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1、Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more.-author-dateJames-Joyce-Araby-主题情节人物及背景分析James-Joyce-Araby-主题情节人物及背景分析ArabyBackgrounds IntroductionIrelands major religion, Roman Catholicism, dominated Irish culture, as it continues to do today a
2、lthough to a lesser extent. Many families sent their children to schools run by Jesuit priests (like the one the narrator in attends) and convent schools run by nuns (like the one Mangans sister attends). Catholicism is often seen as a source of the frequent conflict in Irish culture between sensual
3、ity and asceticism, a conflict that figures prominently in Joyces autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . In many ways, Catholicism, particularly as practiced at the turn of the century, was an extremely sensuous religion, emphasizing intense personal spiritual experience an
4、d surrounding itself with such rich trappings as beautiful churches, elegant paintings and statues, otherworldly music, and sumptuous vestments and altar decorations. On the other hand, the Churchs official attitude toward enjoyment of the senses and particularly toward sexuality was severe and rest
5、rictive. The ideal woman was the Virgin Mary, who miraculously combined virginal purity with maternity. Motherhood was exalted, but any enjoyment of sexuality, even in marriage, was considered a sin, as were the practice of birth control and abortion. The inability to reconcile the spiritual and sen
6、sual aspects of human nature can be seen in the boys feelings toward Mangans sister in He imagines his feelings for her as a chalice-a sacred religious object-and so worshipful is his attitude that he hesitates even to speak to her. Yet his memories of her focus almost exclusively on her body-her fi
7、gure silhouetted by the light, the soft rope of her hair, the white curve of her neck, the border of her petticoat. Even the image of the chalice is ambivalent, since its cup-like shape and function suggests a sexual connotation. The boy never resolves this conflict between spirituality and sensuali
8、ty. Instead, when confronted with the tawdriness of a shopgirls flirtation at the bazaar, he abruptly dismisses all his feelings as mere vanity.Introduction of the story and the authorAraby is one of fifteen short stories that together make up James Joyces collection, Dubliners. Although Joyce wrote
9、 the stories between 1904 and 1906, they were not published until 1914.Dubliners paints a portrait of life in Dublin, Ireland, at the turn of the 20th century. Its stories are arranged in an order reflecting the development of a child into a grown man. The first three stories are told from the point
10、 of view of a young boy, the next three from the point of view of an adolescent, and so on. Araby is the last story of the first set, and is told from the perspective of a boy just on the verge of adolescence. The story takes its title from a real festival which came to Dublin in 1894 when Joyce was
11、 twelve years old. Joyce is one of the most famous writers of the Modernist period of literature, which runs roughly from 1900 to the end of World War II. Modernist works often include characters who are spiritually lost and themes that reflect a cynicism toward institutions the writer had been taug
12、ht to respect, such as government and religion. Much of the literature of this period is experimental; Joyces writing reflects this in the use of dashes instead of quotation marks to indicate that a character is speaking. Joyce had a very difficult time getting Dubliners published. It took him over
13、ten years to find a publisher who was willing to risk publishing the stories because of their unconventional style and themes. Once he found a publisher, he fought very hard with the editors to keep the stories the way he had written them. Years later, these stories are heralded not only for their p
14、ortrayal of life in Dublin at the turn of the century, but also as the beginning of the career of one of the most brilliant English-language writers of the twentieth century. PlotAraby opens on North Richmond street in Dublin, where an uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detache
15、d from its neighbours in a square ground. The narrator, who remains unnamed throughout the story, lives with his aunt and uncle. He describes his block, then discusses the former tenant who lived in his house: a priest who recently died in the back room. This priest has a library that attracts the y
16、oung narrator, and he is particularly interested in three titles: a Sir Walter Scott romance, a religious tract, and a police agents memoirs. The narrator talks about being a part of the group of boys who play in the street. He then introduces Mangans sister, a girl who captivates his imagination ev
