Woman and heart trouble - symbolism

THE USE OF SYMBOLISM: Joyce’s “Araby” and Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”

Last updated: November 1st, 2018

Symbolism is a literary device used in the short stories “Araby” and “The Story of an Hour”. In “Araby,” symbolism is used to illustrate the meaning of several major aspects of the story; symbols are used to better illustrate the protagonist’s nature, character, and desires, as well as the world in which the story is set as a whole. Conversely, the symbolism used in “The Story of an Hour” is used solely to illustrate the protagonist’s nature, not illustrating any meaning from the world of the story, or from any other element of the story. “The Story of an Hour,” with its use of symbolism focusing on the protagonist alone, can be seen as solipsistic, for it is written in such a way that the reader must conclude that its protagonist does not recognize a world outside of herself. “Araby,” however, makes far more extensive use of symbolism, using it to illustrate meaning not only in the protagonist, but also in the world in which is set; thus, by revealing layers of meaning that the solipsistic symbolism in “The Story of an Hour” lacks, “Araby” ultimately demonstrates a more effective use of symbolism.

The aforementioned solipsistic use of symbolism can be seen from the very outset of “The Story of an Hour,” as it begins with a mention of the “heart trouble” that afflicts the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard (Chopin, 314). Used primarily to illustrate the nature of the protagonist, this heart trouble “is not so much a physical ailment… as a sign of a woman who has unconsciously surrendered her heart (i.e., her identity as an individual)” (Jamil, 215). As a symbol for the loss of her individual identity (Jamil, 215), Mrs. Mallard’s heart trouble demonstrates a kind of symbolism that is focused entirely on illustrating the meaning in her “self,” rather than on something greater, such as a world outside of this “self.” This solipsistic symbolism continues as the story describes an “open square” that Mrs. Mallard sees through her window, one that shows her a world that is “all aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin, 314). Instead of using this “open square” as a symbol to illustrate the meaning in something other than Mrs. Mallard and her nature, Chopin continues to focus her use of symbolism on Mallard. Rather than symbolizing something such as the vast world which Mallard is being deprived of in her solipsism, this “open square” and its contents “teach her of the sounds, the scents, and the color within her own soul… of the particular combination of attributes within her soul that make her a unique individual” (Jamil, 217). The symbolism is thus again solely focusing on illustrating Mallard’s nature as an individual.

Much of the symbolism in “The Story of an Hour” reveals “the power which [Chopin] assigns to ‘self-assertion’” (Deneau, 210). The “something” that comes to Mrs. Mallard (Chopin, 314) “exerts a powerful physical influence on Louise and leaves her with a totally new perspective on her self and her place in the scheme of things” (Deneau, 210). This external revelation is merely another solipsistic symbol; it only goes so far as to be “the direct cause of Louise’s awakening” instead of something that symbolizes something other, or greater, than Louise (Deneau, 210).  Jamil offers a similar interpretation of this “something”, suggesting that “‘[T]his thing’ that is approaching her is her consciousness of her own individuality” (217). Even in Jamil’s interpretation, the symbolism is seen as attaching meaning only to Mallard, focusing on how she was previously repressed by “the world of social conventions” and unaware of herself as an individual (Jamil, 216). Thus, “The Story of an Hour” uses symbolism in a limited, solipsistic manner, never indicating to the reader that the protagonist has a sense of something beyond her “self,” and never illustrating the meaning in anything beyond her.

