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The narrator, an unnamed boy, describes North Richmond Street, the North Dublin street on which his house is located. He thinks about the priest who died in the house before his family moved in and the games that he and his friends played in the street no matter the weather. He recalls how they would run through the back lanes of the houses and hide in the shadows when they reached the street again, hoping to avoid people in the neighborhood, particularly the boy’s uncle or the sister of his friend Mangan. The sister often comes to the front of their house to call the brother to tea, a moment that the narrator savors.
Every day, for this narrator, begins with such glimpses of Mangan’s sister. Every morning, he lies on the floor by the window in the front room of his house so that he can see when she walks out her front door. He rushes out to walk behind her quietly as soon as she departs and follows her until he is forced to pass her. The narrator and Mangan’s sister interact very little, but she is always in his thoughts. He thinks about her when he accompanies his aunt to do food shopping on Saturday evening in the busy marketplace and when he sits in the back room of his house alone. The narrator’s infatuation is intense but he fears that he will never gather the courage to speak with the girl and express his feelings.
One morning, Mangan’s sister asks the narrator if he plans to go to Araby, a Dublin bazaar. She laments that she cannot attend, as she has already committed to attend a retreat with her school. Having recovered from the shock of the conversation, the narrator offers to bring her something from the bazaar. This brief meeting launches the narrator into a period of eager, restless waiting and fidgety tension in anticipation of the bazaar. He cannot focus in school. He finds the lessons tedious, and they distract him from thinking about Mangan’s sister.
On the morning of the bazaar, the narrator reminds his uncle that he plans to attend the event so that the uncle will return home early and provide train fare. However, dinner passes and a guest visits, but the uncle does not return. The narrator impatiently endures the time passing until his uncle finally returns at 9:00 p.m. The narrator’s uncle is unbothered and unapologetic that he has forgotten about the narrator’s plans to go to the bazaar. Reciting the epigram “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” the uncle gives the narrator the money and asks him if he knows the poem “The Arab’s Farewell to his Steed.” The narrator leaves just as his uncle begins to recite the lines, and, thanks to slow trains, arrives at the bazaar just before 10 p.m., when it is starting to close down. He approaches one stall that is still open and looks at its contents. While perusing the items at the stand, the narrator eavesdrops on the young woman watching over the stall as she flirts with two older customers and remarks that all three of them have English accents. The narrator’s excitement to be at Araby soon gives way to discomfort and apprehension because the young woman watching over the stall makes him feel unwanted and childish. As a result, the narrator does not buy anything. With no purchase for Mangan’s sister, the narrator stands angrily in the deserted bazaar as the lights go out.