17、en though he rarely, if ever, speaks with her. He does stare at her from his window and follow her on the street, however, often thinking of her even in places the most hostile to romance. While in the marketplace on Saturday nights, for example, he uses her image to guide him through the thronging
18、crowd who yell their sales pitches and sing patriotic Irish ballads. He becomes misty-eyed just at the thought of her and retreats to the priests dark room in order to deprive himself of other senses and think only of her. Finally, Mangans sister speaks to him. She asks if he will be attending a chu
19、rch-sponsored fair that is coming soon to Dublin-a bazaar called Araby. He is tongue-tied and cannot answer, but when she tells him that she cannot go because of a retreat that week in her convent, he promises to go and bring her a gift from the bazaar. From then on he can only think of the time whe
20、n he will be at the fair; he is haunted by the syllables of the word Araby. On the night he is supposed to attend the fair, his uncle is late returning home and he must wait to get money from him. He gets very anxious, and his aunt tells him that he may have to miss the bazaar, but his uncle does co
21、me home, apologetic that he had forgotten. After asking the boy if he knows a poem entitled The Arabs Farewell to His Steed, the uncle bids the boy farewell. The boy takes a coin from his uncle and catches a train to the fair. Araby is closing down as he arrives and he timidly walks through the cent
22、er of the bazaar. As he looks at the few stalls that are still open, he overhears a conversation between an English shop-girl and two young men. Their talk is nothing but idle gossip. The shop-girl pauses reluctantly to ask the boy if he wishes to buy anything, but he declines. As he walks slowly ou
23、t of the hall amid the darkening of the lights, he thinks that he is a creature driven and derided by vanity and his eyes burned with anguish and anger. CharactersNarrator: The narrator of this story is a young, sensitive boy who confuses a romantic crush and religious enthusiasm. All of the conflic
24、t in this story happens inside his mind. It is unlikely that the object of his crush, Mangans sister, is aware of his feelings for her, nor is anybody else in this boys small world. Because the boys thoughts only reveal a part of the story, a careful reader must put together clues that the author gi
25、ves. For example, the narrator mentions that the former tenant of the house he shares with his aunt and uncle was a priest, a representative of the Catholic church, who left behind three books which became important to the narrator. One is a romantic adventure by Sir Walter Scott; one is a religious
26、 pamphlet written by a Protestant; and the third is the exciting memoirs of a French policeman and master of disguise. These three books are not what a person would expect a Catholic priest to have in his library. So if this priest has non-religious literature in his library, then how devout can an
27、average church-goer be expected to be? This turns out to be the case for the narrator, who confuses religious idealism with romance. The boy confuses the religious and secular worlds when he describes himself at the market with his aunt. He bears the chalice-the Communion cup-through a throng of foe
28、s. He also describes Mangans sister in terms often associated with the Virgin Mary. For the narrator, then, an ordinary grocery-shopping trip becomes a religious crusade, and a pretty girl down the street becomes a substitute for the Mother of God. The boy fuses together religious devotion for the V
29、irgin Mary with his own romantic longing. Joyce is famous for creating characters who undergo an epiphany-a sudden moment of insight-and the narrator of Araby is one of his best examples. At the end of the story, the boy overhears a trite conversation between an English girl working at the bazaar an
30、d two young men, and he suddenly realizes that he has been confusing things. It dawns on him that the bazaar, which he thought would be so exotic and exciting, is really only a commercialized place to buy things. Furthermore, he now realizes that Mangans sister is just a girl who will not care wheth
31、er he fulfills his promise to buy her something at the bazaar. His conversation with Mangans sister, during which he promised he would buy her something, was really only small talk-as meaningless as the one between the English girl and her companions. He leaves Araby feeling ashamed and upset. This
32、epiphany signals a change in the narrator-from an innocent, idealistic boy to an adolescent dealing with harsh realities. Mangans Sister: Mangan is one of the narrators chums who lives down the street. His older sister becomes the object of the narrators schoolboy crush. Mangans sister has no idea h
33、ow the narrator feels about her, however, so when they discuss Araby, the bazaar coming to town, she is only being polite and friendly. She says she would like to go to the bazaar but cannot because she has to attend a school retreat that weekend. The narrator promises to buy her something at the ba
