By James Joyce .......North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet ...

can think about is the bazaar and Mangan's sister. On Saturday morning, he reminds his uncle that he
will be attending the bazaar that evening. The uncle, who is in the hallway looking for a hat brush,
curtly replies, "Yes, boy, I know."
.......After the narrator returns from school, he sits downstairs staring at a clock, waiting for his uncle to
come home and give him money for the bazaar. Irritated by the ticking of the clock, he goes to the
highest part of the dwelling and looks out at the Mangan girl's house while neighbor boys are playing
in the street. For fully an hour, he stands there thinking of her, imagining he sees her in front of her
house—her curved neck, her dress, her hand on the railing.
.......When he returns downstairs, his uncle has still not returned home. But Mrs. Mercer is there sitting
at the fire. She is a pawnbroker's widow who collects used stamps for a charitable cause. She is also
waiting for the narrator's uncle, but the narrator does not say why. It may be that the uncle owes her
money or has promised to give her stamps. While dinner awaits his return, Mrs. Mercer gossips with
the narrator's aunt over tea. Just after eight o'clock, Mrs. Mercer says she can wait no longer and
leaves.
.......“I'm afraid you may put off your bazaar for this night of Our Lord,” the narrator's aunt says.
.......At nine, the narrator hears his uncle come through the door. He is talking to himself, which means
he has been drinking. When the narrator asks him for money for the bazaar, the uncle says people
are going to bed by this time. But the aunt presses him on behalf of the boy. The uncle then gives the
boy a florin and asks him whether he has heard of "The Arab's Farewell to His Steed." In a hurry, the
boy leaves while the uncle prepares to recite the first few lines of the poem to his wife.
.......The narrator takes an empty third-class train across the river to the site of the bazaar. When he
walks down the street to the bazaar building, it is nearing ten o'clock. He pays his way and walks
through a turnstile only to discover that most of the stalls are already closed. In front of a curtain at
one stall, Cafe Chantant, two men are counting money. When the narrator finds a stall that is still
open, he goes inside and looks over a display of tea sets and porcelain vases.
.......A young lady is talking with two gentlemen. All have English accents. She comes over and asks
the narrator whether he wishes to make a purchase. Her tone is perfunctory; she exhibits little
enthusiasm. “No, thank you,” he says. He lingers a moment, then walks away. The lights of the gallery
in the upper part of the building go out. Of this moment, the narrator tells the reader:
.......“Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my
eyes burned with anguish and anger.”
Conflicts
.......The narrator contends with environmental forces that inhibit and oppress him and other
Dubliners. These forces include adverse economic, social, and cultural conditions arising from British
dominance of Ireland. He also struggles against lustful feelings toward the Mangan girl, feelings that
his religion tells him he must control. These feelings are most obvious in the following sentence at the
end of the sixth paragraph: "All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was
about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: `O
love! O love!' many times."
..
Theme
Awakening to the Humdrum Life of Dublin
.......The working-class street on which the narrator resides is a dead end, suggesting that he and his
friends are going nowhere. They will grow up to live in the same dreary Dublin, with its dreary
weather, dreary people, and dreary houses. In the third paragraph, the narrator describes the
depressing atmosphere: