Araby 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

One rainy night, the narrator goes into the back drawing room where the priest died and lets his emotions take over. He presses his palms together as if in prayer and repeats “O Love” continually in the dark.

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.

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 master begins to notice and becomes stern with him. The narrator starts to feel like school and everyday life are “ugly monotonous child’s play.”

On Saturday morning, the narrator reminds 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.

When the narrator goes back downstairs, Mrs. Mercer, the pawnbroker’s widow, is there. They wait for the narrator’s uncle to 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 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 shopkeeper of the stall flirting with two men, all of them speaking with English accents.

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.