摘 要

詹姆斯·乔伊斯作为一位爱尔兰作家、诗人，是二十世纪最伟大的作家之一，现代派文学的奠基者之一，其作品及“意识流”思想对世界文坛影响巨大。其主要作品有短篇小说集《都柏林人》，描写下层市民的日常生活，显示社会环境对人的理想和希望的毁灭。

《阿拉比》是《都柏林人》的短篇小说集的第三篇作品，是詹姆斯·乔伊斯早期现实主义小说中的一篇，充分显露乔伊斯在意识流方面的才华。其结尾对于“顿悟”这一艺术手法的运用在文学史上有其重要地位。

本文聚焦主角保罗在成长过程中的心理变化，分为五章。第一章主要介绍詹姆斯·乔伊斯和他的作品《阿拉比》；第二章分析主人公保罗初见女孩的盲目爱情；第三章分析主人公保罗漫长又苦涩的爱慕心理；第四章分析主人公最后的精神“顿悟”及其作用。第五章总结全文，指出了论文的局限性同时也展望对于未来研究的可能性。

关键词：阿拉比；詹姆斯·乔伊斯；顿悟；心理变化

Abstract

As an Irish writer and poet, James Joyce is one of the greatest writers in the twentieth century, and one of the founders of modernism. The thoughts of "stream of consciousness" in his work have great influence on the literary world. His main works include the short story collection Dubliners, describing the daily life of the lower citizens, showing the destruction of the social environment to the ideals and hopes of the people.

This paper studies the famous short novel “Araby”, mainly analyzing the psychological changes of the protagonist, Paul, in the period of growing up. “Araby”, the third work of short story collections "Dubliners", is one of James Joyce's early realistic novels, which fully reveals Joyce's talent in “the stream of consciousness”. At the end of “Araby”, the application of the "epiphany" is a significant example in the history of literature.

This paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter mainly introduces James Joyce and his works “Araby”. The second chapter analyses the blind love of the protagonist Paul to Mangan’s sister. The third chapter illustrates the long and bitter admiration of the protagonist Paul. The fourth chapter explains the boy's final "epiphany" and its importance. The fifth chapter summarizes the whole paper, pointing out the limitations of the paper, and looking forward to the possibility of further study.

Key Words: Araby；James Joyce; Epiphany; Psychological changes

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 James Joyce and "Araby" 1

1.2 Literature review 2

1.3 Structure of the paper 2

2 The Blind Love 4

2.1 The innocenct boy 4

2.2 The imagined lover 5

3 Desire in a Long Time 6

3.1 The origin of the desire 6

3.2 Analysis of the desire 7

4 Epiphany In the End 9

4.1 Anguish and anger 10

4.2 The analysis of epiphany 10

5. Conclusion 12

5.1 Summary 12

5.2 Limitations and further study 13

References 14

Acknowledgements 15

Analyzing the Psychological Changes of Paul in “Araby”

1 Introduction

James Joyce and “Araby”

James Joyce was an Irish poet, short story writer, and novelist. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde and is regarded as one of the most influential and important authors of the 20th century. Joyce is best known for Ulysses (1922), a landmark work of stream of consciousness. Other well-known works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939). His other writings include three books of poetry, his published letters, a play and occasional journalism.

Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories first published in 1914 by Joyce. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in the early years of the 20th century in and around Dublin. The stories centre on Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment when a character experiences a life-changing self-understanding or illumination. "Araby" is a short story by James Joyce published in Dubliners，which touches on a great deal of themes: coming of age, meeting of imagination with reality, the loss of innocence, the life of the mind versus poverty (both physical and intellectual), the consequences of idealization and the pain that often comes when one encounters love in reality instead of its elevated form. These themes build on one another entirely through the thoughts of the young boy, who is portrayed by the first-person narrator.

"Araby" tells a growth story of a boy's first love from the perspective of first person narration. In this short story, the boy, Paul, was an innocent and growing boy, who lived in a "blind" street named North Richmond. Out of the pursuing of obscure affection and spiritual nature, he wanted to buy a present in "Araby", a splendid bazaar, for his beloved girl-- Mangan's sister. After a short talk with Mangan's sister, whose figure and name counted more than the real person herself in the boy's heart, the boy strove to get through days and nights and looked forward to the day when he could go to the Araby. But when he finally went to the bazaar it was about to come to an end. All he saw was a young lady flirting with two gentlemen and no one paid attention to him. The boy finally got the insight from the reality and was on his way towards maturity, becoming aware of the grimness of the reality and great discrepancy between the real world and the ideal world in his mind.

• 1. Literature review

Compared with other famous literary works by James Joyce, the number of papers and researches concerning "Araby" is not considerable, no matter at home or abroad, not to mention researches in recent years.

Searching on EBSCO, 1086 results can be found. Most of the results concern on the general review of "Araby" itself, and are likely to make a comparison between "Araby" and another work. For instance, “John Updike's `Aamp;P': A return to Araby”, written by Wells Walter, studies the works of the writer John Updike in the restating of great works of literature, like "Araby", into his own fictional style and detailed similarities of the two works(Walter, 2010:7). Also, “Araby and the Writings of James Joyce”, written by Stone Harry, probes into the difference between “Araby” and other writings of Jame Joyce(Harry, 1965:134-140). However, few of the results concern on a certain character or the psychological division.