In writing ‘Araby’ Joyce drew on his experiences growing up in this part of the city. The Joyces lived in the house at 13 North Richmond Street which is described at the beginning of the story, and it’s likely that the boy in the story, like Joyce himself, goes to school at Belvedere College. There really was an Araby bazaar in Dublin in 1894, though it’s not known if Joyce, who was twelve years old at the time, went to it or not. Joyce’s depiction of the grime and dirt of Dublin is very evident in this story, from the brown faces of the houses to the dark laneways and smelly stables behind the houses. The story begins: “NORTH RICHMOND STREET, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.”
Press ‘A’ to learn about the story ‘Araby’… Press ‘B’ to learn more about the story ‘The Dead’… Press ‘C’ to listen to the final lines of ‘The Dead’…