Araby...... James Joyce

1) What is the symbolic meaning of the story ‘Araby’?                                        

Ans: ‘Araby’ deals with the adolescent love, its dream and disillusionment in reality. Symbolically it is a story of man’s search for ideal and universal frustration. Standing in the darkness of the Araby bazaar the boy discovers the futility of his search, and deconstructs the myth of his fictional masculine identity.

2) “I Imagined that I bore my Chalice safely through a throng of foes”—What is Chalice? Explain the line Ans: ‘Chalice’ is a drinking vessel. According to Bible Christ drank from a chalice during the last supper. Here the ‘Chalice’ is the symbol of the ideal and a throng of foes the ‘real’. Like a medieval knight the boy made a perilous journey safely through the shouting and jostling of the Sunday market because he kept the image of Mangan’s sister, which was the highest ‘ideal’ to him, alive in his heart.

3) What was the boy’s experience going to the Araby Bazaar?                            

Or-What was the boy’s discovery about himself through his experience in Araby?                                        

Ans: The boy’s dream and romance of the Araby bazaar came to be shattered by the commercialism and false show of femininity. Standing in the darkness of the bazaar the boy discovers the futility of his search for the ideal. He finds himself as a creature ridiculed and betrayed by the vanity of the woman who initiated his quest for ideal, and deconstructs the myth of his fictional masculine identity.

13) What is the significance of the dialogue between the sales boys and a woman in the Araby bazaar?  
Ans: The conversation towards the end of the story ‘Araby’ between two sales boys and a young woman consisted mainly of denial and affirmation of something and brings in the theme of betrayal. Witnessing the flirtation the boy apprehends the denial the denial of Mangan’s sister to accept when he would bring her the gift. His myth is shattered and he realizes that he has been deceived and his love is no more than an infatuation.                                         

5) What is the significance of the dialogue between the sales boys and a woman in the Araby bazaar?
  Ans: The conversation towards the end of the story ‘Araby’ between two sales boys and a young woman consisted mainly of denial and affirmation of something and brings in the theme of betrayal. Witnessing the flirtation the boy apprehends the denial the denial of Mangan’s sister to accept when he would bring her the gift. His myth is shattered and he realizes that he has been deceived and his love is no more than an infatuation. 

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