The Archetypal Myth of the Quest in Joyce's Araby

The Archetypal Myth of the Quest in J. Joyce's "Araby"

Mahmood Azizi,
English Department of the University of Mazandaran
[email protected]

Probably no other twentieth century short story has called forth more attention than Joyce's "Araby." Some universality of experience makes the story interesting to readers of all ages, for they respond instinctively to an experience that could have been their own. It is a part of the instinctual nature of man to long for what he feels is the lost spirituality of his world. In all ages man has believed that it ispossible to search for and find a talisman, which, if brought back, will return this lost spirituality. The development of theme in "Araby" resembles the archetypal myth of the quest for a holy talisman.
In "Araby," Joyce works from a "visionary mode of artistic creation"-a phrase used by psychiatrist Carl Jung to describe the,'visionary" kind of literary creation that derives its material from"the hinterland of man's mind-that suggests the abyss of time separating us from prehuman ages, or evokes a superhuman world of con-trasting light and darkness. It is a primordial experience, which surpasses man's understanding and to which he is therefore in danger of succumbing." 1 Assuredly this describes Joyce's handling of the material of "Araby." The quest itself and its consequences surpass the understanding of the young protagonist of the story. He can only "feel"that he undergoes the experience of the quest and naturally is confused, and at the story's conclusion, when he fails, he is anguished and angered. His "contrasting world of light and darkness" contains both the lost spirituality and the dream 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 order and disorder of the world in terms ofthe Catholic faith in which he was reared." 2 In "Araby," however,there is, in addition, an overlay of Eastern mysticism. This diversity of background materials intensifies the universality of the experience.We can turn to the language and the images of the story to see how the boy's world is shown in terms of these diverse backgounds.
There is little that is "light" in the comer of Dublin that forms the world of the story, little that retains its capability to evoke spirituality. North Richmond Street is "blind"; the houses stare at one another with "brown imperturbable faces." The time is winter, with its short days and its early dusk. Only the boy and his laughing, shouting companions "glow"; they are still too young to have succumbed to the spiritual decay of the adult inhabitants of Dublin. But the boys must play in "dark muddy lanes," in "dark dripping gardens," near"dark odorous stables" and "ash pits." Joyce had said of Dubliners,the collection of stories from which "Araby" comes, that he intended to "write a chapter in the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the centre of paralysis." 3 The images of the story show us that the spiritual environment of the boy is paralyzed; it is musty, dark.
Everywhere in his dark surroundings the boy seeks the "light." He looks for it in the "central apple tree"symbol of religiouenlightenment-in the dark garden behind his home. The gardenshould be like Eden, but the tree is overshadowed by the desolationof the garden, and thus has become the tree of spiritual death. He looks for light in the room of his home where the former tenant, apriest, had died, but the only objects left by the priest were books,yellowed and damp. Here, too, the quest has failed. No evidence of spiritual life remains. Decay and rust have taken over all the treasures the priest had laid up on earth for himself
Into this world of darkness appears a girl, Mangan's sister. Because of her the boy feels a surge of hope that now in her love he will find light. Even though he has "never spoken to her, except for a few casual words," her name is like a "summons to all his foolish blood."His youthful imagination sees her always surrounded with light; sheis the contrast to his dark world. She becomes an image to him of allthat he seeks. That image accompanies him "even in places the most hostile to romance": the market and the streets, among the "drunken men and bargaining women," amid "the curses of labourers, the shrill litanies of shop-boys." In this unlikely place occurs what Joyce calls an "epiphany," which to him means "a sudden spiritual manifestation," when objects or moments of inconsequential vulgarity can be transfigured to something spiritual.4 The boys says, "I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes." Plainly he has felt the summons to cherish the holy, the "light," in this dark world of those who are hostile to the sacred.
However, what he feels is beyond his understanding. His love for the girl is part sexual desire, part sacred adoration. He is, he says,"confused."
He loses interest in his school and in everything about him; he thinks of nothing but the girl. He can see her "dark house," "her brown-clad figure touched by lamp-light." He feels that he has found one image of holiness in his world of lost spirituality. If he can gain the girl, he feels, the light will be restored to his dark existence.
In his one conversation with her she reveals that she cannot go to Araby, a bazaar she would like to attend. She suggests that it would be "well" for him to go. He speaks impulsively: "If I go I will bring you something." His opportunity has come. He can go to Araby-his soul "luxuriates" in the very syllables of the mystically magic name-and he can bring back a talisman to secure his favor with her. The lost light of his world will be restored. Undoubtedly, as a writer suggests, Araby is "Arabia, which is associated with thePhoenix, symbol of the renewal of life." 5
Over half the story is concerned with the delays and frustrations in his plans for his quest, and with his final journey to the "en-chanted" place, where the talisman will be procured. Significantly, he must go to Araby alone. The train is deserted; when throngs of buyers try to press their way onto the train the porters move them back,saying this "is a special train for the bazaar." All who go on a quest for the high and the holy must go alone.
Arriving, he finds the bazaar nearly empty. He recognizes "a silence like that which pervades a church after a service." The church is empty; it is not attended by the faithful. Two men count money on a "silver salver." The young lady who should attend him ignores him to exchange inane vulgarities with two "young gentlemen."
Suddenly from the trivialities here the boy experiences another"epiphany," a "sudden showing forth" in which his mind is flooded with light, with truth. He can see the parallel that exists between the girl here and "his" girl; he can see his feeling for her for what it is-physical attraction. Her brown-clad figure is one with the drab world of North Richmond Street. Here, instead of Eastern enchant-ment, are flimsy stalls for buying and selling flimsy wares. His grail has turned out to be only flimsy tea sets covered with artificial flowers. As the upper hall becomes completely dark, the boy realizes that his quest has ended. Gazing upward, he sees the vanity of imagining he can carry a chalice through a dark throng of foes.

1 Carl G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soid. trans. W. S. Dell and CaryF. Baynes (New York, 1933), pp. 156-157.

2 William Bysshe Stein, "Joyce's '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.