Knowledge Through the Darkness

Knowledge Through the Darkness: An Analysis of Symbolism in James Joyce’s “Araby”

James Joyce’s “Araby” is a quintessential coming of age story that uses the backdrop of early 20th century Dublin to tell the story of a young boy and his loss of innocence. It begins by describing North Richmond street as “blind” and “quiet”, aside from the hour in which the school boys were set free. The story focuses on one particular house, in which the former tenant, a priest, has died in the back drawing room. This room is old and dusty, holding only damp papers and books within. Behind the house there is a wild garden containing a “central apple tree” with only a “few straggling bushes”. During winter the houses are somber as the boys play in the cold until “their bodies glowed” and when they returned all the children saw were windows. The boys sat in the shadows waiting until it was safe to go and watched Mangan’s sister to see if she would go in or stay outside the door. The young boy stares at the sister as her figure is lit up by the half open door, feelings of adoration beginning to well up inside of him. Every morning he looks at her door behind his blinds, waiting for her to emerge so he can follow and pass her by. The image of her “brown-clad figure” stays with him even in places “hostile to romance”. As he is walking in the middle of a busy street market there is an overload of the senses. The boy imagines himself safely carrying a chalice, which is treated as the Holy Grail, through a “throng of foes”. One evening, the young boy feels overwhelmed with unfamiliar feelings and desires, prompting him to clasp his hands in prayer to love.

Finally, he is able to speak to her and she asks him if he is going to the fantastical bazaar, Araby. Because the girl is unable to go, the boy tells her he will bring something back for her. He waits all day for his uncle to come home so he can get the money to go. As he is waiting he stares out the window to see his friends playing together, then looks at the girl’s door, imagining she is there. The boy waits impatiently until his uncle returns, and before the narrator can run off to the bazaar, his uncle asks if he has read the poem “An Arab’s Farewell to his Steed”. The uncle begins reciting it aloud as the narrator takes a slow train in a third class seat to Araby.

When he arrives, he overhears a woman and two men with English accents having a conversation over by a stall. The woman asks him if he would like anything in a tone which suggests she doesn’t want her conversation interrupted. The boy politely declines and Araby begins to close, growing “entirely dark”. The young boy realizes at this moment that his romantic pilgrimage was for naught. He has become a “creature driven and derided by vanity”, having lost his innocence entirely. Through the various symbolic use of light and darkness, along with the subsequent epiphany of the young boy, Joyce suggests that the innocent, romantic ideals of childhood do not align with the harsh, disillusioned reality of adulthood.

The various light symbolism that is seen throughout “Araby” denotes the pure innocence and romantic naiveté of childhood. Traditionally, light is associated with spiritual knowledge, however, in the case of James Joyce, a man who had become quite religiously disillusioned, it represents ignorance. The young boy begins a transformation which effectively ends his innocent stage of life when feelings of “confused adoration” for an older girl awakens. Once the school boys are set free, they play outside “till their bodies glow”, until Mangan’s sister comes out to call her brother. As they hide in the shadows waiting to see if she will remain or go in, the young boy watches “her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door” (1). With words used such as figure and light, the girl elicits both feelings of romance alongside a budding sexuality for the narrator, although these feelings are not yet understood. The image of a half-opened door signifies the journey from childhood to adulthood he is about to embark upon. It is from this point onwards that the boy begins his near obsession with this “brown-clad figure”. When he is at last able to speak with the object of his newfound desire, she asks if he is going to the bazaar, Araby. The girl tells him she would love to go but has made a commitment to the convent. The boy then describes Mangan’s sister vividly, “The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing. It fell over one side of her dress and caught the white border of a petticoat, just visible as she stood at ease” (2). The older girl shrouded in light, whom he admires like an angelic deity, is the absolute embodiment of the young boy’s idealism. However, there is also an underlying sensuality coupled alongside the romantic image, with such focus on “the white curve of her neck” and “the white border of her petticoat”. The light symbolism Joyce uses to portray Mangan’s sister elucidates the young boy’s innocent romantic feelings, but also the ignorance to his own sexual awakening.

