Ewrt 1 c class 13 post qhq araby

EWRT 1C Class
13
The Short Story

AGENDA
 Author Introductions
 James Joyce
 Anton Chekhov
 Short Story Discussions:
 “Araby”
 “The Bet”
 Historical Content
 Literary Style
 Questions
 QHQ

JAMES
JOYCE (1882-
1941)
James Joyce was born into a
middle-class, Catholic family
in a suburb of Dublin, on
February 2, 1882.

 Joyce's father, John Joyce even though
he was a good-natured man, was a
drinker who wasted the family's
resources. The family’s prosperity
dwindled, forcing them to move from
their comfortable home to the
unfashionable and impoverished area
of North Dublin.
 Nonetheless, Joyce attended a
prestigious Jesuit school and went on
to study philosophy and languages at
University College, Dublin. He moved to
Paris after graduation in 1902 to
pursue medical school, but instead he
turned his attention to writing.
James Joyce Age 6

 In 1903 he returned to
Dublin, where he met his
future wife, Nora
Barnacle, the following
year.
 From then on, Joyce made
his home in other
countries. From 1905 to
1915 he and Nora lived in
Rome and Trieste, Italy, and
from 1915 to 1919 they
lived in Zurich, Switzerland.
Between World War I and
World War II, they lived in
Paris. They returned to
Zurich in 1940, where Joyce
died in 1941

James Joyce
 Joyce regarded himself as a genius
and refused to make any compromises
in his writing to achieve commercial
success. His difficult personality
alienated many people who came into
contact with him, but he enjoyed the
devotion of Nora, his brother Stanislaus,
and a number of close friends and
patrons who recognized and helped to
nurture his exceptional talent. Since his
death in Zurich in 1941, readers, critics,
and scholars have continued to study his
works. He is regarded today as one of
the most important authors of the
twentieth century and as a giant of
literary modernism.
Major Works:
Dubliners 1914
A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man 1916
Exiles and Poetry 1918
Ulysses 1922
Finnegan’s Wake 1938
Joyce talking with publishers
Sylvia Beach and Adrienne
Monnier at Shakespeare &
Co., Paris, 1920

“Araby”
 “Araby” is the third of the fifteen stories in Dubliners (1914). These
stories examine the hazards of the various stages in life, and “Araby”
marks the end of childhood and the beginning of adolescence.
 James Joyce based “Araby” on his own experiences as an adolescent
resident of Dublin in 1894, when Ireland was chafing under British rule.
 Like the fictional narrator of “Araby,” Joyce lived on North Richmond
Street (No. 17) in the central part of the city. He was also undergoing a
period of self-discovery.
 The climactic scene takes place in South Dublin, across the River Liffey from
central Dublin, at a bazaar in a large building. Such a bazaar—billed as
Araby: a Grand Oriental Fête (or as “A Grand Oriental Fête: Araby in Dublin”)
was actually held in Dublin between May 14 and May 19, 1894, to
benefit a local hospital.

Historical Context
 As he portrays it in his work, Joyce’s Dublin was
composed mostly of lower-to middle-class residents
oppressed by financial hardships, foreign political
dominance, quarrelsome rival Irish nationalist groups, and
the overwhelming influence of the Irish Catholic Church.
 In the late 1800s, Ireland was still reeling from the
agricultural disasters of mid-century and the massive Irish
immigration (mainly to the United States) that followed.
Consistently throughout the stories, characters agonize
over a crown or even a shilling; this underscores the
prevailing financial difficulties among most citizens.

Politics
 Ireland was ruled by the British
monarchy, which, of course, many of the
Irish resented. The British government
had an open hostility to both the Irish (for
their general lack of education and their
superstitious ways) and the Catholic
Church. That the British profited from its
presence in Ireland only served to further
inflame the Irish at the British presence.

Charles Stewart
Parnell
 Charles Stewart Parnell was a
political leader in the 1880s.
Because of his influence, political
savvy and staunch support of
home rule, the achievement of
Ireland’s independence seemed
more likely under Parnell’s
leadership than ever before.
However, a romantic scandal in
1889 damaged Parnell’s
reputation, allowing his opponents
and groups of zealous Catholics
(Parnell was Protestant), to
discredit him and undermine his
power base. This broke Parnell,
leading to his political defeat and—
ultimately—his death in 1891.
CHARLES STEWART PARNELL
(1846-1891). Irish nationalist
leader, on an American
advertising circular of the 1880s.

