Growing Up Dublin

In reading "A Painful Case" I, as I'm sure most o f you, could not help but notice some strange tethering between Mr. Duffy and the boy from "Araby". Having written my paper on Araby and exploring the effects of his idealized infatuation with Mangan's sister, I could not help but see Mr. Duffy as an extension and perhaps the evolution of his character. Jaded and cynical after the self-realization that love had turned him into a vile monstrosity of sorts, perhaps the boy in "Araby" gave up on love. More specifically, and more pertaining to Duffy's character, perhaps he gave up in his sexual endeavors. As we pointed out in class, the boy's experience in "Araby" was most probably his first that was overtly sexual. He deified the experience and its focus, placing it in a realm even higher than anything simply temporal. He spoke in intellectual and even religious terms to describe his love and his quest was of the utmost importance. So much so, that the boy admits to lacking interest in such pointless things like school in favor of love. In Duffy we see the complete opposite: love is the corporeal, the monstrosity, the vile whereas intellectual pursuits and Niche-an isolation are what is sought after. Perhaps, having been so badly burned in his first pursuit of love the boy was forced to flip his mode of thought. At first, love made him a knight with honor and chivalry but then (as in the eyes of Duffy) it became the lowly pursuit. Notice the changed opinions on members of the opposite sex. The boy's deification of Mangan's sister and subsequent feeling of filth resulted in Duffy's placing women, and specifically Mrs. Sinico, below himself and his pursuit of the Uberman. Whereas the boy sought a quest and went on an adventure for his love, after being broken Duffy's life became "an adventureless tale"(88). While all of this could simply be conjecture, I feel that the gut-feeling is one that cannot be ignored and if so, how exactly is Joyce commenting on this characters evolution in love? Both stories clearly comment on different things such as chivalrous love and the perhaps questionable value of isolation but in conjunction what could his meaning be? Do you agree that they could in fact be the very same character?