James Joyce's Araby

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Araby: Joycean Romanticism of the Church

Life is filled with loneliness and times when a person feels unsure. When these times arise is when most people turn to their faith in the church or faith in fate. Certain events in one’s life can send them reeling for something that they can find solace in. Security from the turbulent world is given through faith and hope. When times are at there hardest what can you do? Without faith you can get stuck, and slowly dragged down by the world decaying around you. In the story Araby by James Joyce you find what happens when you give up on faith. He also loses faith in romantic love, religious love, and material love. Evidence of this is found in the form of sexual, spiritual, and financial experiences throughout the story. The story is a more modern symbolism of the fall Of the Garden of Eden.
James Joyce speaks of the death of the Church. Joyce grew up in Dublin, Ireland and was raised as a Roman-Catholic. He lost faith in the Church early in his life, which is proved by the beginning of Araby. Araby is a short story from Dubliner’s that tells of a young boy’s revival to move away from the church and to live his life as he chooses. In the beginning of the story Joyce makes a reference to blindness. This refers to his sense of reality. The boys at the Catholic school have been trapped by the church and cannot escape. Joyce longs to be free of the church and wishes that he could relinquish the ties that bind him to it, like the house. The house was formerly own by a priest who has since passed away. The death of the priest signifies the death of the church. The priest also has more significance to the story. He also represents the hypocrisy of the church. Although the priest was thought of as charitable he dies with a substantial sum of money which gives the impression that he had not been as charitable as he possibly could have been.
Joyce also shows the deviance of a young boy as a peeping tom. Mangan’s sister is the object of his affection. He sees in her what most would see in the Virgin Mary. She is illuminated in all of the splendor that would be found in that of a religious icon.

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