The Catholic Church
 An overwhelming force in the Ireland of Joyce’s period
was that of the Irish Catholic Church, since a vast
majority of the Irish were Catholics. According to his
biographer, Richard Ellmann, Joyce believed that the
“real sovereign of Ireland [was] the Pope” (Ellmann,
James Joyce, 256). Although Joyce left the Church,
Ellmann adds, he “continued to denounce all his life
the deviousness of Papal policy,” finding the Church
and the papacy “deaf” to Irish cries for help (Ellmann,
James Joyce, 257).

 The first-person point of view in "Araby"
means that readers see the story
through the eyes of the narrator and
know what he feels and thinks. When
the narrator is confused or conflicted
about his feelings, then readers must
figure out how the narrator really feels
and why he feels that way. For
example, when the narrator first
describes Mangan's sister, he says that
"her figure [is] defined by the light from
the half-opened door.'' In other words,
she is lit from behind, giving her an
unearthly "glow," like an angel or
supernatural being such as the Virgin
Mary. Readers are left to interpret the
meaning behind the narrator's words,
because the boy is not sophisticated
enough to understand his own desires.

 Joyce is famous for using a stream-of-consciousness technique for storytelling.
Although stream of consciousness does not figure prominently in "Araby,'' a
reader can see the beginnings of Joyce's use of this technique, which he used
extensively in his subsequent novels, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. A major
feature of stream-of-consciousness storytelling is that the narration takes
place inside the mind of main characters and follows their thoughts as
they occur to them, whether those thoughts are complete sentences or
not. Although this story uses complete sentences for its storytelling, the
narration takes place inside the boy's mind. Another feature of stream-of-
consciousness narration is that the narrator's thoughts are not explained
for the reader. This is true of "Araby" as well, especially during and after the
boy's epiphany.

Choose NEW TEAMS
1. The teams will change on
or near essay due dates.
2. You must change at least
50% of your team after
each project is
completed.
3. You may never be on a
team with the same
person more than twice.
4. You may never have a
new team composed of
more than 50% of any
prior team.

Questions for Thought
1. Identify and discuss one or more of the
numerous religious symbols in the story.
2. The narrator of "Araby" moves from
innocence to experience through his
epiphany. What has he learned by the end
of the story?
3. Write a short psychological profile of the
narrator based on a passage from the story.
4. Tensions, Ambiguity, Paradox, and Irony?

Identify and discuss one or more of the
numerous religious symbols in the
story.
A religious symbol in “Araby” is the word “blood.” A second symbol the narrator
uses is when he says, “I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of
foes. ” The word “chalice” is used to interpret Jesus during the last supper, in which
Jesus takes a cup, or chalice, and tells his disciples it is his blood; moreover, it
represents Jesus dying for the new covenant.
One of the religious symbols that is seen in the short story “Araby” is prayer. The
main character is seen praying as numerous occasions. In the traditional sense,
prayer is used to thank God for the things he has done and to wish better things on
others. In this case he is wishing for the girl that he is into and he wants personal
gain. You see this first when the speaker says, “Her name sprang to my lips at
moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand .” The
main character is putting this women over everything, even God. We see this type of
praying again when he goes to the back room where the priest died and he is
practically begging for love.

Write a short psychological profile of the
narrator based on a passage from the
story.
 What roles do the ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO act out
through the speaker in “Araby”?
 At nine o'clock I heard my uncle's latchkey in the hall door.
I heard him talking to himself and heard the hallstand
rocking when it had received the weight of his overcoat. I
could interpret these signs. When he was midway through
his dinner I asked him to give me the money to go to the
bazaar. He had forgotten.

The narrator of "Araby" moves from innocence
to experience through his epiphany. What has
he learned by the end of the story?
“I lingered before her stall, though I knew my stay was useless, to
make my interest in her wares seem the more real. Then I turned
away slowly and walked down the middle of the bazaar. I allowed
the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my pocket. I heard
a voice call from one end of the gallery that the light was out. The
upper part of the hall was now completely dark.
Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven
and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and
anger. “

QHQ “ARABY”
1. What is the disadvantage of dogmatic institutions as
shown in James Joyce’s Araby?
1. What is the narrator’s epiphany at the end of the
story?

Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov was one of the most
influential literary artists to usher in the
era of modernism, particularly in short
fiction. When his stories were first made
widely available in English, they were
termed mere sketches, lacking in all the
elements that constituted the short-story
form. Critics soon began to realize,
however, that Chekhov’s freedom from
the prevailing conventions of social
realism and formalized plot indicated the
beginnings of a modern kind of narrative,
which combined the specific detail of
realism with the poetic lyricism of
Romanticism.
1860-1904

Chekhov’s most significant contributions
to the short-story form include the
following:
1. The presentation of character as a psychological
mood rather than as a realistic personality
2. The conception of a story as a lyrical sketch rather
than as a highly plotted tale
3. The assumption of reality as basically
impressionistic and as a function of narrative
perspective or point of view.
The final result of these innovations has been
the modernist and postmodernist view of
reality as a fictional construct.

Context
Just prior to the birth of Chekhov, Russia underwent a
widespread uprising to bring about the end of the
autocracy of the tsar and the feudal system. In 1861,
Alexander II issued an emancipation that freed the serfs
and set in motion the first civil rights in Russia. The gentry,
without their serfs, were unable to maintain their position in
society. The law was codified during this time, a process
that led to the creation of the legal profession, to which one
of the protagonists in “The Bet” belonged.

During these years, the issues of literacy and education
came to the forefront. The gentry formed into a group called
Populists, putting forth the idea of a united population that
included the peasants. Industrialization brought more
workers to major cities, and educated men like those in “The
Bet” gathered together to discuss sociopolitical ideals.
Literature had been highly censored prior to the
emancipation, and now writers began to find ways to criticize
the current regime and its politics. However, they had to
approach it cleverly, because reform was not so complete
that open opposition was tolerated. Chekhov managed by
simply depicting the inequities of the system without
commenting on their moral implications.

Style
The banker and the lawyer serve as voices of two
different viewpoints. Except for the letter written at the
end of the fifteen-year period, Chekhov does not reveal
the thoughts of the captive. On the other hand, the story
begins with the banker’s memories and observations,
proceeds to his worries about money and his resolution
to kill the prisoner rather than pay the bet, and concludes
with the banker’s self-contempt and with his self-
protective gesture. It might be that Chekhov is more
interested in the psychological and ironic possibilities of
the Banker’s account than in a didactic point about the
value of freedom or life.

Irony
The ironies in “The Bet” are numerous. The arrogant banker
is reduced to humility through the loss of his fortune. Once
considered an upstanding man of the community, he is
reduced to a man who intends to murder his adversary. The
lawyer's imprisonment changes him from a man assured of
the sanctity of preserving life in any way possible to one
who cares nothing for life or freedom. Neither man wins,
and neither man is considered morally good or bad, but in
the conclusion, irony takes over. The characters’
thoughtless last acts serve to free one another. Instead of
killing the lawyer, the banker plants a kiss on his head. The
prisoner then escapes, freeing the banker from having to
pay his debt.

Point of View
“The Bet” is told from the point of view of an objective
narrator. Laura Merlin explains that Chekhov used what T.
S. Eliot would later call the “objective correlative,” an
element that often appears in the modern short story. The
narrator's identity is unknown, and he relates little
commentary on the actions of the characters, except that
which is entirely visible to one watching the plot unfold;
there are no prejudices toward the characters and no moral
for the ending.. The narrator gives himself the license to
add an exclamation mark when describing how the bet
finally was agreed upon, to show the ridiculous nature of it,
but he denotes no hero, no winner, and no lesson to be
learned from the debacle.

Usually Chekhov’s imagery, too, reflects his psychological
interest. Certainly in “The Bet” it is appropriate that the story
begins on a dark rainy night and that the banker’s
temptation to murder occurs on a dark, cold, rainy night, that
he passes a bare bed and a cold stove on the way to the
sealed room, and that the prisoner’s room is dark, with a
dimming candle. All these images of death are consistent
with the banker’s resolution, as well as with the lawyer’s
death-in-life. Because they are seen through the banker’s
eyes, however, they are particularly important as reflecting
his own psychological condition, a despair that is itself a
death-in-life, and that may finally be Chekhov’s particular
interest in “The Bet.”
Imagery and Psychology

In Groups: Discuss “The Bet”
 Write a short psychological
profile of either the lawyer
or the banker in “The Bet”
based on a passage or two
from the story.
 Has the lawyer been
traumatized or
enlightened? Why do you
think so?
 QHQ “The Bet”
 Tensions, Ambiguity,
Paradox, and Irony?

