The narrator is a 3rd person narrator omniscent and he knows Eveline's story. Events take place in Eveline’s house, therefore the setting is an internal setting. On the other hand the external world is filtered by Eveline’s mind. The reader can have a concrete idea of the external setting thanks to the use of language that appeals to the senses: sight ,hearing,smell.

In addiction onomatopeic use of the language makes the reader see , hear  , smell and touch. The external world is perceived with a negative point of view because of the use of words like “INVADE” which belongs to the semantic field of war. The perception of the character is , right from the start, as inactive and paralised person: she does nothing, she watches people, she sits at the window, she is not dinamic.

The alliteration of sound W contributes to the sombre effect. The external world is busy: James Joyce conveys the idea of the city in a very concrete matter of fact and minute.

Eveline knows perfectly the world outside. She seems to conduct a very ordinary life.

Silence is broken by the onomatopeic sound made by the footsteps. The word “Cranching” evokes the noise made by the motion .Interesting is to notice that the only novelty are the new houses that are simbolically red. Red is the colour of sofference and passion.

The intelligent reader understands that Eveline is thinking at her past, the repetition of the syntactical form “used to” underlines that her life is made of habits.

James Joyce underlines the routine-like nature of Eveline’s existance with expressions like “every morning”.. Where ”every” conveys the repetition of her actions and “evening” creates an alliterative effect. Her memory goes back to her childwood, the introductory “one time” seems to put her childwood in a distant past. This is due to the open vowel sounds in “one” and “time”.

Besides being open , the vowel sounds are also long and this create the effect.

Irish situation is underlined by the irruption of a foreigner from Belfast.