Summary

Analysis
The story takes place in late 19th/early 20th-century Dublin, on North
Richmond Street, a blind (dead-end) street on which stand
several brown houses and the Christian Brother’s school, a Catholic school for
boys. The street is quiet, except when school ends and the boys play in the
street until dinner. At the end of the street is an empty house, offset from the
others by its own square plot of land.
These details establish that the narrator is living in a sheltered
environment with heavy religious influences. The symbol of
blindness serves to foreshadow the narrator’s ignorance that
comes with his infatuation with Mangan’s sister, and the color
brown is used to emphasize the dullness of everyday Dublin.
Active Themes

The former tenant of this, the narrator’s house, was a priest who died in the
back drawing room, but left some of his belongings behind. The narrator enjoys
leafing through the yellow pages of the books left behind by the priest: The
Abbot, The Devout Communicant, and The Memoirs of Vidocq. In the back
garden near the apple tree, the narrator also once found the priest’s rusty
bicycle pump under a bush. The narrator supposes the priest was a charitable
man, noting that he left his money to institutions and his furniture to his sister
after he died.
Joyce gives these details about the priest in order to provide a
subtle commentary on the Catholic church. By listing his books,
two of which are non-religious, Joyce shows that the priest was a
person like any other who took interest in subjects other than
religion. The bicycle pump that the narrator finds beneath a bush
as though it had been hidden there suggests that maybe the
priest had a private life in which he partook in secular activities,
such as biking.
Active Themes
The boys usually meet in the street to play before dinner, even during winter
when it has already become dark by then. They play outside in the cold until
their bodies “glow,” exploring everywhere from the muddy lanes behind the
houses and back into the street, which, along with the “areas” – sunken
enclosures providing access to the basements of the houses – is now
illuminated with light from the kitchen windows. When they see the narrator’s
uncle coming home, they hide from him in the shadows.
The narrator establishes the habitual play that he soon grows
tired of. The boys hide from the narrator’s uncle, suggesting that
he is widely feared, or perhaps just very strict. The symbols of
light and dark are introduced. In their innocent nights of play, the
boys “glow,” presumably with carefree happiness. This contrasts
starkly with the narrator’s later epiphany, which takes place in
complete darkness.
Active Themes

Every night Mangan’s sister comes outside to call him inside for tea. Mangan,
one of the narrator’s friends, usually teases her while the narrator looks on. The
narrator begins to notice her physical characteristics, such as the way her dress
moves and the “soft rope of her hair.” Every morning, he watches her door from
a slit in the blinds in his front parlor, waiting for her to leave so he can walk
behind her on the way to school. Just before they part ways, he always speeds
up and passes her.
The narrator is developing a crush on Mangan’s sister as he
begins to notice more physical details. However, he is clearly still
a child in how he deals with his newfound attraction. He never
attempts to talk to her, but instead walks to school behind her
and then speeds up to catch her attention. The symbol of
blindness appears again as the narrator watches for her through
the blinds, perhaps indicating that he is “blind” to everything
except her.
Active Themes

Get the entire ArabyLitChart as a printable PDF.

"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone
through the roof." -Graham S.
Download it!

The narrator begins to fantasize about Mangan’s sister constantly—even as he

walks through the noisy, dirty Dublin market with his aunt, passing street-
singers singing about Donovan O’Rossa, a Fenian revolutionary. He imagines
carrying the thought of Mangan’s sister like a “chalice safely through a throng of
foes.” Even just her name begins to conjure up “strange prayers and praises,”
which confuse even the narrator himself. Often he finds himself full of emotion
and on the brink of tears for no apparent reason. Despite all of this, he does not
make any plans to talk to her, but instead remains wrapped up in his fantasies.
Mangan’s sister becomes the narrator’s mental escape from his
everyday life and in this case, an escape from the gritty Dublin
market. The narrator begins to associate Mangan’s sister with
religious imagery, such as the “chalice,” and his emotions become
stronger and even more confusing. It seems as though he is
worshipping her, even though if unintentionally so.
Active Themes
One rainy night, the narrator goes into the back drawing room where the
priestdied and lets his emotions take over. He presses his palms together as if
in prayer and repeats “O Love” continually in the dark.
The narrator presses his hands together in a prayer that seems
almost like heresy, since he is praying to someone other than
God in a room where a priest has died. He also uses the word
“love” as though he is finally giving a name to his feelings.
Active Themes

When Mangan’s sister finally speaks to the narrator, it is to ask if he is planning

