How does the symbolism express the theme of “Araby”?James Joyce's short story, "Araby"

In "Araby," Joyce employs much religious symbolism to
bring one of his major themes to fruition: the incongruity of the secular and the
sacred. The entire story is a religious quest revolving around Mangan's sister, who
functions as the Virgin Mary. The "quest" is for the Holy Grail, or her love, but the
boy has confused religiousity with lust.

This confusion of
the secular and the spiritual begins right away. Consider the second paragraph, which
depits the dead priest's library where the boy likes to spend much of his time. The
three books that are his favorite are not tomes of religious instruction, but secular
works of intrigue. His moral instruction has been compromised from the
beginning.

We see how quickly the boy makes Mangan's sister
the object of his devotion and shrouded lust. As he observes her unawares, the boy
describes "her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door." Think about how
much like the glow of a halo around the Virgin Mary this
seems.

In the following paragraph, the boy says that,
"Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door." When a
penitent comes before a holy figure, he is supposed to prostrate himself, and this is
precisely what the protagonist does.

Furthermore, like a
saint watching over him, the boy says, "Her image accompanied me even in places the most
hostile to romance." We see the confusion here once again, as the image is holy but the
secular is corrupted by lust/romance.

Here, in perhaps the
most direct and poignant moments of confusion, the boy says, almost
prayer-fully:

readability="10">

I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through
a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises
which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell
why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom. I
thought little of the future. I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not
or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was
like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the
wires.

Unpacking these
sentences, we find it rife with religious symbolism. The chalice is the "Holy Grail,"
the cup that Christ drank from at the Last Supper and the subject of thousands of years
of pursuit to reclaim.  Instead of the Virgin Mary, it is Mangan's sister's name who
springs to his lips in "prayers and praises." The boy reaches a religious ecstasy in
contemplation of the girl, so moved is he that he cries. He is full, by his own
admission, of adulation.

The boy goes on a quest for her,
but realizes, when the fog has lifted, that he has confused the secular and the sacred.
Denied his grail in the end, Magdan's sister is no longer shrouded in mystery. She
becomes just a girl, nothing special, and the boy collapses in his own shame and
guilt.