James Joyce “Araby” and “Eveline”

Blog 3: “Araby” and “Eveline”

These were two short stories written by James Joyce that were based in Ireland. Ireland at the time was poverty stricken and had many economical and social problems. These times really seemed to influence the author’s writings. Both stories were very dreary and somber in tone. Araby was a story about a boy who was obsessed with his love and passion for a girl. Throughout the story, the boy fantasized about loving this girl and wanting to buy something for her to show her his affection towards her. He felt this obligation to buy something and when he found out about the bazaar he wanted to go to see what it had to offer. To me it seemed as though that the bazaar was a flee market and a new experience to him. It was a fantasy world where he could go and escape. It was a place of options where he could buy new things that he had never seen before. However, in the end he got all caught up with the notion that buying something would bring him love. At the end of the story he is left in darkness, which to me symbolizes his realization that he can’t buy love. He knows he will not win his love through a gift, so he is left to sit in the darkness and to feel anger and hatred towards reality. The darkness signifies his hope being distinguished. The next short story, Eveline, is story about a girl who is stuck living in a dysfunctional family. She wants to escape to another world where she can be happy. However, on her mother’s death bed she promises to look after her trouble-stricken family, which included her father and brother. She fights over these moral dilemmas and promises made, whether or not to leave her family for her personal happiness and love. Her promise to her mother rules over her conscience and she forces herself to support the family by caring for the father who suffers greatly from alcoholism, yet he is abusive and violent towards her. She is guilted by her memories of her deceased mother who wanted her to keep the family together. Throughout the story she is tempted to leave and join her love, Frank, in Buenos Ayres where she fantasizes about a new beginning. In the end, she stays and sacrifices her happiness to fulfill the commitment she made to her mother. She indeed does the best she can to support the family, but through those times she suffers great anxiety and pain from her father’s behavior. Her love for Frank was second to that of her mother and she chose to stay and give up her dream for the promise that she made to her mother.