as “strange prayers and praises which” he himself does not understand. His “body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon wires.” This imagery conjures a striking contrast with the description of streets he live in that is filled with “barrels of pigs’ cheeks” and “the nasal chanting of street-singers.” The protagonist admits that “[h]er image accompanied” him “even in places the most hostile to romance,” indicating the notion that his environments and other people were a mismatch with his seemingly pure romance.

             But a close reader can realize a discrepancy between the protagonist’s opinion on his own love and the reality of his sexual desire. The narrative description from the protagonist’s point of view is rather sexual. It follows the order of seeing a woman’s body by a typical man. The protagonist sees the silver bracelet go “round and round her wrist,” catches his breath when he sees the “white curve of neck” and notices “the white border of a petticoat.” The part in which “the white border of a petticoat” appears is self-explanatorily sexual. The concentrated depiction of joints such as neck or wrist indicates that he is not looking at the girl as a whole; he is displaying a fetishistic sexual desire of the girl’s body. As psychoanalyst Jaques Lacan notes, true love of an individual is constituted of the observation of the lover as a connected whole, not a fetishistic sum of hip, breast, waist and lips. The sexual description by the boy raises doubt upon his “romance.”

             The adventure of bringing something from Araby is hardly epic. The protagonist realizes that he does not have any source of income, so that he has to rely on his drunkard uncle for a florin. This realization is evident when he intentionally makes noise with coins to indicate that he has money towards the cashiers. Also, he has to ride “alone in the bare carriage” beside an “improvised platform.” There is nothing grand or special in the ride. Most importantly, he sees “a young lady……laughing with two young gentlemen.” It is heavily suggested that they are flirting, just like how the boy intended to do with his crush. It is possible that he realizes the absence of difference between them and himself.

             He is dismissed and disregarded by the flirting group of men and woman. The cashier’s “tone of……voice was not encouraging,” for it seemed that she has “spoken to me out of a sense of duty.” He is not considered a sexual equal by the cashier; he is just a little kid. He manages to “murmur[ed]” that he does not need help, when he actually needed one. His sense of failure and sexual subjugation make his “eyes burn[ed] with anguish and anger.” The interesting part here is that what the boy despises is actually what he is. Therefore, he does not feel sudden en—light—enment, but identifies himself as a part of darkness that he hates so much. Therefore the light goes off, telling the boy that he too is a part of the darkness, no different.



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From a distance, James Joyce’s “Araby” might appear as a short story depicting a child’s pure love. After all, when the nameless narrator depicts the protagonist as an innocent boy trying to buy something for his lover, the readers may expect to see a stereotypical praise of true love. This notion is especially suggested when the boy describes his lover as a holy being as he hears “strange prayers” because of his love. However, on the other hand, the narrator shows instances of the boy looking at the girl as a sexual object. A reader can realize a discrepancy between the protagonist’s opinion on his own love and the reality of his sexual desire. The narrative description from the protagonist’s point of view is rather sexual. It follows the order of seeing a woman’s body by a typical man. The protagonist sees the silver bracelet go “round and round her wrist,” catches his breath when he sees the “white curve of neck” and notices “the white border of a petticoat.” The part in which “the white border of a petticoat” appears is self-explanatorily sexual. The concentrated depiction of joints such as neck or wrist indicates that he is not looking at the girl as a whole; he is displaying a fetishistic sexual desire of the girl’s body. Not only that, His “all…senses seemed to desire to veil themselves” indicates that he had desire for the girl. The sexual description by the boy raises doubt upon his pure “romance.” Therefore, Araby shows how there are no such thing as pure, romantic love even within a young child. Joyce shatters the idealist image of pure love by diminishing it even from a young child.