Araby

Araby The story of Araby is a perfectly planned route to the revelation of an epiphany. In Joyce’s last line, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger,” the epiphany is realized. In the final line the meaning of the young boy’s journey from love to despair and disappointment is revealed. These last few words play on …

…this word coincides with the rest of the religious undertones in the story. As the blindness is lifted the boy realizes that the things he feels so compelled to do are inconsequential, meaningless, worthless, or as he put it, done in vain. Everything in the story leads up to a veil being lifted from the boy’s eyes and letting him see the falsity of his dreams until his eyes burn “with anguish and anger.”