The way in which Joyce utilizes darkness symbolizes the harsh and disillusioned realities one must face in their adulthood. Just as the writer has subverted conventional ideas of light, he has done the same with darkness. Usually, darkness suggests ignorance, but in the case of “Araby”, it points to knowledge. After the boy has promised to bring Mangan’s sister something from the bazaar, he impatiently awaits his uncle’s return so he may go on his pilgrimage to the mystical Eastern land. As he is waiting, the boy watches his friends from the window, noting that their cries were now “weakened” and “indistinct”. Leaning his head on the cool glass window, he looks over at the “dark house” where she lives. The narrator has become far removed from his childhood past and looks onward to the dark adulthood future he must face. Eventually his uncle comes home and he is able to leave for Araby, taking a slow train which creeps over “ruinous houses” and a “twinkling river”. The sign which reads “Araby” is seen as magical, but he must overpay to get inside the building. The young boy sees that the greater part of the hall is in darkness when he arrives. The enchanted Eastern lands of Araby being mostly dark reveals the impending disillusionment of the young boy. At this point in the journey of course, he is still holding onto the last of his innocence. It is not until he approaches a stall overhearing a woman and two men with their English accents, that this harsh adult reality begins to set in. “Observing me the young lady came over and asked me did I wish to buy anything. The tone of her voice was not encouraging; she seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty. I looked humbly at the great jars that stood like eastern guards at either side of the dark entrance to the stall…” (5) These great jars stand in the way of his romantic pilgrimage, acting as “eastern guards” either side of a “dark entrance”. The young boy is forced to confront the harsh reality that he is now at the gateway to adulthood and cannot turn back. He ends up politely declining to buy anything, lingering about the stall even knowing it was useless. The knowledge of his loss has begun to be understood as he starts to accept that his journey was for nothing. Furthermore, Araby has yet to be shrouded by complete darkness, meaning that the boy’s epiphany has yet to occur.

The subsequent epiphany that the young boy has completes his transformation from innocent childhood into disillusioned adulthood. Imagery of light and darkness yet again comes to play at the moment of his realization. He has faced the “dark entrance” of maturity, venturing through its gates only to recognize all that he has lost. What was first considered a mystical land of romance has become a disappointment to him. After walking away from the stall his maturation ensues, “I heard a voice call from one end of the gallery that the light was out. The upper part of the hall was now completely dark. Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (6). The last shred of his innocent, romantic childhood ideals has succumbed to the harsh, disillusioned adult reality. In truth, he had absolutely no notion of what to get Mangan’s sister, he was merely infatuated with the idea of her rather than who she actually was as an individual. The young boy conflated romantic and religious love with sexual desire, repressing this reality through his Catholic informed, innocent ignorance. It is only through being in complete darkness that the knowledge of what he has become is fully understood. The young boy is now a creature obsessed with and ridiculed by his own unjustified feelings of arrogance. What he once thought was a journey of purity and romance has become an irreversible metamorphosis and a failure.

James Joyce’s “Araby” weaves and contrasts both light and darkness into his coming of age story in order to illustrate the complicated nature of growing up. As we transition from youth to maturity, we are overwhelmed with unfamiliar sensations and strange desires we do not understand. It is often clouded by what we think we know, while the facts of life remain unclear to us still. Oftentimes we are blinded by the light of our own fantasies and things are not as they appear to be. Joyce asserts that childhood innocence and romantic idealism must be deeply cherished while it can be, warning that rushing into the harsh, disillusioned realities of adulthood will only result in anguish. Regardless of this tragic loss, we must all face that same dark entrance and be ready to brave the adult realities we do not want to confront.

Works Cited
Joyce, James. “Araby.” Joyce, James. Dubliners. New York, B. W. Huebsch, 1916.