Araby: Escaping Reality Through Fantasy

Sarah Saoud
Professor Al Samarrai
20th Century English Literature
29 April 2007
Araby: Escaping Reality through Fantasy Reality is often bleak. It is only natural when the bleakness becomes too much to bear, that fantasies of escape are born. These are latched onto, basked in, and consumed until they take over the senses and drive the spirit to the edge of feeling. Then, they hurl their owners into despair, for fantasy, in the very end, will slam into the harsh wall of reality, and dissolve, causing despair. In James Joyce 's Dubliners, this particular theme: escape from reality through fantasy ultimately resulting in despair, is the major theme in Araby, the third story of the collection. In this paper, I hope to examine this theme closely and attempt to explain:
* The reasons that led the young protagonist of Araby to yearn for escape,
* The method of the boy 's escape,
* And the outcome of his attempt to escape. Nearly everything happens because of a reason, so it is worthwhile to first discover the reasons that pushed Joyce 's young protagonist to wish for escape. The need for escape is born, as I see it, from two main contradictory issues: The protagonist 's self that contains "life", and his surroundings that are ‘lifeless '. What I mean exactly when I say that the young boy 's self has ‘life ' is that he possesses spirituality and beauty. His surroundings, on the other hand, are deprived of this spirituality and the beauty that comes with it. The young boy in Araby is well aware of these two- even if only subconsciously- as is quite clear from his description of the environment around him and his own thoughts and actions throughout his narration of the story. From the very beginning of the story, the places in ‘North Richmond ' Street- where the protagonist lives- are shown to us as lifeless and lacking in the spiritual aspect. The very first line in the story describes ‘North Richmond Street ' as "quiet" (Joyce 21). There is an "uninhibited house of two storeys" (Joyce 21) that stands alone and away from the rest of the occupied houses. Yet there is no difference between the vacant detached house and the ones containing residents, for the boy describes the latter houses as "gazing at one another with brown imperturbable faces" (Joyce 21). Whether vacant or occupied means nothing, both- the uninhibited by the fact that it 's empty, the occupied by their unexcitable state- are devoid of life. From afar, the houses are quiet and stoic, from close, they are poor and surrounded with dirt, mud and foul odours, as the protagonist points out in his narration. Then, to drive the point home, there is the description of the house in which the young protagonist himself lives. Books are scattered in the waste room, which is "littered" the young boy says, "with old useless papers" (Joyce 21). Literature, a by-product of spirituality, is literary equated with trash. The air of all the rooms in the house is thick and suffocating, indeed in their lifelessness, to the young protagonist. To make matters worse, this lifelessness isn 't restricted to the housing areas; it is extended to the whole city of Dublin. Throughout the young boy 's journey to the bazaar, there are numerous signs of the loss of spirituality in Dublin. The protagonist rides a third-class carriage of a deserted train that crept slowly "among ruinous houses and over the twinkling river" (Joyce 26). Among the lifeless ruins, for the train is part of them, and over the beautiful river, oblivious to the beauty and spirit-enriching part of nature below, or perhaps ignoring it because it has no place in the ugliness above. Even when the young protagonist reaches the bazaar, it is already almost empty and most of the place is shrouded in the darkness. The boy likens it to "a silence that which pervades a church after a service." (Joyce 26), which is suitable, as the hollowness of the silence that follows a time of worship and prayer is amplified by the preceding spiritual fest. So not only is the area where the boy lives affected, the whole of Dublin is. And yet, the lack of spirituality at ‘home ' is more devastating to a child and more keenly felt than that of the outside. It follows that perhaps the most telling sign of the loss of spirituality in Araby is that "The former tenant of our house, a priest, had died in the back drawing-room" (Joyce 21). In the back drawing room, a symbol of art, spirituality died, more or less. From this spirituality, nothing is left as the priest "had been a very charitable priest, in his will he had left all his money to institutions and the furniture of his house to his sister" (Joyce 21). So, no reminders of spirituality remain to provide the house any support after its death, it died and disappeared as if it was never there to begin with. To sum it up, the environment the young boy is surrounded with in Araby is extremely deprived of spirituality and beauty; thus, it is lifeless. Yet the lifelessness of the surroundings fulfils only half of the reason Joyce 's young protagonist yearns for escape as mentioned before. The other half of the problem is the young boy 's self. The protagonist of Araby is filled with life and spirituality. This spirituality can be sensed in his love for his friend 's sister. His love is not like an ordinary love, as is clear from the text of Araby. The young boy describes how his "heart leaped" (Joyce 22) when he sees his love interest come out the door every morning, how affected he is by his love for her that even though he barely knew her, still: "her name was like a summons to all my (the boy 's) foolish blood"(Joyce 22). His intense love for her that clearly shows his spiritual soul is seen in the scene in which he goes to the drawing room where the priest died. In that scene, everything around the boy capitalizes on the death of spirituality, but it is dark, and so he sees and senses so little of the lack of spirituality, fortunately. The darkness serves as a veil that protects the young boy from the lifelessness that surrounds him and gives him an opportunity to show his deep passion and love. The intense state of his love makes him "press the palm of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: O love! O love! Many times" (Joyce 23), as if in a state of fevered prayer. In that room where the priest died, spirituality is