James Joyce (1882-1941) was born in Dublin. Along with WB Yeats and George Bernard Shaw, he formed the trio. Joyce’s novel, “A Portrait of the Youngman” is a very popular novel, “Dubliners” (1905) his first book. It is the collection of stories. The other important works of his are “Ulysses (1922),” Finnegan’s Lake “(1939).

“Araby” by James Joyce is a great favorite short story of all time. “Araby” can be criticized from different aspects. It is the story of a boy. James Joyce impregnates the theme of his story with various symbolic nuances, he creates the real world. In the real world, each and every person has to face frustration, discontent, love, hate, reality. This is true and universal. “Araby is about dreams, happiness, realism, darkness and the monotonous world.

The boy hero of the story lives in the drab surroundings of Dublin. From the beginning of the story, we know that the boy has a secret adoration for a girl. She is the sister of the hero boy’s friend Mangan. The boy has a very deep and pure passion for the girl of his dreams. He fervently waits every day to catch a glimpse of the girl. But the guy never gets a chance to talk to his beloved. He always carries the image of the girl. He can’t forget her name for a moment. he describes her condition in the following words: “I imagined that she carried the chalice safely through a crowd of enemies.”

The boy-hero yearned for the girl’s beauty and love. Very casually the girl talks to the boy. It’s a great moment for the boy. The girl talks about “Araby”, a great party, it is the land of dreams that is full of glamor and grandeur. For the child it is a double gift. Firstly, the girl from her dreams talks to her, and secondly, he is delighted with the place “Araby”. It’s another romantic affair for the boy-hero.

He wants to visit this dream land together with his girl. But she cannot accompany him since she has retired in her convent. The boy promises that he will bring some gifts for her from that splendid place called — Arabia. The boy-hero now wishes to memorize those few moments and very small phrases that they exchanged. This is the only important job for the child. And on the other hand he wants to go to the magical place called Arabia. He eagerly awaits the day when he will go to Arabia. He is very excited and full of emotion. He is very happy that he is finally on his way to the destination of his dreams.

But due to a delay, he arrived in Arabia at a very awkward time. When he arrives at the venue at that time, most of the stalls are closed and a large part of the gala ends in darkness. He cannot savor the glamor and grandeur of the place he dreams of. He discovers that all the dreams are shattering before his eyes and he can’t do anything to hold back his dreams. There is complete darkness in the hallway. He discovers that the place is only intended for commercial purposes. And in such a place neither his dream nor her love can stand strong. She left the place in anger and frustration. The place has no charm for him. He discovers that this place is very inferior. You cannot match the place in his dream with the real place where he is.

The place is basically a place to bargain and buy different products. In such a place all his dreams collapse. Before entering the place you are in the world of dreams. In that world he finds the girl and Arabia. But from now on you can see the harsh reality which is very harsh. You feel frustration and this frustration is universal. It is found deep in the heart of man. Everyone wishes to free him from the monotonous reality but fails. Failure, frustration, mechanical form, anger, anguish are all universal diseases of every man.

Joyce very well and easily through this guy held the idea of ​​the current standard of living. He uses various images and symbols to show the universal experiences of this universe. Herein lies Joyce’s simplicity toward life and his approach to life. Through the love relationship between the boy and the girl he focuses on the point that we want sometimes we do not get that desired and most sought after object in our life. Then we only suffer from frustration.