Eveline - structural analysis

The extract "Eveline" is taken from "The Dubliners", a short story written by James Joyce in 1914, in which Dublin represents the centre of paralysis, and the Dubliners are inactive people who do not have the courage to change their situation.

The story is set in Dublin, even if the internal setting is represented by Eveline's house and the external setting is showed through Eveline's mind. The reader has a concrete idea of the external setting thanks to the use of language which appears to the senses sometimes even through smell. The onomatopoeic use of language makes the environments concrete: the reader can see, smell and touch. The external word is received through Eveline's idea: it is seen as a menace or threat (the houses which are recently built, are symbolically red: the colour of blood, threat and pain).

The perception of the character is, right from the start, as inactive, paralyzed: she does nothing, she sits, she watches, she is tired, she is stuck inside her house.

The narrator is a third person, he is omniscient because he knows everything which crosses Eveline's mind.

First sequence: (introduction, lines 1-3)

The narrator describes the scene: Eveline is sat at the window looking out at the evening which was invading the street.

Second sequence: (lines 4-21)

Eveline looks out of the window to the field where she played with other children when she was young. Suddenly her attention returns to the present and to her situation: she has to live her house.                                                                                          

Third sequence: (lines 22-32)

Eveline thinks to the present, looking through the room, to her familiar objects from which, she never imagined, she would have to separate.

Fourth sequence: (lines 33-72)

Eveline asks herself if she had made a correct choice leaving her house. She returns with her mind and feelings, on when she was young and she thinks her father was better with her brothers than with her. For this reason she imagines an happy future with her boyfriend Frank.

Fifth sequence: (lines 73-97)

Eveline thinks to a day in which Frank brought her to the theatre to see "Bohéme"; she thinks he is a nice boy even if it is strange for her having a boyfriend, but she begins to like him.                                                                                                            

Sixth sequence: (lines 98-108)

Eveline directs her thoughts towards her father: she says he always preferred her brothers, but she admits sometimes he was also nice with her. She remembers when she was ill her father read her a ghost's story and prepared her some sandwiches, or another time when her mother was alive, her all family went on Howth mountains for a picnic and her father wore Eveline's mother hat to make the children laugh.                                                                                                                                                                     

Seventh sequence: (lines 109-124)

Eveline describes time's passing. She is sat on the window thinking about her mother's last words: she should not leave the house.                                                  

Eight sequence: (lines 125-129)

The protagonist suddenly realises what she has to do: she will leave with Frank but she is afraid by other people' judgement, but at the same time she understands Frank is her single salvation.                                                                                                                                                  

Ninth sequence: (lines 130-155)

Eveline is with Frank in the middle of people standing in North Wall's station. He is telling her something about the imminent travel, but she does not hear at him because she is absorbed in her thoughts. Suddenly the boat blew a long mournful whistle in the mist. Frank sais her they have to go but she refuses. Finally he goes on the boat and she stays on the station: she realizes she could not leave with him.

The intelligent reader understands that Eveline is thinking and going back to her past. The repetition of the syntactical form "use to" underlines that Eveline's life is made of habits. Joyce underlines the routine-like nature of Eveline's existence with expressions like "every evening" where every conveys repetition, and evening creates an alliterative effect.

Her memory goes back to her childhood.

The introductory "one time" seems to put her childhood very far away, in a distant past. This is due to the open value sounds in one and time. Besides being open the value sounds are also long.