to go to the Araby bazaar. He is completely caught off-guard, and as he
recounts the events, the narrator does not even remember if he said yes or no.
She tells him she is unable to attend because she has a retreat for her convent,
and he seizes what seems like an opportunity to impress her, promising to bring
her back something if he goes to the bazaar. While this conversation is
happening the other boys are fighting over their caps. The narrator notices the
way the light catches Mangan’s sister’s neck, her hair, her hand, and finally the
white hem of her petticoat sticking out from under her dress.
This scene takes place while the other boys are fighting over their
caps, which emphasizes the narrator’s alienation from his friends.
The Araby bazaar is introduced here, as well as the narrator’s
perceived opportunity to win over Mangan’s sister. The light is
used to highlight Mangan’s sister’s body as the narrator sees her
in a new, more physical way, and perhaps also to symbolize his
sexual awakening.
Active Themes
The narrator now begins to fantasize not only about Mangan’s sister, but about
the Araby bazaar as well. He is fascinated with the exotic Eastern nature of the
market, and even the word, Araby, seems foreign and exciting to him. He asks
his aunt if he can attend the market and she is skeptical at first, asking if it is a
Freemason affair, but assenting when he says it isn’t. Meanwhile, the narrator
cannot focus in school and his masterbegins to notice and becomes stern with
him. The narrator starts to feel like school and everyday life are “ugly
monotonous child’s play.”
The narrator starts to fantasize about the exotic Araby market,
using it as a mental escape, but also hoping it provides a physical
escape from his everyday life, even if only for a night. He begins
to see himself as superior to his peers, who are occupied with
seemingly less important activities, such as school. This is a
significant indication that he is coming of age, and it also
contributes to why he feels alienated from his friends.
Active Themes

On Saturday morning, the narratorreminds his uncle that he wishes to attend

the Araby bazaar that night. He leaves for school in a bad mood, already
anticipating future disappointment. When he returns for dinner that night his
uncle is not home yet. The narrator anxiously paces the house. From an
upstairs window he sees his friends playing in the street and then looks over
at Mangan’s sister’s house, seeing her “brown-clad figure” in his mind.
The narrator is already anticipating that something will go wrong,
even after his uncle reassures him, and this perhaps indicates
that the narrator is aware that he has unrealistic expectations for
the bazaar—but he still can’t help clinging to them. As he is
restlessly pacing, he catches a glimpse of his friends playing in
the street, but all he can think of is Mangan’s sister.
Active Themes
When the narrator goes back downstairs, Mrs. Mercer, the pawnbroker’s widow,
is there. They wait for the narrator’s uncleto arrive for over an hour and Mrs.
Mercer leaves, saying she cannot wait any longer. The narrator’s aunt suggests
that he may not be able to attend the bazaar. At 9 pm, the narrator hears his
uncle’s key in the door, and can tell from the way his uncle is moving that he
has been drinking. The narrator waits until his uncle is halfway through his
dinner before asking for money to go to the market. His uncle admits he had
forgotten about the market, but when he tries to brush it off by saying it is late,
the narrator is not amused. The narrator’s aunt encourages his uncle to let him
go and finally his uncle agrees. As the narrator leaves, his uncle begins reciting
the poem The Arab’s Farewell to his Steed.
The narrator’s impatience shows that he still has his childlike
tendencies, but at the same time he is also aware of some of the
more adult issues that his uncle is dealing with, such as debt and
alcoholism. Mrs. Mercer’s presence suggests that his uncle may
be in debt, and his late return and stumbling in the hallway
suggest that he is drunk. These are both issues that the narrator
is becoming more aware of as he loses his innocence and gains
knowledge about the adult world.
Active Themes

The narrator walks to the train station and boards the empty third-class section
of the train. After a delay, the train finally leaves, passing run-down houses
before pulling up to the makeshift platform. The narrator notices that it is ten
minutes before 10 pm, when the market is supposed to close. Unable to find a
sixpenny entrance, he quickly enters through a more expensive entrance to get
into the market before it closes. As he timidly enters the bazaar, the narrator
notices that nearly all of the stalls are closed, and compares the silence to that
of a church after the service has ended. He walks toward the few stalls that
remain open; one of them displays the name Café Chantant written in colored
lamps. He continues on to a stall that is selling porcelain vases and flowered tea
sets. He observes the female shopkeeperof the stall flirting with two men, all of
them speaking with English accents.
Joyce subtly highlights the poverty of Dublin by mentioning the
run-down houses and also including that the narrator is in the
third-class compartment of the train. The narrator uses religion
as a point of comparison in describing the silence in the bazaar
like that of a church after service, showing how he regards the
Araby market with similar admiration and awe that he regards
Mangan’s sister, and can only describe them using religious
references. However, inside the bazaar his awe disappears, as he
encounters a stall with a French name, and porcelain vases and
flowered tea sets (very un-exotic things). The narrator’s
realization that people flirt to pass the time, even at the bazaar,
makes his feelings for Mangan’s sister seem commonplace.
Active Themes

The shopkeeper asks the narrator if he’s going to buy anything, but seems to
only be asking because it is her job. The narrator responds “No, thank you,” and
the shopkeeper returns to her conversation, glancing back from time to time to
keep an eye on the narrator. As the narrator leaves the stall he hears someone
announce that the lights are going off, and as he is left in darkness, he realizes
how foolish he has been, how he has let vanity blind him. He is filled with
“anguish and anger” as his eyes sting with tears of disappointment.
The narrator quickly loses confidence as he realizes that the
shopkeeper does not take him seriously, and he also realizes that
both the bazaar and his feelings for Mangan’s sister are
something more common than what he had built them up to be.
The narrator has an epiphany as he is plunged into darkness,
realizing that his feelings were not actually love, that his desires
and the market itself were not special or exotic at all, and that he
was motivated by vanity and the desire for approval.