The Downgrading Demise of Love :: English Literature

The Downgrading Demise of Love â€Å"North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street.† (198). Ignorance is a harmful state of mind, which gives a false sense of happiness to those consumed by it. Ignorance does not allow one to mature by experience of actual events. It shelters one’s perception of actual events by giving illusions of hope. It allows the imagination to instill more meaning into an incident, where there is none. In â€Å"Araby,† James Joyce illustrates how the boy overcomes his oblivious state through irony, epiphany, and symbolism. An obvious example found in the story is the immense amount of irony used throughout â€Å"Araby.† The boy has the idea that love is always perfect and the love he holds for Mangan’s sister is perfect. In the real world, however, he has an aunt and uncle that show what love really is like. When his uncle arrives home late to take him to the bazarre, his aunt begins to argue and demand that he give the boy some money to go to the bazarre (989). The boy completely ignores this glimpse at real life. The boy realizes how life is not perfect and that love is full of compromises. He begins his trip to the bazarre and is excited on the train to arrive at this electrifying event. His idea of the bazarre is that it will be a wonderful place that will make Mangan’s sister fall in love with him. However, when he arrives, he witnesses a dark, dismal place with a grim surrounding (990). Through all the irony in his life, he realizes that he is that opposite of what he is trying to be. Perhaps one of the greatest credentials, which illustrate how the boy is oblivious to the world, is that he realizes his ignorance. All throughout the story, there are innuendoes that he is â€Å"missing something.† Some of these hints range from the symbolic blind houses to his own mental absence at the gathering before he finally gets to go to the fair. His proceeding into the dark, half-closed fair, rather than face the truth that he missed it initially, shows he simply â€Å"does not get it.† Then, however, his realization occurs. In a moment of epiphany, the boy is enlightened to how he has missed even the most obvious fact. On his determination to have his life, as he wants it, he does not realize until the epiphany that Mangan’s sister never likes him. The boy becomes conscious to the fact that he has missed his opportunity from the start. The boy sees for himself that he has