Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
Why is Eveline representative for Dubliners?
Even id the Dubliners presented in the collection belong to the middle class, while Eveline belongs to the poor working-class, she represents the typical Joyce's Dubliner. Joyce thought that they were spiritually weak: they were afraid of the other inhabitants of Dublin and they were slaves of their culture, religion, family and so on... Also Eveline is afraid of somebody (his father) and her impossibility of choosing depends on her family and on the promise she ad made on her mother's dead bed. Eveline doesn't really neither herself nor the world (like the other Dubliners). She has her epiphany when she knows Fred, but she can't realize her purpose because of the paralysis that doesn't make her decide and act.