Prespectives of Narrator in "Araby"

This study will explore the nature and significance of the points of view in James Joyce's short story "Araby," focusing on the relationship between the perspectives of the young protagonist and the adult narrator. The boy in the story is probably in his early teens. He would have to be at least 12 or 13 for his hormones to be raging as they are. It is doubtful that he is any older than 15 or he would probably be less innocent than he is and probably would be exhibiting the kind of sarcastic or cynical front that older teenagers demonstrate after having been burned once or twice falling in and out of young love. He is experiencing his first "love" and if he were older than 12 or 13

---with his innately romantic nature---he would probably have already gone through the first awakening and crash of that first broken heart, and would be more prepared for the disappointment of the infatuation at hand. As it is, from the adult narrator's insightful recall, he is shown to be a completely innocent romantic from the first description of Mangan's sister, in a dream world with respect to the girl:

She was waiting for us, her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door. . . . Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side. . . . My heart leaped. . . . Her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood (Joyce 70).

The adult narrator tells the story of himself as a young boy as an idealistic romantic who is in love with the idea

narrator writes of the boy's "confused adoration" for the girl and says "my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires" (Joyce 70-71). Again, it becomes more and more obvious that the boy is having physical, emotional and psychological feelings which come with biological changes in the body of an adolescent. He has taken those feelings and found a focus for them in the sister of his friend. It is not the actual girl himself who he is in love with, but rather the idea or image of femininity which the girl represents. The reader should know by this time that it will not take much to bring such a fragile "love" crashing down into harsh reality. With respect to setting, we see that the story begins with a description of the street and house where the boy and his family lives, and the previous tenant---a priest who had died in the house. The boy describes the papers and books he found when his family moved in, and the rusty bicycle pump in the yard. As he goes on to describe the hard and cold winter, it is clear that this is not a happy setting. There is death in the air left from the priest. It is cold, it is dreary. Yet the boy maintains his romantic perspective, seeing the world throu

Category: Literature - P