The Symbolism Of Romanticism In Araby By James Joyce

The short story “Araby” was written by the Irish modernist James Joyce. In this short story, the narrator is a delusional young boy romanticizing about an older girl. The girl is not aware of his fantasies and infatuations, he gets angry with himself and he is forced to realize that she will never reciprocate his affections. The narrator put himself through some mental torture by obsessing about the girl day and night “ “At night in my bedroom and by day in the classroom her image came between me and the page I strove to read” (Joyce 282). He also put himself through unnecessary stress by going to the bazaar just to buy the girl a gift she never asked him for “If I go, I will bring you something” (Joyce 281). The narrator tried using the girl and the bazaar as some sort of symbol to escape from his current environment, which he referred to as the dead end street. Attending the bazaar was the narrator’s way of showing his affection towards the girl, the affection he desired, but never got from his uncle also contributed to his imagination of what love felt like. The narrator had no intention of going to …show more content…
On getting to the bazaar he realizes it’s all vanity, idealizing about the girl and the bazaar was a mistake from the onset. It was obvious the narrator wanted to leave his current circumstance of a boring, lonely and loveless life. The narrator’s thoughts of finally escaping from the blind street where no one cared about him or his feelings. Finding out at the end of the story that his vague idea of escape is totally impossible, the reality infiltrates his fantasy at the end of the day. This realization made him very disappointed in himself, the bazaar was nothing like he imagined it would be, he wasted his time and effort for something so