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DIacuzzo - 5B - Modernist Fiction. V. Woolf and J. Joyce - Sequences Analysis of Eveline
by DIacuzzo - (2012-01-24)
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Sequences Analysis of Eveline

 

1- How many sequences are in the short story? What is their function?
In the short story Eveline there are ten sequences.

The first sequence introduces the character from an external point of view, presenting her by her actions.
In the second sequence the narrator enters in character's mind and Eveline's thoughts come back to the her happy childood. The sequence presents her thoughts but also her social conditions and her opinion about her present life and also she is leaving.
The third sequence presents her thoughts about her present life: here the reader discovers how she lives and how her life is.
The fourth sequence presents again her decision to leave her home and her characterization goes on using the categories of her work, her name, her surname, her age and also her thoughts. The reader can understand she is not a married girl, she belongs to a low social status and also why she is leaving her home (she wants to escape with her lover).
The fifth sequence presents the conditions of her family, her role in it and also her relationship with her father and her brothers.

The sixth sequence introduces another character, her lover Frank. He is presented by Eveline's point of view and the reader discovers his work, his social condition, his hobbies. So the reader can understand he is not a poor man (he has a house in South America). Their relationship is also introduced here  (they meet secretly) and the reader knows also why Eveline is leaving her country (her father does not want she marries him).
In the seventh sequence Eveline thinks again to her father and she reflects about when he was a good man in the past. So the sequence analysis deeply Eveline's relationship with her father.
In the eighth sequence Eveline remembers again her past, but here her mother is introduced before dying. An important element is Eveline's promise to her mother to do not leave her family alone.
In the ninth sequence Eveline comes back to the present and she decides definitely to leave her country with Frank. She wants to be happy. So she decides something for her life like a woman.

The last sequence function is to communicate Eveline's fears when she is leaving her family and everything she knows.

 

2- What is the relation between the sequences?
The first sequence introduces the character from an external point of view. While Eveline is looking out of the window, she sees a man passing. She follows him to the end of the avenue and it makes remember her when she was a child and she was used to play in the field that was there.
Thinking about her impending departure she thinks also about her home (third sequence). Looking at an old photograph she thinks of a friend of her father who lives in Melbourne and this leads her to reflect about her decision to leave everything (fourth sequence).
Then she goes on thinking about her present life and to her relationship with her father and her family (fifth sequence). Thinking to her present hard life she thinks she will have a different life with Frank (sixth sequence).
In the seventh sequence the situation is introduced from an external point of view, and the attention on the letters makes Eveline think again to her father.
The scene comes back again to the present but the music of a street organ makes Eveline remeber of the promise to her mother (eighth sequence).
Her refusal of a sad life makes her decide to leave her family (ninth sequence).
The tenth sequence is characterized by a change of scene, time and characters.

 

3- What are the narrative techniques used by the writer?
In the short story there is a third person narrator. He is also omniscient (he knows everything about he character and his thoughts and feelings) and not intrusive (he does not speak with the reader).
The novelist uses the free indirect speech in order to report character's thoughts.
He uses the stream of consciousness in order to report Eveline's thoughts, even if in some parts the narration in made from an external point of view. With the stream of consciousness the reader feels as he is in Eveline's mind and time dimensions of present, past and future are all present together.