Importance of the Opening Paragraphs James Joyces Araby and Edgar Allan Poes The Tell-Tale Heart - Essay Example

Araby and The Tell Tale Heart A good story basically requires a good construction of its theme, mood and conflict. In that direction, introduction ina short story is an indispensable aspect, as it prepares the readers to understand its theme, mood and conflict. We shall discuss this importance of the opening paragraphs in the short stories, James Joyce’s Araby and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart. Among the two short stories taken for discussion, we shall analyze which of the opening paragraphs is successful as an introduction to the story. According to me, Araby presents a stronger opening or introduction in terms of its mood-setting and anticipation of the story. The introduction of Araby is well-structured and precise, with symbolic representation of the setting as well as that of the narrator, thereby gaining the anticipation of the readers. James Joyce’s Araby presents a romantic irony of a boy who undergoes transformation in his adolescence, thereby facing the reality of life’s journey. “Araby is structured with rigorous precision upon a paradigm of medieval romance, that the unnamed boy reflects in detail and in general the action and behavior of smitten courtly lovers and that story as a while shows Joyce working with the well-defined structure of a traditional literary genre.” (Mandel 48). Using subtle language and strong tones, the author presents the narrator’s environment, his innocence as well as the reality of love in the opening paragraph. On the other hand, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart describes the insane nature of the narrator and his obsession towards unadorned entities, which ultimately leads to a murder. Although, the author presents vivid details of the plot in the introduction, it leaves the readers clueless about the main characters. The ambiguity of the character details stands in stark contrast with the elaborate description of the murder and the resulting hallucinations of the narrator. Coming to the language and vocabulary in both the novels, Poe in the opening paragraph of The Tell Tale Heart provides a good expressive narrative as well as sketches of the narrator’s mood in a tightly controlled setting, so that the reader can grasp easily. That is, the author makes the readers get a clear picture about the narrator’s insane condition, using excited, over-used vocabulary, full of exclamation marks and hyphens. The wild claims and the madness of the narrator can be well perceived by the readers through the tone of the paragraph. The narrator’s tenuous binding of the reality as well as his vigorous shifts of mood can be observed from the introduction. Poe’s tales maximally deal with the “attempted rational analysis of mysterious and gloomy circumstances.” (LeFevre 153). Overall, the introduction paragraph of the Tell Tale Heart seems to give a good grasp of the narrator, however, falls short in its use of language and vocabulary, as well character details. On the other hand, Joyce makes his story’s introduction less subtle about the narrator but more detailed on the story’s environment and mood setting. The author presents a vivid picture of the entire street, mentioning it as dark and blind, representing the mental setting or attitude of the boy, particularly his blind attitude towards reality of life and love because of his innocence and adolescent age. Unlike The Tell Tale Heart, which tells the readers almost immediately about the narrator and his mood, in Araby, Joyce gives no clue about the boy’s emotions, but details the story setting. Moreover, the language of the opening paragraph seems to be mature, with a polished style that is truly arresting for the readers. The paragraph sets the dark tone for the novel, letting the readers anticipate over the plot of the story. In addition, the introduction personifies the houses and street to be more alive than the residents, thereby symbolizing the Irish people who are detached with the Western life. The author’s mentioning of ‘brown imperturbable faces’ sets a hopeless and discouraged mood for the novel and its characters as well. “The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces” (Joyce). Even in The Tell Tale Heart, Poe uses vocabulary to reveal the madness of the narrator in an elaborate and meticulous manner. He uses repetition of certain vocabulary, for describing the insane nature of his character. For instance, “nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous”, ‘I am mad’ and ‘then, am I mad’, ‘I heard all things’ and ‘I heard many things’ are few of the repetitions found in the opening paragraph alone. “TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (Poe 3). However, Joyce’s vocabulary seems to be much precise and structured with symbolic representations and metaphors. Most of the symbolic language presented in Araby represents the West and Irish living. The dead ‘priest’ mentioned in the story is an allegory to the Joyce’ notion of Church and Ireland. When compared to The Tell Tale Heart, the sentence structure and vocabulary of Araby is poetic, symbolizing the story setting and the narrator himself. Joyce’s style of writing is managed with perfect balance, precise interactions and alliterations. “The poignancy of the whole story, inseparable from its icy awakening, is thus caught in the great sentence through style.” (Russell 171). When the author mentions ‘being blind’, he describes the mental condition of the boy, relating to the reality in which he dwells, particularly towards his infatuation. The dark tone of the introduction can be observed from the author’s constant representation of the streets as ‘blind’, ‘quiet’, ‘uninhabited house’, and ‘detached’. This vocabulary symbolizes the mental ‘blindness’ of the boy as well as the dark reality of life, surrounding the boy in his age of adolescence. Unlike Poe, who plays with exaggerated set of words for portraying the madness of the narrator, Joyce uses lots of adjectives, so that the readers will get the drabness and dullness of the story setting. Moreover, in the opening paragraph, the vocabulary is elusive enough to provide generalized meaning of the lifelessness surrounding the boy. While the Araby’s opening paragraph describes the physical setting of the story, The Tell Tale Heart represents the emotional condition of the narrator. Poe lets the readers identify a future threat through the depiction of the narrator’s madness. On the contrary, Joyce makes no attempts to reveal a threat of danger, but presents the darkness of the reality. From the narrator’s point of view, Araby holds an ironic tone, where the boy’s expectations are far from the realities, while The Tell Tale Heart depicts a sympathetic tone, expressing his insanity. On comparing both the stories, it is possible that Araby’s introduction tends to be more robust and effective in gaining the reader’s anticipation of the story, as The Tell Tale Heart’s introduction does not seems to be much appealing. Works Cited Joyce, James. Dubliners. Mundus Publishing, 1926. LeFevre, Karen Burke. “The Tell-Tale "Heart": Determining "Fair" Use of Unpublished Texts.” Law and Contemporary Problems, 55. 2 (Spring, 1992): 153-183 Mandel, Jerome. “The Structure of “Araby”.” Modern Language Studies, 15. 4 (Autumn, 1985): 48-54 Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart. Random House LLC, 2004. Russell, John. “From Style to Meaning in "Araby".” College English, 28. 2 (1966): 170- 171. Read More