Review Of The Of A Bad Romance By James Joyce And...

Erycha Nicolas Mr. Garcia LIT 2110 October 8, 2014 Caught In A Bad Romance Focusing upon love as an obsession, it can be thought that the characters in â€Å"Araby† by James Joyce and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton developed a case of obsessive love disorder. Obsessive love disorder is an extreme form of love that turns into an obsession over time, but sometimes, it could never have started from love at all. In â€Å"Araby,† we are introduced to a main character that, for the first time, has the opportunity to impress the girl he is in love with by going to Araby, a local bazaar. In his case, his obsessive love disorder stems from just an obsession as he may not have even understood what love was to really identify with it and because the girl did not at all reciprocate his infatuation, nor was even aware of such feelings. He can be considered an erotomaniac as he has the symptoms of the syndrome. The young boy’s obsession is best proven when he mentions activities that can be perceived as â€Å"stalkerish† and erotomania is the only psychiatric diagnosis associated with stalking (Griffiths). Every morning he lies â€Å"on the floor in the front parlour watching her door† and he even goes so far as having the blind â€Å"pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen.† He just spends his time following the girl without even speaki ng to her. They’ve only had a brief conversation where the girl asks him if he was going to Araby and, because she could not go herself, the boy