1.      

The Beginning

In the first paragraph the narrator shows Eveline sitting by a window at home, feeling tired.

The Middle

We then follow Eveline's thoughts as she thinks about her present, past and future. Indirectly, we learn many details about her life, about her family and lover. In particular, we find out she's going to leave home, but that she's not sure this is wise.

The narrator then shows us Eveline at the window again, a little later. Again we follow her thoughts. She hears an organ playing. More thoughts. Then suddenly she stands up in terror.

In scene two the narrator shows Eveline standing with her lover near a boat that is about to leave for Liverpool (in order to get a ship for South America) More of Eveline's thoughts and feelings. Eveline grips a railing.

The End

The story ends dramatically. Eveline doesn't move.

2.

The Beginning

•0.                        WHO is the main character? Eveline.

•0.                        WHAT is the situation? She is sitting, watching out of a window.

•0.                        HOW does she feel? Tired and possibly invaded.

•0.                        WHERE is the story set? Inside Eveline's home.

•0.                        WHEN does it take place? One evening.

The Middle

Eveline notices people passing, including the man who lives in the last of the new red houses nearby. The sound of his footsteps makes her think of the field that used to be there, of the differences between the new houses and hers.

She then thinks about her childhood, when she and her brothers and sisters were rather happy and when her father was not so bad. The thought that "everything changes" makes her think of her intention to leave.

The word "home" leads her to look carefully at the room she's in, which she has dusted so often; at a photograph of a priest and a print of religious promises.

Next she thinks about the wisdom of her decision to leave, the disadvantages, about how hard her life has been, about hoe the people at the Stores will react to her leaving. 

Next her thoughts turn to the future and how she will escape her father's violence with the help of her lover Frank, who is kind, manly and open-hearted. She recalls their courtship. Memories of her father's dislike of Frank focus on the time when, after a quarrel with lover, he had prohibited her to speak to him.

We then see that Eveline has written two letters, one to her brother Harry, the other to her father. Her thoughts turn again to her father and she begins to think he would miss her.

Happier memories of him follow when, for instance, he had read her a ghost story, and when he put on her mother's bonnet to make the children laugh.

When she hears a street organ playing outside, she remembers her promise to her mother to keep the home together.

In a moment of terror, she stands up and repeats the word Escape and Frank would save her.

•0.                        - WHO are the main characters? Eveline and Frank.

•0.                        - WHAT is the situation? She is at the station hand in hand with Frank. Although he is speaking to her, she is inattentive.

•0.                        - HOW does she feel? Pale, cold and distressed. Then nauseous.

•0.                        - WHERE is the scene set? In the crowded station at the North Wall near a boat for Liverpool that will enable them to go towards Buenos Aires the following morning.

•0.                        - WHEN does it take place? The same evening.

Eveline prayed to God to direct her and to show her her duty.

When Frank tries to pull her towards him, she feels he will drown her and so she gripped the iron railing.

The End

At the end we see Frank shouting "come" again and Eveline crying out in anguish. Then as Frank rushed to get on board the boat, still calling, we see Eveline with her white face and her eyes giving him no sign of love or farewell or even recognition.

Are there any other details you would want to include in a summary of the story?

No, I think that the summary is comprehensive.

How would you summarise the story in just a few words?

It is a story of love, family and disillusion.

3.

- My first impression focused on the fact that Eveline, after struggling so much for her love and life, was not able to find the courage to leave with Frank and leave her family.

- I like Eveline's mother because she was a marvellous mother.

- I didn't like Eveline's father because he was violent and exploited her.

- I like the story because it can resembled some events in anybodies lifes.

- Yes, I like the style.

- Women's life in Dublin was very very hard at that time.

4.

Paragraph 1: sight and smell.

Paragraph 2: sight and hearing.

Paragraph 3: sight.

Paragraph 10: hearing and smell.

Paragraph 11: hearing.

Paragraph 13: touch, sight and hearing.  

5.

Paragraph 1: sight: the evening "invading" the avenue; smell: the odour of dusty cretonne.

Paragraph 2: sight: people passing; hearing: footsteps clacking.

Paragraph 3: sight: familiar objects that she has dusted - a photograph of a priest, a broken harmonium, a print of promises.

Paragraph 10: hearing: street organ playing; smell: the odour of dusty cretonne.

Paragraph 11:hearing: mother's voice.

Paragraph 13: touch: Frank holding her hand; her cheek going cold; nausea in her body; her moving lips; Frank seizing her hand and pulling her, gripping (and clutching) the iron railing; hearing: he was speaking to her, boat's whistle, he called her; sight: a glimpse of the boat, eyes with no sign of love.

