Araby_james_joyce_阿拉比_文章详细解析

1、Araby and the Writings of James JoyceCritic: Harry Stone Source: Araby and the Writings of James Joyce, in The Antioch Review, Vol. XXV, no. 3, Fall, 1965, pp. 375-445. Criticism about: Araby Author Covered: James JoyceTable of Contents: Essay | Source CitationStone is an educator, editor, and Charl

2、es Dickens scholar. In the following excerpted essay, he discusses some of the autobiographical elements of Araby, which include Joyces childhood in Dublin, Ireland, and how the exoticism of the real-life Araby festival, with its Far Eastern overtones, impacted the young Joyce. Stone also discusses

3、the poet James Mangans influence on the story. For Araby preserves a central episode in Joyces life, an episode he will endlessly recapitulate. The boy in Araby like the youthful Joyce himself, must begin to free himself from the nets and trammels of society. That beginning involves painful farewell

4、s and disturbing dislocations. The boy must dream no more of enchanted days. He must forego the shimmering mirage of childhood, begin to see things as they really are. But to see things as they really are is only a prelude. Far in the distance lies his appointed (but as yet unimagined) task: to enco

5、unter the reality of experience and forge the uncreated conscience of his race. The whole of that struggle, of course, is set forth in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Araby is the identical struggle at an earlier stage; Araby is a portrait of the artist as a young boy. The autobiographical

6、nexus of Araby is not confined to the struggle raging in the boys mind, though that conflict-an epitome of Joyces first painful effort to see-is central and controls all else. Many of the details of the story are also rooted in Joyces life. The narrator of Araby-the narrator is the boy of the story

7、now grown up-lived, like Joyce, on North Richmond Street. North Richmond Street is blind, with a detached two-story house at the blind end, and down the street, as the opening paragraph informs us, the Christian Brothers school. Like Joyce, the boy attended this school, and again like Joyce he found

8、 it dull and stultifying. Furthermore, the boys surrogate parents, his aunt and uncle, are a version of Joyces parents: the aunt, with her forbearance and her unexamined piety, is like his mother; the uncle, with his irregular hours, his irresponsibility, his love of recitation, and his drunkenness,

9、 is like his father.Source Citation: Stone, Harry, Araby and the Writings of James Joyce, in The Antioch Review, Vol. XXV, no. 3, Fall, 1965, pp. 375-445. EXPLORING Short Stories. Online Edition. Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center. Thomson Gale. 04 June 2007 Historical Context: ArabyTable of Conten

10、ts: Source CitationWhile Dublin, Ireland, has seen much change since the turn of the twentieth century, when Joyce wrote many of the conditions present then remain today. In 1904, all of Ireland was under British control, which the Irish resented bitterly. The nationalist group Sinn Fein (part of wh

11、ich later became the Irish Republican Army-the IRA) had not yet formed, but Irish politics were nonetheless vibrant and controversial. The question of Irish independence from Britain was one of primary importance to every citizen. There were no televisions or radios for entertainment at the turn of

12、the century. Children in working-class families were expected to help with running the household, as the boy in does when he carries packages for his aunt at the market, and to entertain themselves by reading or playing alone or with others. It was rare for children to have money of their own to spe

13、nd. An event like the bazaar in would cause great excitement. Irelands major religion, Roman Catholicism, dominated Irish culture, as it continues to do today although to a lesser extent. Many families sent their children to schools run by Jesuit priests (like the one the narrator in attends) and co

14、nvent schools run by nuns (like the one Mangans sister attends). Catholicism is often seen as a source of the frequent conflict in Irish culture between sensuality and asceticism, a conflict that figures prominently in Joyces autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . In many w

15、ays, Catholicism, particularly as practiced at the turn of the century, was an extremely sensuous religion, emphasizing intense personal spiritual experience and surrounding itself with such rich trappings as beautiful churches, elegant paintings and statues, otherworldly music, and sumptuous vestme

16、nts and altar decorations. On the other hand, the Churchs official attitude toward enjoyment of the senses and particularly toward sexuality was severe and restrictive. The ideal woman was the Virgin Mary, who miraculously combined virginal purity with maternity. Motherhood was exalted, but any enjo

17、yment of sexuality, even in marriage, was considered a sin, as were the practice of birth control and abortion. The inability to reconcile the spiritual and sensual aspects of human nature can be seen in the boys feelings toward Mangans sister in He imagines his feelings for her as a chalice-a sacre

18、d religious object-and so worshipful is his attitude that he hesitates even to speak to her. Yet his memories of her focus almost exclusively on her body-her figure silhouetted by the light, the soft rope of her hair, the white curve of her neck, the border of her petticoat. Even the image of the ch

19、alice is ambivalent, since its cup-like shape and function suggests a sexual connotation. The boy never resolves this conflict between spirituality and sensuality. Instead, when confronted with the tawdriness of a shopgirls flirtation at the bazaar, he abruptly dismisses all his feelings as mere van

