Tianshu Liu on Joyce's "Araby"/Spring 2017

Tianshu Liu

The Light

“Araby” is a story about the imaginary world of reality, and disillusionment. It’s also about a necessary stage in every person’s life which makes us become more mature. The name Araby is derived from ”Arabia”, meaning the fantasy Europeans had about the Middle East during the Age of Discovery, in which there is countless gold in every inch of land. Similarly, the boy projects this kind of fantasy towards his friend Mangan's sister. Not surprisingly, both situations meet the same ending: just like it says in the Bible’s “Ecclesiastes”, all is vanity.

The story provides much food for thought. Aside from the name, the description of lights also has its own specific function. Sometimes it is used to serve as a metaphor for the boy’s feelings in the story. James Joyce took advantage of a scene to drop subtle hints about the feeling and emotion of the character in the story. He used his sensitivity to reveal psychological activities through environment; sometimes light becomes another embodiment of the social background. It represents the atmosphere under the control of religious values. Light shows that under the hold of asceticism, people cannot face their normal desires and affection naturally.

In the beginning of the story, when children are playing in the street, “The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns”. The color violet is romantic and full of ambiguities, showing how the boy feels about Mangan's sister. Everything is uncertain, just like the ever-changing color. The young boy is so full of imagination about everything they can do together, he doesn’t realize the love he believes in is just an illusion. It has such a mysterious beauty that it makes him ignore the danger or frustration it can bring in the end. Natural light is the embodiment of human natural affection between two people. On the other hand, the artificial light of the street looks restricted, just like religious restraints. In contrast to the natural light, Joyce uses the word “feeble” to describe the lamps - because religious restraint can never defeat innate feelings of love; no one can restrain it.

Similarly, there is another part in the story that uses artificial light, as well as narrow space, to create a sense of oppression. “When we returned to the street, light from the kitchen windows had filled the areas.” That’s the window through which the boy always secretly observes Mangan's sister. All the feelings are crowded in his heart just like all the light in that little kitchen, yet the kitchen cannot hold all the light inside.

Sometimes light becomes the embodiment of Mangan's sister’s sanctity which is built up in his own mind in an ascetic social environment. “Or if Mangan's sister came out on the doorstep to call her brother in to his tea, we watched her from our shadow peer up and down the street.” Light is holy in the same way the boy thinks of Mangan's sister and love. In that dark and cold night, the girl was lit up by the light, like a goddess in the boy’s heart. Later when she told him about Araby, “The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing. It fell over one side of her dress and caught the white border of a petticoat, just visible as she stood at ease.” We can tell the boy’s restrained desire from the description of her body. However, the whole scene is so full of Christian overtones; the light and a hand are two most important symbols in that image. It reminds me of classical religious paintings. When this kind of admiration rises to the heights of religion, the boy becomes a devout believer in Mangan's sister. “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom”…  “Some distant lamp or lighted window gleamed below me. I was thankful that I could see so little. All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: "O love! O love!' many times.”

            Light as imagery runs through the whole story. “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 end, he finally gets to the bazaar with so little money that he can hardly buy anything; an intangible, frustrated feeling fills up his heart and he suddenly understands nothing is ever going to happen. The lights of Araby are turned off, just like the illusion in the boy’s heart. His desperation is just like this silent darkness and at the same time he starts to feel a kind of unknown anger; there is no light anymore, just a pathetic heart.