6.

•0.                        a) Bits of narrative and description of a setting.

•0.                        b) There are three sentences.

•0.                        c) The first and the second sentences are pretty long, but the third is really short.

•0.                        d) Sadness and tiredness.

7.

•0.                        a) Evening.

•0.                        b) Evening, invade, avenue.

•0.                        c) Unhappy.

•0.                        d) Window, watching.

•0.                        e) These words have the stress on the first part.

•0.                        f) Head and nostrils.

•0.                        g) Dusty, odour and cretonne

•0.                        h) It is less evocative.

8.

The narrator tells us the following items: personality, family, work, opinions and feelings about other characters, some experiences, dreams and Eveline's behaviours, words and thoughts on specific occasions (for example, in the last paragraphs of the text when she seems to be frightened to leave her family and usual life to go overseas with Frank).

According to my opinion, the significant omissions are mainly two: the first is the lack of information about Eveline's physical appearance (the narrator does not tell us if she is tall, thin, blonde, etc.), the latter is the same lack about Eveline's experiences, habits, likes and dislikes. The absence of such important details gives the reader the feeling of being deprived of the main character.

9.

I imagine that Eveline is the lady portrayed in the first page of the book, pretty tall, thin, dark-haired, brown- eyed, and very pale. From the psychological point of view I think that she is not an independent girl with a low level of self-esteem, she unfortunately is subject to her father.

10.

•0.                        a) A few people were passing, including a man going home.

•0.                        b) The man's footsteps were clacking along the concrete pavement and then they were crunching on the cinder path.

11.

•0.                        - The repeated word is "passed".

•0.                        - The other word with a long [a:] is "last".

12.

When giving Eveline's thoughts and feelings, the narrator does not have a very clear stand because in some parts of the text he is direct in his explanations, but is other parts he is more obscure and lets the reader imagine the end of the scene, the story, or the following thought or feeling.

One time there used to be a field there in which we (they) used to play every evening with other people's children.

Then a man from Belfast bought the field and built houses in it -not like our (their) little brown houses, but bright brick houses with shining roofs.

We (The children of the avenue) used to play in that field with the other children of the avenue (together) - the Devines, the Waters, the Dunns, little Keogh the cripple, me (she) and my (her) brothers and sisters.

Ernest, however, never played: he was too grown up.

My (Her) father used often to hunt us (them) in out of the field with his blackthorn stick; buy usually little Keogh used to keep nix and call out when he saw my (her) father coming.

Still we (they) seemed to have been rather happy then. My (Her) father wasn't (was not) so bad then; and besides, my (her) mother was alive.

That was a long time ago; me (she) and my (her) brothers and sisters are (were) all grown up; my (her) mother is (was) dead.

Tizzie Dunn is (was) dead, too, and the Waters have (had) gone back to England.

Everything changes.

Now I'm (she was) going to go away like the others, to leave my (her) home.

13.

•0.                        - I think that the direct speech version is more immediate.

                   - I think that Joyce used the indirect speech to remain himself and have the reader remain detached from the character, namely avoiding a deep and specific identification with Eveline.

14.

But in my new home, in a distant unknown country, it would not be like that. Then I would be married--me, Eveline. People would treat me with respect then. I would not be treated as my mother had been. Even now, though I was over nineteen, I sometimes felt myself in danger of my father's violence. I knew it was that that had given me the palpitations. When we were growing up he had never gone for me like he used to go for Harry and Ernest, because I was a girl but latterly he had begun to threaten me and say what he would do to me only for my dead mother's sake. And now I had nobody to protect me. Ernest was dead and Harry, who was in the church decorating business, was nearly always down somewhere in the country. Besides, the invariable squabble for money on Saturday nights had begun to weary my unspeakably. I always gave my entire wages--seven shillings--and Harry always sent up what he could but the trouble was to get any money from my father. He said I used to squander the money, that I had no head, that he wasn't going to give me his hard-earned money to throw about the streets, and much more, for he was usually fairly bad on Saturday night. In the end he would give me the money and ask me had I any intention of buying Sunday's dinner. Then I had to rush out as quickly as I could and do my marketing, holding my black leather purse tightly in my hand as I elbowed my way through the crowds and returning home late under my load of provisions. I had hard work to keep the house together and to see that the two young children who had been left to my charge went to school regularly and got their meals regularly. It was hard work--a hard life--but now that I was about to leave it I did not find it a wholly undesirable life. I was about to explore another life with Frank. Frank was very kind, manly, open-hearted. I was to go away with him by the night-boat to be his wife and to live with him in Buenos Ayres where he had a home waiting for me. How well I remembered the first time I had seen him; he was lodging in a house on the main road where I used to visit. It seemed a few weeks ago. He was standing at the gate, his peaked cap pushed back on his head and his hair tumbled forward over a face of bronze. Then we had come to know each other.