20、ity.The Structure of ArabyCritic: Jerome Mandel Source: The Structure of Araby, in Modern Language Studies, Vol. XV, no. 4, Fall, 1985, pp. 48-54. Criticism about: Araby Author Covered: James JoyceTable of Contents: Essay | Source CitationIn the following excerpt, Mandel compares the imagery of Joyc

21、es Araby to that of medieval romance, particular with regard to the protagonists love for Mangans sister. In Araby the two paragraphs beginning Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance and ending with his murmuring: O love! O love! many times-have long been examined for im

22、ages from medieval romance and need not be recapitulated in detail here. My concern is not that the boys world is hostile to romance (both literary tradition and personal feeling) and that her image accompanies him, but that the paradigm of courtly romance is strictly maintained and the attitudes of

23、 courtly love constantly suggested. As the boy continues to perform his public duties in the world (to win worship: I had. to carry some of the parcels), he retains the attitude and response of the courtly lover. As a lover totally possessed by love, he moves out of time, and all worldly, public, an

24、d temporal considerations pass from him: I thought little of the future. He is swept by strange emotions: My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and rendered inarticulate. When all his senses seem to desire to veil themselves and he trembles in adoration, he exhibits the proper resp

25、onse of one committed to love. The conflicting demands of world, duty, and love developed in these two paragraphs exhibit in action what, in the medieval romance, is the love debate-the soliloquy that usually begins when the lover first sees the knight or lady and ends when the lover places himself

26、(or herself) totally in the service of love. In the next passage, the passage that establishes and defines the quest (and which ends with the lovers commitment: I will bring you something), the lady is first to speak in her double role as the object of the lovers adoration and she for whose sake the

27、 adventure is to be undertaken. At last she spoke to me-the lady at last recognizes the miserable, worshipful knight who has adored her from a distance without hope of success but with unrelenting devotion. He responds as do all courtly lovers when they first come to the attention of the beloved: he

28、 is so confused that I did not know what to answer. When she asks if he is going to Araby, I forget whether I answered yes or no. Her wish, she would love to go, is his command: he must take upon himself the fulfillment of an adventure to which he has been called by love-one she herself is prevented

29、 from accomplishing. The multiple religious symbolism of the two alone at the railings which suggests both marriage and communion, is enriched by the further suggestion from medieval romance that he dedicates his lance to her (she held one of the spikes) and she accepts his consecration to her servi

30、ce (bowing her head toward me). If he does not actually receive a favor from her to carry on quest, there is promise of reward for knightly service in the silver bracelet which she turns round and round her wrist. Whatever else it means, her curious final line, Its well for you, is tantamount to an

31、admission of love, for in the context of medieval love revelations the line means, it is well for you-that is, you are better off than I am-since you are not smitten by love for me as I am smitten by painful love for you. I do not mean to imply that Mangans sister actually loves the boy nor that he

32、thinks she does, but only that her response in this context has particular connotations in medieval romance.Araby by James (Augustine Aloysius) Joyce Plot SummaryAuthor: James (Augustine Aloysius) Joyce, also known as: James Augustine Aloysius Joyce, James Augustus Aloysius Joyce, and James (Augusti

33、ne Aloysius) Joyce Genre: short stories Date: 1914Table of Contents: Essay | Source CitationIntroductionAraby is one of fifteen short stories that together make up James Joyces collection, Dubliners. Although Joyce wrote the stories between 1904 and 1906, they were not published until 1914.Dubliners

34、 paints a portrait of life in Dublin, Ireland, at the turn of the 20th century. Its stories are arranged in an order reflecting the development of a child into a grown man. The first three stories are told from the point of view of a young boy, the next three from the point of view of an adolescent,

35、 and so on. Araby is the last story of the first set, and is told from the perspective of a boy just on the verge of adolescence. The story takes its title from a real festival which came to Dublin in 1894 when Joyce was twelve years old. Joyce is one of the most famous writers of the Modernist peri

36、od of literature, which runs roughly from 1900 to the end of World War II. Modernist works often include characters who are spiritually lost and themes that reflect a cynicism toward institutions the writer had been taught to respect, such as government and religion. Much of the literature of this p

37、eriod is experimental; Joyces writing reflects this in the use of dashes instead of quotation marks to indicate that a character is speaking. Joyce had a very difficult time getting Dubliners published. It took him over ten years to find a publisher who was willing to risk publishing the stories bec

38、ause of their unconventional style and themes. Once he found a publisher, he fought very hard with the editors to keep the stories the way he had written them. Years later, these stories are heralded not only for their portrayal of life in Dublin at the turn of the century, but also as the beginning

39、 of the career of one of the most brilliant English-language writers of the twentieth century. PlotAraby opens on North Richmond street in Dublin, where an uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground. The narrator, who remains unnamed thro

