What is the mood/atmosphere in this short story?

James Joyce's "Araby" depicts a solemn, stale atmosphere.
 The street where the narrator and his friends play is a blind, or a dead end.  The
houses are "brown," with "imperturbable faces," the gardens are "dripping," the bicycle
pump is rusty.  An empty house is located at the end of the blind where a former priest
had died. The air within is "musty." All these images present a stagnant, melancholy
atmosphere. The children, though, play until their "bodies glowed," apparently oblivious
to their somber environment.

However, with the description
of Mangan's sister, the tone suddenly changes.  She is described as standing in the
light, with her dress swinging, and her "rope of hair" tossing side to side.  The light
and motion that define Mangan's sister set her apart from the dark, stagnant imagery of
Dublin.

As long as the narrator is focused on Mangan's
sister, the mood is optimistic.  His friend's sister becomes his idol, his reason for
being, his escape from the drudgery of everyday existence.  However, when the narrator
reaches Araby and finds out that his quest to purchase Mangan's sister a suitbable gift
is futile, the mood becomes once again dark.  Just as the lights of the fair are turned
off, so too darkens the narrator's optimism as he feels himself utterly foolish and full
of "anguish and anger." With the disillusionment of his quest, the narrator's despair
enables him to see Dublin as it is presented to us:  a dead end.