“Araby” by James Joyce is a story about a boy who thinks he is in love and his realization that what he is feeling is not love but a simple attraction towards someone he thinks is attractive. The narrator himself realizes this a little before the end of the story in paragraph 5 where,” if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration.” even when the narrator assumes he is in love he is confused about why he became like this. We the readers can also tell that something is wrong as the we don’t even learn the girls name. There is also nothing mentioned about her other than her beauty like in paragraph 9 where,” The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing.”
When the narrator finally gets to go to Araby it is mostly closed except for a few stalls and he goes to shop at one. When asked by someone if he wished to buy something he says that he doesn’t and he pretends that he is interested in the vases and tea-sets. After leaving he realizes that he wasn’t in love with the girl as he didn’t even know anything about her. Instead he was in awe of her beauty and mistook it for love and is angry at himself for deluding himself into thinking it was love.
