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Historical Content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).

Literary Style

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 ChekhovAnton 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.

ContextJust 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.

StyleThe 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.

IronyThe 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