Meaning Of Vanity In Araby

1. At the end of "Araby" the narrator sees himself as "driven and derided by vanity." One meaning of "vanity" is that state of being empty, idle, valueless." Another meaning is "exaggerated self-love." Still another is "hunger for praise or admiration." Each of these definitions of vanity could apply to the narrator. The definition of vanity meaning "exaggerated self-love relates to the narrator because at a point in the text, the boy realizes that his romantic feelings for Mangan's sister are a delusion. The definition of vanity meaning "a state of being empty, idle, valueless" relates to the narrator as well because at the beginning of the poem, the boy's house has the sense of a dead present and a lost past. He lives on a street that is