34、zaar if he goes, but it is unlikely that she takes this promise seriously. While on the one hand the narrator describes her romantically, he also describes her in reverential terms which call to mind the Virgin Mary. This dual image description of Mangans sister represents the religious and romantic
35、 confusion of the narrator. Mangan: Mangan is the same age and in the same class at the Christian Brothers school as the narrator, and so he and the narrator often play together after school. His older sister is the object of the narrators confused feelings. Narrators Aunt: The narrators aunt, who i
36、s a mother figure in the story, takes the narrator with her to do the marketing. When it seems as though the uncle has forgotten his promise to the narrator that he could go to the bazaar, she warns the boy that he may have to put off the bazaar for this night of Our Lord. While this statement makes
37、 her seem strict in a religious sense, she also exhibits empathy for the boys plight. She pleads his case when the uncle forgets about the boys plans to go to Araby. Narrators Uncle: The narrators uncle seems self-centered and very unreliable. When the narrator reminds him that he wants to go to the
38、 bazaar, he replies, Yes, boy, I know. But on the Saturday evening of the bazaar, he has forgotten, which causes the narrator to arrive at the bazaar very late. When the uncle finally shows up, he has been drinking, and as the boy leaves for the bazaar he begins reciting the opening lines of the poe
39、m, The Arabs Farewell to his Steed. Joyces characterization of the uncle bears resemblance to his own father, who liked to drink and was often in debt. Joyces inclusion of Mrs. Mercer, the pawnbrokers widow who waits for the uncle to return, suggests that the uncle owes money. ThemesThe narrator rec
40、alls a boyhood crush he had on the sister of a friend. He went to Araby, a bazaar with an exotic Oriental theme, in order to buy a souvenir for the object of his crush. He arrived late, however, and when he overheard a shallow conversation between a female clerk and her male friends and saw the baza
41、ar closing down, he was overcome with a sense of futility. Alienation and Loneliness The theme of isolation is introduced early in the story by the image of a deserted, isolated house and the narrators recollection of a priest who lived and died in their back room. The young protagonist seems isolat
42、ed within his family. There is no mention of his parents; he lives with his aunt and uncle, and the uncle, in particular, appears insensitive to the boys feelings, coming home late even though he knows the boy wants to go to the bazaar. The boys crush on his friend Mangans sister seems to isolate hi
43、m even further. He is too tongue-tied to initiate a relationship with her, worshipping her from afar instead. Moreover, his crush appears to isolate him from his friends. Whereas early in the story he is depicted as part of a group of friends playing in the street, after his crush develops his separ
44、ation from the others is emphasized: he stands by the railings to be close to the girl while the other boys engage in horseplay, and as he waits in the house for his uncle to return so he can go to the bazaar the noises from his friends playing in the street sound weakened and indistinct. The story
45、ends with him confronting his disillusionment alone in the nearly deserted bazaar. Change and Transformation The narrator experiences an emotional transformation-changing from an innocent young boy to a disillusioned adolescent-in the flash of an instant, although the reader can look back through th
46、e story and trace the forces that lead to the transformation. This change occurs through what Joyce called an epiphany, a moment of sudden and intense insight. Although the narrator suddenly understands that his romantic fantasies are hopelessly at odds with the reality of his life, this understandi
47、ng leaves him neither happy nor satisfied; instead, he feels anguish and anger. It is not clear what impact the narrators epiphany will have on his future development, only that that development has begun. Fantasy and Reality The story draws connections between the romantic idealism of the young pro
48、tagonists attitude toward Mangans sister and romantic fantasies in the surrounding culture. Much of this romanticism seems to stem from religion, the pervasive presence of which is emphasized by mentions of the youngsters parochial schools, repeated references to the dead priest, and the aunt s fear
49、 that the bazaar might be a Freemason affair and her reference to This night of our Lord. The boy carries his thoughts of Mangans sister like a chalice through a throng of foes, and his crush inspires in him strange prayers and praises. The way the girl herself is described-as an alluring but untouchable figure dramatical