Perversion of religion.

 An excerpt from my senior essay on Araby:

(Reposted because I accidentally deleted it)

“Araby” expresses the death of religion through perversion, sin, and allegorical examples.  The death of religion is expressed through perversion.  Houses are meant to give us life and shelter; however, houses will not exhibit these qualities forever.  Time will wither houses, yet they will remain “conscience of the decent lives within them” (4) regardless of the exterior.  Religion has begun a decent into this trap; organized religion has begun to rot, tainting the appearance the people.  This disorder and contrast of good and evil highlights the issues of religion.  The rotting exterior leaves the “Air, / musty from having been long enclosed.” (7-8) in walls of sin.  The crumpling home eventually will begin to flow into the lives of the people as well.  The death of religion is expressed through sin.  The narrator becomes infatuated with Mangan’s sister.  He feels isolated and confused as “Her name sprang to [. . . his] lips at moments in strange prayers and / praises” (46-47) that he could not decipher.  He begins to disassociate from his friends more and more.  He watches his “companions playing below in the street” (94), rather than spending time with them.  His pulling away from the faith into animalistic tendencies results in a lack of religion.  As he follows this path away from religion, he goes “into the back drawing-room in which the priest had died” (52), further connecting himself to his religious death.  The death of religion is expressed through allegorical examples.  The narrator uses allegories and metaphors to express many ideas in this story.  He sees illusions of the “brown-clad figure cast by [. . . his] imagination” as he daydreams about Mangan’s sister.  His “senses seemed to desire to veil themselves” (56) to keep from showing the shame he felt.  His desire to hide away symbolizes further his departure from religion.  The narrator, “Gazing up into the darkness [. . .,] saw himself as a creature driven and debrided by vanity” (161), realizing he was leading himself into darkness and despair.  The life he was leading, without religion, led him away from humanity.  Therefore, perversion, sin, and allegorical examples express the death of religion throughout “Araby”.