Has the lawyer been traumatized or enlightened?
Why do you think so?
1. The lawyer has been enlightened. The lawyer came out of his own cave,
he saw the reality of the world he had been living in. The world he used to
see was money, physical beauty, and social class. The banker, or those
with money, value the “important” objects of this world, yet the lawyer
spent time alone, met himself and the real value of life.
2. I believe the lawyer has been both traumatized and enlightened after his
experience of being locked up for 15 years. In the letter he wrote the day
before the bet was to be expired, he describes how he went on many
adventures through the literature he had read. The enlightenment that was
present to the readers of the story was the lawyer knowing two million was
not worth what he had gone through those past 15 years. [. . .] Being
aware that money cannot fix the thoughts that ran through his mind those
nights that he was alone is knowing that the time he was locked away will
forever be a part of him.

Has the lawyer been traumatized or
enlightened? Why do you think so?
3. It was insisted that the lawyer may have written the letter over
and over again, ripping it apart in the morning, until he was able
to finalize his thoughts. The last mention of letter writing from his
last night indicated the lawyer may have been enlightened, but
was pushed towards enlightenment by the traumatizing event.
4. The fifteen years that the lawyer spent alone made him realize
that what you make for yourself on earth will eventually be
diminish: “[…]and your prosperity, your history, and the
immortality of your men of genius will be as frozen slag, burnt
down together with the terrestrial globe.”
5. The lawyer has been enlightened because the fifteen years he
spent as a prisoner gave him the means to explore the true value
of life.

Who was more emotionally impacted and/or
traumatized- the lawyer or the banker?
 In Anton Chekhov’s “The Bet,” I believe both the lawyer and the
banker were equally as traumatized by their experience. [. . .]
The lawyer does end up sitting through 15 years of his life
locked in a small room with no contact to the outside world.
However, as he sat there for 15 years, he was not the only
imprisoned person. So was the banker who made this bet. He
was just as imprisoned as the lawyer since his money turned
into debts and he could not afford the two millions. He became
paranoid and began having thoughts of death since “The only
escape from bankruptcy and disgrace- is that the man should
die” (3).
 For the lawyer, the experience has also been greatly
traumatizing. He comes out with a completely different belief
about life. He sat in the room reading book after book and in the
end he decides to lose the bet by leaving 5 minutes early. He
“[waives] the two millions of which [he] once dreamed as of
paradise, as which [he] now [despises]” (4). For him, life’s
pleasures took a new meaning and his entirety changed.

QHQ “The Bet”
 Why did the lawyer decide to violate the agreement only
minutes before 15 years had past?
 What value does the character of the lawyer in Anton
Chekhov’s “The Bet” serve to human civilization?
 So what is the answer to the lawyer’s and banker’s dispute:
Is it better to be punished by life imprisonment or capital
punishment?
 Why didn’t the lawyer take the money? knowledge with a
little money on the side does not hurt.
 At the end of the story, why did the banker feel contempt for
himself?

HOMEWORK
Read “The Story of an Hour”
Post #12: Choose one
 Discuss Mrs. Mallard as a
sympathetic character or as a
cruel and selfish character.
How might your own gender,
age, class or ethnicity
influence your response?
 Do you think Chopin's critique
of the institution of marriage,
as expressed by Louise, is
applicable today?
 Discuss the story through one
critical lens
 Discuss Trauma: who suffers
it and why?
 QHQ
Read: “A Very Old Man with
Enormous Wings”
Post #13: Choose one
 Speculate on the identity of the
“old man.”
 How does the manner in which
Garcia Marquez treats the
traditional idea of angels in "A
Very Old Man with Enormous
Wings" compare with the way
angels are represented or
interpreted elsewhere?
 Discuss the story through one
critical lens
 Discuss Trauma: who suffers it and
why?
 QHQ

Ewrt 1 c class 13 post qhq araby

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