Short stories often climax in moments of insight for the central character. Discuss the extent to which you agree with this statement, with reference to at least two different authors.James Joyce's 'Araby',Louise', by Somerset Maugham and 'The Necklace',

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Catherine Hanna

Short stories often climax in moments of insight for the central character.

Discuss the extent to which you agree with this statement, with reference to at least two different authors.

Of all the stories read so far only one has had an epiphany, James Joyce's 'Araby', is a great story in which the main protagonist, a young boy, just starting to come into his own sexual identity, experiences that moment of climax that sees him going from being a romantic, imaginative idealist to an embarrassed fool.

Caught up in his own world of romance, blinded by the truth, he then crashes back to reality all in one climactic moment.

In contrast to this the protagonist in 'Louise' knows exactly what lies ahead from start to finish as this devilish women manipulates her way through life, never achieving any insight into her behaviour.

And with 'The Necklace', the central character has years of change being slowly brought down to reality over a long period of time, rather than a climactic moment.

The protagonist in 'Araby', a sensitive, imaginative, young boy is  from the start contrasted by the narrator, his older self, to life in Dublin which is depressing and gloomy, symbolised by colours like 'brown' and 'yellow'. “ The wild garden behind behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes under one of which I found the late tenant's rusty bicycle-pump”. Coming of age sees him develop a crush on his friend Mangan's sister.

This truly set off a whirlwind of imaginative visions and too- romantic thoughts. For example, the narrator remembers that “Her name sprang to my lips (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself into my bosom”.

His vision of her is as an angelic figure. For example, he sees, “her figure defined by the light”, “bowing her head towards me” and also the way he only notices “ the white curve of her neck” and the “white border of her petticoat”, white being the symbolic colour of purity.

She exists only as an object of his adoring gaze- we never even learn her name- which leads to his romantic quest to Araby bazaar in aid of something special to return with for his fair maiden!

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His imagination is in over- drive. For example, “I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes”, this romantic statement shows his over heated imagination when comparing it with the girls brown dress (and she's going to the retreat) so she's really not a romantic figure at all- she's actually identified with oppressive Dublin.

The bazaar is dark with only few lights to be seen, which could suggest darkness reprecenting something negative. The bazaar is also compared to a church, “ two men were counting money on a salver”.

Our protagonist's world is about to crumble when he ...

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