This paper analyzes how James Joyce's careful word choice in the short story "Araby" — part of his celebrated collection Dubliners — reveals the narrator's character as a hopeless romantic. Through close reading of key passages, the paper demonstrates that Joyce's diction does more than describe events; it illuminates the narrator's inner emotional life. From the narrator's heart leaping at the sight of Mangan's sister to his wish to "annihilate the tedious intervening days" and his vision of himself bearing a "chalice" through a crowd of "foes," the paper argues that each instance of heightened language confirms the narrator's tendency to romanticize both his surroundings and his feelings.
This paper demonstrates effective close reading: the writer identifies specific words within quotations and unpacks their connotative and figurative weight rather than treating passages as self-explanatory. This technique — isolating individual word choices and explaining why those choices matter — is the core skill of literary diction analysis.
The paper opens with a thesis-driven introduction establishing diction as the analytical lens, then moves through three body paragraphs, each anchored to a different textual moment: the narrator's interactions with Mangan's sister, his emotional restlessness in her absence, and his market-crowd fantasy. A concluding paragraph synthesizes the evidence and restates the central claim about the narrator's romantic characterization.
The diction employed by Joyce in his short story "Araby" — one of many works in his celebrated collection Dubliners — is critical to the interpretation of the story. Beyond everything else, the author's choice of wording helps to reveal key elements about the narrator. These elements are not related to the basics of characterization: who he is, what he is doing, and why. Instead, Joyce's diction is an important determinant in evaluating how the narrator does what he does, and how he is actually feeling through the various stages of the plot. A careful analysis of the author's word choice reveals that, more than anything, the narrator's character is that of a hopeless romantic — one for whom life can never hope to be as pleasant as his romanticized perception of things.
The chief cause of the narrator's romantic characterization is, of course, the sister of his playmate Mangan — a beautiful girl who is part of a convent and, as such, is woefully beyond the reach of the narrator, who is merely a schoolboy. In his interactions with Mangan's sister, the narrator reveals his romantic disposition through the words he uses to describe both himself and her. For instance, when he witnesses her leaving in the mornings, Joyce writes that the narrator's "heart leaped." Although the imagery in this particular phrasing is somewhat routine and even clichéd, the connotation of the narrator's heart jumping for joy at the sight of this girl is representative of his romantic nature.
More original imagery is found in the passage in which the narrator admits that the very name of this young woman serves as "a summons to all my foolish blood" (Joyce). The fact that the effect she produces upon him is referred to as a "summons" underscores the power of that effect. More importantly, it also proves that the narrator is extremely attracted to this young woman and is a romantic who genuinely savors such attraction.
Still, the more convincing evidence that Joyce's diction provides — demonstrating that the narrator is a hopeless romantic — is found in the scenes in which Mangan's sister is nowhere present, and the boy still shows a tendency to romanticize his surroundings and situation. Granted, he is already possessed by thoughts of this girl, and even more so after he promises to bring her back a gift from an upcoming bazaar. However, the narrator's true romantic characterization is revealed in the following passage: "I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days. I chafed against the work of school" (Joyce).
The diction in this passage is particularly striking, and all the more so because it occurs without the presence of Mangan's sister. Once the narrator makes his promise to her, he strongly resents anything that stands in the way of fulfilling it. That strong resentment is demonstrated in his referring to the days before he attends the bazaar as "tedious," and in his actual wish to destroy them. Literally, of course, no one can destroy days. However, the very fact that the narrator wishes to do so shows that he holds a romanticized view of life — summoning poetry in his thoughts, underscored by the powerful imagery of destroying time itself — ever since he has been possessed by the idea of Mangan's sister. Less powerful diction in this passage would have indicated a more casual affection for her. The potency of the language, however, confirms the romantic tendencies that define the narrator's characterization.
In summary, Joyce cleverly manipulates diction throughout the short story "Araby" to illustrate the narrator's character as a hopeless romantic. He is initially struck by the presence of a beautiful girl, and the author's description of numerous other developments in the plot incorporates wording that underscores how much the narrator both admires this young woman and how he perceives himself and the rest of his life in relation to his feelings for her. She makes him feel capable of slaying time and overcoming a deadly crowd of market-goers — all of which testifies to the classical romantic point of view the narrator embraces, and which is the defining element of his characterization.
Joyce, James. "Araby." 1914.
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