MB UNIUD

Read and analyse a complete short story by another 20th-century author, James Joyce. The story, Eveline, was published in a famous collection called Dubliners in 1914. It is set in Dublin and Evelin is a 19 year old girl facing a crisis moment in her life. Like in the story you read by K. Mansfield, the relationship of the girl with her parents, particularly her father, is a central issue.

• a) Use the questions as simple guidelines to reading and understanding.

•1.      What is the story about?
The story is set in Dublin and talks about a nineteen year old girl called Eveline. The girl's mother is dead and she have to look after her brothers and sisters and her father like she had promised to her mother as she was dying. She works as a clerk in a Store where everyone treats her badly.  Moreover her father treats her ill, sure enough he wants her to give him all the money she earns so he can go to a pub and get drunk. One day she decides to run away with her boyfriend Frank, a sailor. The are going to get married, she thinks, and everyone would treat her with respect. But, when she is at the seaport and the ship is almost to leave the moorings she decides to stay in Dublin.

•2.      Who are the characters?
The main character is Eveline. Following we have her father, her boss and her boyfriend. All these characters are losers. Moreover they undergo, they suffer. They aren't able to bring to the end their projects. (Eveline doesn't run away with Frank, for example).

•3.      How is the story told?
The story is told by a III person non omniscient narrator, who adopts Evelin's point of view.

•4.      What might be its message?
People are afraid of changes. People need securities, that changes not always give. Joyce wants to aware people of reality.