Short Story Criticism | Araby, James Joyce - Frank Turaj (essay date 1970)

Frank Turaj (essay date 1970)

SOURCE: “‘Araby’ and Portrait: Stages of Pagan Conversion, in English Language Notes, Vol. 7, No. 3, March 3, 1970, pp. 209–13.

[In the following essay, Turaj finds a parallel between “Araby” and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, maintaining that the two works represent two different stages in Joyce's personal development.]

“Araby” is regarded as the story of a boy for whom young love becomes mystical and religious. It is partly a story of his initiation into love, and it is partly a story of his conversion from orthodox religion. Besides being a principal theme in Joyce's writing, this dialogue of the world and the spirit is, of course, a main fact in his life. A striking resemblance between the devices and themes of “Araby” and Chapter IV of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man suggests the process of the resolution of this dialogue, this conflict,...

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