摘 要

《阿拉比》讲述的是一个都柏林青年追寻自己梦想的情人但最终幻想破灭的故事。本文以简要介绍作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯及其短篇小说《阿拉比》为开端，详细分析了故事中运用的具有代表性的象征物，从而揭示了故事的主题思想——整个社会陷入了精神瘫痪。

关键词：象征；《阿拉比》；精神瘫痪

Contents

1. Introduction........................................................................................................1

2. Demonstration....................................................................................................2

2.1 Symbols regarding the setting..........................................................................2

2.1.1 Araby..............................................................................................................2

2. 1.2 North Richmond Street.................................................................................4

2.2. Symbol involving religion...............................................................................4

2.2.1 Dead priest.....................................................................................................4

2.2.2 The wild garden.............................................................................................5

2.3 Symbol concerning the character......................................................................6

2.3.1.Mangan’s sister...............................................................................................7

2.3.2. The boy’s aunt and uncle...............................................................................7

3. Conclusion...........................................................................................................8

Works Cited............................................................................................................9

Bibliography...........................................................................................................10

An Analysis of the Symbols in Araby

1. Introduction

Araby is one of the fifteen short stories that together make up James Joyce's collection, Dubliners. Although Joyce wrote the stories between 1904 and 1906, they were not published until 1914. Dubliners paints a picture of life in Dublin, Ireland, at the turn of the 20th century. Its stories are arranged in order of the development of a child into a grown man. The stories are told either from the perspective of a young boy or from an adolescent. "Araby" is the last story of the first set, and is told from the perspective of a boy just on the verge of adolescence. The story takes its title from a real festival which came to Dublin in 1894 when Joyce was twelve years old.

Joyce was born in 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar, Dublin—a kilometre from his mother's birthplace in Terenure—into a middle-class family on the way down. A brilliant student, he excelled at the Jesuit schools Clongowes and Belvedere, despite the chaotic family life imposed by his father's alcoholism and unpredictable finances. He went on to attend University College Dublin.

In 1904, in his early twenties he emigrated permanently to continental Europe with his partner Nora Barnacle. They lived in Trieste, Paris, and Zurich. Though most of his adult life was spent abroad, Joyce's fictional universe centres on Dublin, and is populated largely by characters who closely resemble family members, enemies and friends from his time there; Ulysses in particular is set with precision in the streets and alleyways of the city. Shortly after the publication of Ulysses, he elucidated this preoccupation somewhat, saying, "For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal." (Ellman 505）