The story of Araby is a perfectly planned route to the revelation of an epiphany. In Joyce's last line, "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger," the epiphany is realized. In the final line the meaning of the young boy's journey from love to despair and disappointment is revealed. These last few words play on the themes throughout the story (darkness, blindness, isolation, religion, disillusionment), and bring everything together as the epiphany the story is centered in is understood.
             The story opens with the themes of darkness and blindness. The description of North Richmond Street, a "blind," "cold...silent" street where the houses "gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces" overwhelms us with feelings of oppression and endangerment. Everything here seems to be dead or decaying in the "quiet" and "cold," "dark muddy lanes" and "dark dripping gardens." The boy's house has the same dead presence and lost past. This is a darkness that extends throughout the story. When he finally reaches the bazaar, the place of "Eastern enchantment," it is dirty and disappointing. Two men are "counting money on a salver" and he listens "to the fall of the coins." A young female clerk dismisses him and continues flirting with two men. All this cheapens and destroys his sense of an "Eastern enchantment." The bazaar is dark and empty; it thrives on the same thing as his Irish marketplace.
             Blindness is not only a handicap belonging to the street but also extends to the boy's personal relationships. The boy's aunt and uncle are blind to his anguish, the girl is not conscious of his love, and the boy himself is blind to the true nature of his love-ironic because he imagines that he prot
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