Brittany Charpentier
18 October 2011

Reader Response Criticism of James Joyce’s “Araby” Though there are many different theories to interpret the short story “Araby” I have chosen a reader response theory known as transactional reader response. In doing so I hope to show the connection between text and reader and how our emotions and state of mind directly reflect on how we interpret works of literature. In transactional reader response theory, presented by both Louise Rosenblatt and Wolfgang Iser, I will be using the text of “Araby” as my blueprint to guide me to my conclusions and how I interpret the text. According to Iser the text provides readers with two kinds of meanings determinate and indeterminate:
“Determinate meaning refers to what might be called the facts of the text, certain events in the plot or physical descriptions clearly provided by the words on the page. In indeterminate meaning or indeterminacy, refers to “gaps” in the text – such as actions that are not clearly explained or seem to have multiple explanations…” (Tyson 174)
By using both indeterminate and determinate meanings within the blueprint of “Araby” I will construct and describe the reading process I undertake. In the beginning of the blueprint we are introduced to the narrator’s surroundings in which he lives. He describes the street he lives on as isolated and goes on to include telling of the previous owner of the house being a deceased priest. The surroundings of the narrator and the way he describes them tells me that he doesn’t care for where he lives but does not leave me guessing at a deeper meaning therefore I considered these determinate in meaning. The priest however did leave me wondering as to why the narrator would bring up the mention of the deceased priest who previously owned his home. I suspected that this would have significance later on in the story maybe through a religious stand point because he was a priest; for now however I assumed it to be determinate. As I read on in the story the narrator describes more of the area of which he lives in and the way it is described as he plays with his friend shows his contrast between the dingy surroundings and his love of playing with his friend. This lightens the tone of both the text and me. The most important aspect of this point in the story however, was the introduction of Mangan’s sister. The narrator describes the sight of her:
“Her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door. Her brother always teased her before he obeyed, and I stood by the railings looking at her. Her dress swung as she moved her body, and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side.” (Joyce)
In this passage from the story I began to notice that the narrator had an infatuation with Mangan’s sister. I was not expecting for her to be described in such a sensual way because of the prior reference to the priest. However, on further rereading I noticed the passage that talked of the priest and some of the items in which he had left in the young narrators house. “The Abbot, by Walter Scott, The Devout Communicant, and The Memoirs of Vidocq” (Joyce), are the three books that the narrator tells the reader of. I found that The Devout Communicant was a book that was of religious status that most priests would have read. The other two however where not, the first mentioned was a romance novel involving Queen Mary and the last book being a rather sexually explicit book. Even more interesting was that the narrator states, “I liked the last best because its leaves were yellow” (Joyce). This could have multiple meanings, one being that the last was the narrator’s favorite to foreshadow the coming relationship with Mangan’s sister or could it mean that maybe the religious concept I had previously anticipated would be tainted with darker forces as well. Therefore I placed the priest and the character of Mangan’s sister as both indeterminate meanings within the blueprint. The idea of Mangan’s sister as a sensual figure in the narrator’s story continues into the next paragraph while he describes his daily routine of watching her with “The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen” (Joyce). This instantly made me think of the narrator almost as a “peeping tom” in some way even though it was innocent. This further gave me the anticipation of the character of Mangan’s sister representing a sensual figure in the story. The narrator goes on to talk of how he thinks of his friend’s sister all the time and prays for her as well. Finally one day he speaks with her and in the moment he describes her in a very different way than before:
“She held one of the spikes, bowing her head towards me. The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing. It fell over one side of her dress and caught the white border of a petticoat, just visible as she stood at ease.” (Joyce)
With this description of her I went back to my previously conceived idea of a religious theme. In the description she is described as having a halo of light around her bowed head in and also the powerful imagery of her hands holding spikes. This image of Mangan’s sister brought me to the idea of her as being compared to the image of the Virgin Mary. In rereading the earlier scene in which I had thought was a determinate description of Mangan’s sister as a sensual character I realized in that quote as well the narrator describes her as being “defined by light” (Joyce).
Further rereading also lead me to the passage in which he describes his routine of watching and following his friend’s sister he describes a scene in which he goes to the market on Saturday with his aunt. In this passage he talks of his surroundings as horrible conditions in which were all noise with drunks, and the troubled people of his land. However amid all the chaos he describes how he feels:
“These noises converged in a single sensation of life for me: I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises…” (Joyce)
The now determinate idea of Mangan’s sister being a sensual character in the story had yet again been challenged by the blueprint of “Araby”. In the quote he describes his though of her as a chalice in which he held but what gives more significance to the word choice of chalice is that he says her name he said in almost a prayer like way. This made me redefine my idea of Mangan’s sister once again. I know concluded that her determinate image was one of a religious nature in that of the Virgin Mary. As the story comes to an end the narrator once again throws a curve ball. In the very last sentence of the story the narrator states, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” (Joyce) The blueprint of the story led me from at first anticipating Mangan’s sister as a sensual character to that of a religious figure later on. However, the very end of the story leads me to believe that Mangan’s sister is an object of religious purity that is only conjured up by the narrators perfect ideal of how she was in his mind and that the underlying image of her is still that of a regular girl whom can be sensual or seen as the opposite of the religious sentiment. This again brought me to reread the passage of the priest and further evaluate the indeterminate meaning of the books and priest figure within the blueprint. I concluded that this indeterminate meaning of the priest and books acted as a stimulus to allow the reader to conclude certain notions about the plot and character of Mangan’s sister. Furthermore I believe that the description of Mangan’s sister to the narrator changes with the progression of the blueprint to act as a stimulus for rereading to construct meaning into her character and ultimately come to our final conclusion at the end of the story with the narrator’s last line.

Work Cited

Tyson, Lois. "Reader-response Criticism." Critical Theory Today: a User-friendly Guide. New
York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

Joyce, James. "Fiction: Araby." Fiction: Welcome to The EServer's Fiction Collection. Eserver.
Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://fiction.eserver.org/short/araby.html>.