James Joyces Araby - The Lonely Quest in Araby Essay -- Joyce Dubline

The Lonely Quest in Araby Universality of devour makes James Joyces Araby interesting, readers respond instinctively to an get laid that could have been their own. It is part of the instinctual temper of man to long for what he feels is the lost spirituality of his world. In all(prenominal) ages man has believed that it is possible to search for and find a talisman, which, if brought back, will contribute this lost spirituality. The development of theme in Araby resembles the myth of the quest for a holy talisman. In Araby, Joyce works from a verbose mode of delicious creation-a phrase used by psychiatrist Carl Jung to describe the, visionary kind of literary creation that derives its material from the hinterland of mans mind-that suggests the abyss of cartridge clip sepa-rating us from prehuman ages, or evokes a superhuman world of con-trasting light and darkness. It is a primordial hold, which sur-passes mans understanding and to which he is therefore in danger of succu mbing. 1 Assuredly this describes Joyces handling of the material of Araby. The quest itself and its consequences surpass the understanding of the infantile protagonist of the story. He can only feel that he undergoes the experience of the quest and naturally is con-fused, and at the storys conclusion, when he fails, he is anguished and angered. His contrasting world of light and darkness contains both the lost spirituality and the vision of restoring it. Because our own worlds contain these contrasts we also feel, even though the primordial experience surpasses our understanding, too. It is true, as a writer reminds us, that no matter the work, Joyce always views the ordain and disorder of the world in terms of the Catholic faith... ...world of North capital of Virginia Street. Here, insteatimed of Eastern enchant-ment, are flimsy stalls for buying and marketing flimsy wares. His grailhas turned out to be only flimsy tea sets covered with artificial flow-ers. As the upper hall becomes completely dark, the son realizes thathis quest has ended. Gazing upward, he sees the vanity of imagininghe can carry a chalice through a dark throng of foes. 1 Carl G. Jung, Modern firearm in Search of a Soid. trans. W. S. Dell and CaryF. Baynes (New York, 1933), pp. 156-157. 2 William Bysshe Stein, Joyces Araby Paradise Lost, Perspective, X11,No. 4 (Spring 1962), 215. 3 From Letters of James Joyce, Vol. II, ed. Richard Ellmarm (New York,1966), p. 134. 4 James Joyce, Stephen Hero (New York, 1944), pp. 210-211. 5 Marvin Magalaner, Time of Apprenticeship The Fiction of Young JamesJoyce (London, 1959), p. 87.