Essay Questions

Why does Mr. Duffy detest the city?- “A Painful Case”

James Joyce writes, “Mr James Duffy lived in Chapelizod because he wished to live as far as possible from the city of which he was a citizen and because he found all the other suburbs of Dublin mean, modern and pretentious. He lived in an old sombre house and from his windows he could look into the disused distillery or upwards along the shallow river on which Dublin is built.” Mr. Duffy prefers country life for he deems it to be relaxed and real. For Mr. Duffy, residing outside the city enables him to evade unpleasantness and hollowness. His preference indicates that he is an orthodox man who does not appreciate the modernism which is rife in the city. Accordingly, no amount of pomp in the city would appeal to him.

Which instinct governs the narrator’s actions in “Araby”?

The narrator explains, “Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen. When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped. I ran to the hall, seized my books and followed her. I kept her brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the point at which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her. This happened morning after morning.” Here, the Love Instinct is at work. The narrator is completely smitten by the girl to the degree that he looks for opportunities to behold her and be close to her. The instinct elicits his unconscious desire of trailing the girl so he can be close to her. The consistency of his actions of monitoring the girl depicts overwhelming passion which he cannot disregard.

Expound the literary and symbolic significance of the light in the resolution. (“Araby”)

Concerning the light, the narrator states, “I heard a voice call from one end of the gallery that the light was out.” The waning of the light denotes a symbolic epiphany that is equivalent to the narrator’s wake up call. The narrator finds himself in darkness. It makes him discern the vanity of his illusion of ‘Araby’: the darkness brings the reality home for the narrator, who concludes that his actions are epitomes of vanity.