Setting in Jame Joyce's Araby
In James Joyce's "Araby," setting plays a distinct role in the story's overall plot and theme. Throughout the short story Joyce deeply focuses on the feelings of the young boy simply through the use of a well-prepared setting. Joyce masterfully uses distinct aspects of the boys surrounding to evoke feeling in the reader as well as to display the character of the young boy. The first significant connection between setting and plot is found in the "uninhabited house." Joyce acquaints the boy's sadness, confusion, and despair through this "musty," waste-filled house and the dreary rain outside.
Joyce continues with this all-important aspect of setting in the end of the story as well. Now the reader finds the boy willing to sacrifice his past relations and step into a completely new way of life. Although the boy's complete satisfaction with his life is confirmed in the description of a chaotic garden and his playful activities, all is changed with the introduction of Mangan's sister. Set in a big building of a bazaar containing a lot of useless things for sale, the boy's surroundings mirror his overall confusion and minute chance at acquiring what he came for. The boy's final epiphany comes into play when darkness invades the big empty market place and the lights are turned off. Symbolic of the emptiness in the boy's head, the turning off of the lights also signifies the extinguishing of any hope the boy had of acquiring this new way of life. Throughout his short story Joyce clearly creates a well-defined setting that ceases to stray from the young boy's feelings and character. In doing so he creates a story that exemplifies an interdependent relationship between both setting and plot. The boy's presence in a room where a priest has died continues to stress this feeling of sympathy felt by the reader towards the boy. A comparison between the empty house and the soul of a young boy who has found his first love can also be easily inferred. Following this slow realization that this new perpetual desire will never come of anything, the boy remains alone in the "silent" bazaar, infuriated by his failure. Still, the inescapable emptiness of the house "at the blind end, detached from all its neighbors," serves to indicate to the reader that the boy's new aspirations are not promising.
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