15.

•0.                        - We don't know Eveline's father name.

•0.                        - The father is usually seen from Eveline's point of view since she uses many qualifying adjectives for him, without giving us a physical descriptions of him.

So far, the narrator tells us the following items about Eveline's father: personality, family, social class, habits, likes and dislikes, opinions and feelings about other characters, what other characters think of him, some experience, what he does and says and thinks on particular situations.

16.

"Her father used often to hunt them in out of the field with his blackthorn stick"

a) He is recalled when Eveline, together with her brothers and sisters, and other children were playing in the field

b) Eveline's point of view

c) The verb "hunt" and the noun "stick" are significant because they give us the idea of her father's violence

d) The stick evokes a feeling of fear.

e) I share her feelings.

"when he saw her father coming"

a) He is recalled when Eveline, together with her brothers and sisters, and other children were playing in the field

b) Eveline's point of view

c) The verb "come" is significant because he gives us the idea of something which might imminently occurring.

d) A feeling of fear

e) I share her feelings.

"Her father was not so bad then"

a) He is recalled when Eveline, together with her brothers and sisters, and other children were playing in the field

b) Eveline's point of view

c) The word "so" mitigates the strength of the adjective bad"

d) Eveline shows compassion for her father

e) I share her feelings.

"He had been a school friend of her father"

a) The priest is recalled when Eveline reviews all the familiar objects in the room

b) Eveline's point of view

c) The word "friend" is meaningful because it seems strange that her father has a friend.

d) Friendship

e) I share her feelings.

"He is in Melbourne now"

a) The priest is recalled any time a visitor comes to visit her father

b) Eveline's point of view

c) The word "now" shifts the point of view of the narrator/the reader from the memories to present

d) A feeling of non-past

e) I share her feelings.

17.

We do not know much about Eveline's mother though Eveline has beautiful memories about her. In lines 51-52, it is clear that her mother was not respected by people, while in lines 119-131 Eveline reminds herself of the promise she made to her mother, namely to keep the home together. Moreover she recalls the last night of her mother, a life of commonplace sacrifices which ended into final craziness.

18.

We know a lot of details about Frank because Eveline describes him as a very kind and open-hearted man with a face of bronze and tumbled hair over his face. Moreover he was very very fond of music and was a discreet singer; his career started as a deck boy but then he sailed many seas, even the most dangerous ones.

19.

time - 2 times

field - 4 times

play(ed) - 3 times

children - 2 times

houses - 3 times

little - 3 times

avenue - 1 time

brothers and sisters - 2 times

grown up - 2 times

father - 3 times

mother - 2 times

home - 1 time

dead - 2 times

- That impression is true because she is a simple girl and has a limited vocabulary.

21.

The language used by Eveline might make us think that the narrator criticizes the flights of rhetoric Eveline has when she thinks about Frank, namely because she really well remembers the first time she saw Frank and when she feels that he is her saver and that he would give her life and love. The use of the word "perhaps" shows us Eveline's uncertainty in being sure about her future life with Frank: this is rhetorical because in the end she does not leave her country to escape with Frank and live in Buenos Aires "happily ever after".

22.

The realistic cause of romantic Eveline's confusion can be found in the desire to escape from a difficult life in a small village and the fear to find the same life in a distant country with a man who, being a sailor, might have "a wife in every port".

23.

Scene no.2 shows us Eveline's fear coming out in an uncontrolled way. She is pale, she is cold, feeling an extreme suffering and praying to God to show her the right thing to do. The most explicit sentence is when she asks herself if she can draw back and say no to Frank after all he had done for her.

24.

The two sentences are not used in a ritual way because the first talks about a bell which makes a metallic noise upon Eveline's heart, the latter talks about the seas rapidly rolling on her heart. These metaphors are highly indicative of a very clever use of the language by Joyce.

25.

The two heroines differ in their religious approach.

26.

The sentence "No, mother. Let me be and let me live." can be applied to Eveline's life because she wants to have a different life from her mother's but, at the same time, she feels she has to stick to the promise she made to her mother.

27.

Yes, I think that the young James Joyce would have said that an excessive romanticism makes people's lives unhappy.

28.

In my opinion Eveline should have escaped from Dublin (though not necessarily since she could also have escaped from her family and have moved to another village), but not with Frank because in between the lines she shows the fear of not being loved by him (also because he was a sailor, thus away for the most part of the year).