The use of symbolism is more manifold and multi-layered in “Araby” than it is in “The Story of an Hour.” From its very beginning, “Araby” uses symbols to attach meaning to more than just the protagonist, as is done in the symbolically limited “The Story of an Hour.” For example, the street described in the first sentence, “North Richmond Street,” is described as “being blind” and having “imperturbable faces” (Joyce, 328). The street is more than what its literal meaning (‘blind’ meaning dead-end) would suggest, as “from the start of this story we are involved in a metaphoric reading” (Pierce, 111). This metaphoric reading enables us to see the street’s literal blindness in a new way, as the literal blindness begins to entail “an obstacle at one end of the street preventing a longer view”—“preventing a longer view” for its inhabitants, who are thus limited to a narrow world-view (Pierce, 111). Pierce notes the real-life geography of the world of “Araby,” drawing the reader’s notice to the fact that “[Belvedere College] is only five minutes from the Christian Brothers’ School in North Richmond Street, and yet in terms of wealth and opportunity they were miles apart” (111). This fact reinforces the notion of the street’s blindness as being a symbol for its inhabitants’ worldly ignorance: these people who live on “a street that lacks bright lights to shed on the world” (Pierce, 111). Pierce notes further the adjectives “‘decent’, ‘brown’, ‘imperturbable’” (113), and their role in symbolizing the lives of the people on the street. Their lives are “decent lives where ‘decent’ means respectable, bourgeois, conventional. It’s difficult to admire people who lead ‘decent lives’” (Pierce, 113). Thus, from its very outset, “Araby” uses symbolism to attach meaning to something that goes beyond the protagonist, providing a symbol that illustrates meaning in the greater world of which the protagonist is merely a part.

As in “The Story of an Hour,” the protagonist in “Araby” is another focus of the symbolism; the key difference is that the symbolism of “Araby” does not focus exclusively on the protagonist, and makes reference to other aspects of the story. A story “about an adult world blind to a child’s worldview” (Pierce, 111), “Araby” shows, through its symbolism, that an “uninhabited house” (Joyce, 328) can symbolize such things as “a reminder of death. A warning sign. A minus, a without, not within” (Pierce, 113) for a child. The imperturbability of houses with “brown faces” (Joyce, 328) symbolizes a similar boundary between “living, not living”, between “the real and the unreal” (Pierce, 115). Facing such evidence of inhabitation, such imperturbability, on a street of people consequently “blind” to his or her worldview, such a child could be lead astray easily, as is the case for the protagonist in “Araby.”   Upon catching sight of Mangan’s sister, the protagonist becomes quickly consumed with her, to the extent that her very name becomes “a summon to all [his] foolish blood” (Joyce, 329). These two separate and distinct symbols —the symbol of the “uninhabited” and “imperturbable” houses representing death, the unreal, and the not living (Pierce, 115), and the symbol of the girl representing “a place of habitation” (Pierce, 113)—further demonstrate Joyce’s extensive use of symbolism. Together, these symbols create a contrast that is reflective of the turmoil that the boy faces in experiencing desire while being surrounded by “decent lives” (Joyce, 328). They produce a “confrontation between something that doesn’t move with something that does, between waiting and action, between the harp of romance and the impossibility of its setting” (Pierce, 115). Thus, even when using symbolism to illustrate meaning in the protagonist and his nature, “Araby” still uses symbolism to attach meaning to things beyond the protagonist—to the protagonist’s world, and to the greater conflict facing a child in such a world.

One final example of symbolism that goes beyond describing the protagonist is that of the titular bazaar. As something that “cast[s] an Eastern enchantment” over the protagonist, the bazaar is an obvious symbol of something foreign and therefore inaccessible, much like Mangan’s sister, who invites the protagonist to attend.  This is a symbol that shows how “Araby” is also a story “about the blindness of Europe toward Araby and the exotic East” (Pierce, 111). Thus, this symbol also reinforces the previously explained notion of North Richmond Street as being a street inhabited by people with limited world-views (Pierce, 111); it extends this notion, however, to the whole of Europe, so that perhaps the residents of North Richmond Street are not so alone in their ignorance as the symbolic blindness of their street would suggest.

Symbolism is thus used in both “Araby” and “The Story of an Hour” to illustrate meaning that would otherwise remain unexplored. The two stories differ in their approach to symbolism, however, as “The Story of an Hour” favours a solipsistic approach, focusing only on symbols related to its protagonist to such an extent that the reader is convinced the protagonist has no notion of a world outside her “self.” “Araby” uses the opposite approach, using symbolism not only related to its protagonist, but also to the world of which the protagonist is a part. In this process, “Araby” manages to create layers of symbolic meaning which “The Story of an Hour” lacks, and thus demonstrates a far more extensive and effective use of symbolism.

[su_panel background=”#f2f2f2″ color=”#000000″ border=”0px none #ffffff” shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff”]by Jasmine Saroya

image: Helga Weber via Compfight cc