Whilst I do think there are elements of this story that
are humorous and perhaps comical, such as the obvious Romantic notions of the male
narrator about Mangan's sister and his imagination that obviously runs riot, depicting
himself as the knight in shining armour gaining a token for the favour of his beloved,
the overall message and theme of this short story can only be described as serious. Note
how the narrator at the end of this tale experiences an "epiphany" when he recognises
how silly he has been and how he has been fooled by his romantic
notions:
Gazing up in to the darkness I saw myself as a
creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and
anger.
The story ends with
the lights in the bazaar being turned off, symbolically representing perhaps the end of
the narrator's youth and romantic notions, as he emerges with a far more realistic idea
of life and also of himself. Serious themes indeed.
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