revived for a little while as the protagonist pours his love and emotions in his actions. So the protagonist does possess spirituality and life, and yet, as positive as it sounds, this spirituality is the other source of grief for the boy. It is because the young protagonist is aware of the state of lifelessness he lives in and that encloses him from all directions that his own spirituality is a curse, because it makes him love with an intensity that sets him up for frustration and ultimately despair when it clashes with his lifeless environment. The conflict between the life fullness of the young boy 's self and the lifelessness of his world set the stage for his desire to escape to be created. Araby is a tale of "the frustrated quest for beauty in the midst of drabness" (Joyce 2236), the surroundings are drab and they clash with the boy 's soul that yearns for beauty, so he seeks escapes. After establishing the reasons that led the protagonist to wish for escape, it is only natural to look into the form of that escape. How does Joyce 's young protagonist attempt to run away from his reality? The answer is that the boy 's own cause of torment, his spirituality, is utilized as a blessing in disguise. He falls in a fevered, foolish love with his friend 's sister. His love for her is intense. In the back drawing room, the boy is so overcome with this love, that he murmurs ' 'O love! ' ' over and over again. He waits for her in the morning so he can follow her and then maybe exchange brief words with her and sometimes doesn 't even manage to do that. After promising his love interest to get her something from the bazaar, the boy 's world is turned up-side-down: ' 'What innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening! ' ' and ' 'I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child 's play, ugly monotonous child 's play ' ' (Joyce 24) the boy describes his life after his promise, accurately. His love interest is the only one he can see and it torments him. But that 's not the end of it, he is not only obsessed with her, he idealizes her too. Everything about his love interest is beautiful to his eyes. He notices and describes her physical beauty every time he sees her. She always stands in the dimness, her features defined and beautified by light. She is the only thing visible in the darkness; it 's as if she is a shining light of hope at the end of the void. Indeed, he sees her as more than just a mere love interest, for his love for her is his lifeline and escape. When the protagonist describes the market he goes to with his aunt when he helps her shopping, he portrays it as a place that is hideously lacking in spirituality and the beauty that comes with it. The market flares with the horrid noises of drunkenness, bargaining, curses, chanting and shrill singing. And yet, through all this hideous lifelessness, his love is what keeps him safe through hostile places. ‘‘My body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires ' ' (Joyce 23), this sentence sums it up well. His love for her consumed his young soul. Maybe this extreme intensity is senseless. After all, he does not talk to his love interest save for a few words every now and then and she herself does not appear to notice him much. Yes, his obsession and torment make no logical sense, but on a spiritual level they are understandable. It is his sweet escape. This love is his fantasy; he is safe within it from the frustration and pain of the reality of his life in Dublin. To put it simply, the protagonist 's intense love for the girl is the fantasy he created as his romantic means of escape. The fantasy the young protagonist in Araby created for his salvation is over at the end. No matter how intense, the dream reaches a finale. His spirituality turns out to be no match for the drabness of his surroundings. After promising to come home early and give him money for the bazaar, the boy 's uncle forgets and comes back home late. His uncle gives him money, but it is not enough for a decent present. When our protagonist finally reaches the bazaar, it is half closed. The almost empty bazaar is the perfect embodiment of lifelessness. It is silent, nearly all the stalls are closed and the greater part of the hall is in darkness. Over a café named ' 'Café Chantant ' ', there are two men counting money. The conversation that a young lady and two young men are having is silly and meaningless. And when this same young lady notices the protagonist, she asks him what he wants in a voice that is un-encouraging. With the lights going out and the upper part of the hall becoming completely dark, the defeat is complete. The boy sees how futile his efforts are and he blames himself for trying to go against the tide. The last line of Araby: "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anger and anguish" (Joyce 28) illustrates the protagonist 's feelings well. He sees his fevered love that was born out of his spirituality as nothing more than vanity. The curtain closes and the dream ends. The young protagonist finally sees that there is no escape from his reality. The frustration of his journey to Araby ends and he is left gazing at the darkness in anguish and despair. In conclusion, the contradiction between the spiritual nature of the young protagonist in Araby and the lack of that same spirituality in the boy 's surroundings gave birth to the protagonist 's need for escape, which manifests itself in his fantasy of intense love and confused adoration of his friend 's sister. However, the need to escape from a depressing reality through diving into a land of mortal fantasy ultimately ends in despair. In the inevitable, reality crushes fantasy and it is finally recognized that there is no escape from real life even in the lands of fantasy.

Works Cited

Joyce, James. Dubliners. London: Penguin Books, 1992.
Joyce, James. "Araby." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Eds. M. H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt. 7th ed. Vol. 2. London: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2000. 2236-2240.

Cited: Joyce, James. Dubliners. London: Penguin Books, 1992. Joyce, James. "Araby." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Eds. M. H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt. 7th ed. Vol. 2. London: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2000. 2236-2240.