"Eveline" is a short story written by James Joyce.

It's a story of adolescence, in particular, the book tells about a woman, who is not able to make a decision.

The text is organized into three parts:

In the first one the narrator shows us Eveline's thoughts while, one evening, she is setting by a window. She thinks about her past, present and future.

The second part is the longest, in fact its function is to explore, through her thoughts, Eveline's life and the events that had scared her: we know about her childhood, that she spent to play in a field with her brothers; her father's attacks, who is always drunk; her wish to escape and leave with her boyfriend, Frank, who would save her... But on the same time she thinks about the promise she makes to her mother, who is dead, to look after the family and to keep the home togheter.

In the end of this part, she decides to move, but in the opening of the third part she feels "paralysed", she is too scared to leave Ireland.

We understand that, this girl, as all Dubliners at the time, is unable to act.