40、ughout the story, lives with his aunt and uncle. He describes his block, then discusses the former tenant who lived in his house: a priest who recently died in the back room. This priest has a library that attracts the young narrator, and he is particularly interested in three titles: a Sir Walter S

41、cott romance, a religious tract, and a police agents memoirs. The narrator talks about being a part of the group of boys who play in the street. He then introduces Mangans sister, a girl who captivates his imagination even though he rarely, if ever, speaks with her. He does stare at her from his win

42、dow and follow her on the street, however, often thinking of her even in places the most hostile to romance. While in the marketplace on Saturday nights, for example, he uses her image to guide him through the thronging crowd who yell their sales pitches and sing patriotic Irish ballads. He becomes

43、misty-eyed just at the thought of her and retreats to the priests dark room in order to deprive himself of other senses and think only of her. Finally, Mangans sister speaks to him. She asks if he will be attending a church-sponsored fair that is coming soon to Dublin-a bazaar called Araby. He is to

44、ngue-tied and cannot answer, but when she tells him that she cannot go because of a retreat that week in her convent, he promises to go and bring her a gift from the bazaar. From then on he can only think of the time when he will be at the fair; he is haunted by the syllables of the word Araby. On t

45、he night he is supposed to attend the fair, his uncle is late returning home and he must wait to get money from him. He gets very anxious, and his aunt tells him that he may have to miss the bazaar, but his uncle does come home, apologetic that he had forgotten. After asking the boy if he knows a po

46、em entitled The Arabs Farewell to His Steed, the uncle bids the boy farewell. The boy takes a coin from his uncle and catches a train to the fair. Araby is closing down as he arrives and he timidly walks through the center of the bazaar. As he looks at the few stalls that are still open, he overhear

47、s a conversation between an English shop-girl and two young men. Their talk is nothing but idle gossip. The shop-girl pauses reluctantly to ask the boy if he wishes to buy anything, but he declines. As he walks slowly out of the hall amid the darkening of the lights, he thinks that he is a creature

48、driven and derided by vanity and his eyes burned with anguish and anger. CharactersNarrator: The narrator of this story is a young, sensitive boy who confuses a romantic crush and religious enthusiasm. All of the conflict in this story happens inside his mind. It is unlikely that the object of his c

49、rush, Mangans sister, is aware of his feelings for her, nor is anybody else in this boys small world. Because the boys thoughts only reveal a part of the story, a careful reader must put together clues that the author gives. For example, the narrator mentions that the former tenant of the house he s

50、hares with his aunt and uncle was a priest, a representative of the Catholic church, who left behind three books which became important to the narrator. One is a romantic adventure by Sir Walter Scott; one is a religious pamphlet written by a Protestant; and the third is the exciting memoirs of a Fr

51、ench policeman and master of disguise. These three books are not what a person would expect a Catholic priest to have in his library. So if this priest has non-religious literature in his library, then how devout can an average church-goer be expected to be? This turns out to be the case for the nar

52、rator, who confuses religious idealism with romance. The boy confuses the religious and secular worlds when he describes himself at the market with his aunt. He bears the chalice-the Communion cup-through a throng of foes. He also describes Mangans sister in terms often associated with the Virgin Ma

53、ry. For the narrator, then, an ordinary grocery-shopping trip becomes a religious crusade, and a pretty girl down the street becomes a substitute for the Mother of God. The boy fuses together religious devotion for the Virgin Mary with his own romantic longing. Joyce is famous for creating character

54、s who undergo an epiphany-a sudden moment of insight-and the narrator of Araby is one of his best examples. At the end of the story, the boy overhears a trite conversation between an English girl working at the bazaar and two young men, and he suddenly realizes that he has been confusing things. It

55、dawns on him that the bazaar, which he thought would be so exotic and exciting, is really only a commercialized place to buy things. Furthermore, he now realizes that Mangans sister is just a girl who will not care whether he fulfills his promise to buy her something at the bazaar. His conversation

56、with Mangans sister, during which he promised he would buy her something, was really only small talk-as meaningless as the one between the English girl and her companions. He leaves Araby feeling ashamed and upset. This epiphany signals a change in the narrator-from an innocent, idealistic boy to an

57、 adolescent dealing with harsh realities. Mangans Sister: Mangan is one of the narrators chums who lives down the street. His older sister becomes the object of the narrators schoolboy crush. Mangans sister has no idea how the narrator feels about her, however, so when they discuss Araby, the bazaar

58、 coming to town, she is only being polite and friendly. She says she would like to go to the bazaar but cannot because she has to attend a school retreat that weekend. The narrator promises to buy her something at the bazaar if he goes, but it is unlikely that she takes this promise seriously. While on the one hand the narrator describes her romantically, he also describes her in reverential terms which call to mind the Virgin Mary. This dual image description of Mangans sister represents the religious and romantic confusion of the narrator. M