A Comparison Of Love Experiences In James Joyce's Araby

When a love story is told in a first-person perspective, it makes sense for the readers to expect an overly dramatic and emotional narrative. James Joyce’s “Araby” and T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” are both love experiences written in first-person perspectives. However, in “Araby”, the boy occasionally assumes a somewhat detached attitude in his narration and in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, Prufrock sings his love song in a dry, passive manner. When the boy in “Araby” explains about the name of the girl he fell in love with, he says “her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood” (2169). Although this statement might sound passionate, identifying his love-evoked reaction as foolishness and not providing the readers with the girl’s name expresses the boy’s current state of

Also, Prufrock states, “Do I dare/ Disturb the universe?” (45-6) and “So how should I presume?” (54) to verbalize his hesitance and dryness in his love reaction. Prufrock continuously expresses his inner conflict and refrains from taking action; such passiveness contrasts with the poem’s title being “The Love Song”. Both pieces are triggered by love, more specifically unrequited love, yet the general tone has an ironic detachment to some degree. Although both “Araby” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” are narratives revolving around the characters’ unrequited love, there are more differences than similarities in the boy and Prufrock’s love style. Apart from the obvious difference in the characters’ age, the enthusiasm level and the activeness in action are also noticeably different. James Joyce’s short story, “Araby”, is about a boy’s puppy love on his friend’s sister. The boy expresses his love in various ways. In his excessive flow of emotions, he uses a simile and poetically states, “my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires” (2169). When expressing how his emotion’s overflowing