Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
Eveline written by James Joyce is organized in six sequences each presenting a topic and having a different function. In the short story there is a third person omniscient narrator because he knows everything even what crossing Eveline's mind. The short story is setting in Dublin. Dublin is the center of paralysis and so Dubliners are unable to act because they don't have the courage to change their situation. Eveline is a Dublin as a matter of fact she is unable to make an autonomous decision about her life. The intelligent reader can have a concrete idea about the external setting thanks to the use of language which appeals to the sense: sight, hearing and even smell. In addition onomatopoeic use of language make the environment complete.
The first two sequences introduces the environment in which the short story takes place and the setting. The external word is perceived as a menace and a threat because of the use of the negative verb ”invade“ which belongs to the semantic field of war. Silence is broken by the onomatopoeic sounds make by the footsteps: ”crunching“ evokes the effect of the emotions. Her house is grey, everything seems to be covered with dust therefore it might seem an adolescent is out of place in such a house. Interesting is to notice that the only novelty are ”the new house“ which are symbolically red.
The second sequence very well provides an example, a very suitable instance of Joyce's symbolic realism: one that makes the reader understand the tissue and nature of Eveline's poor life. She feels at home only among ”familiar objects“ that don't make her afraid. Habits routine is what her life is made of. She dusted her house objects ”once a week for so many years“, the sense of her routine is conveyed by the alliterative use of the sound ”r“ (round, room, reviewing). Dust become the paradigmatic symbol or an extensive metaphor for her existence. Everything she is surrounding by is either ”yellowing“ or ”broken“. The intelligent reader may soon realize that the short story not only conveys the idea of a paralyzed mind living in a shabby world but he or she immediately perceive the Irish situations where all admitted icons are connected with religion. Eveline's house is made of walls over which religious images of saints hung like heavy weights.
In the third sequences, from the structural point of view Joyce wants to introduce the theme of the voyage open up to the mind to Eveline's indecision. Also from the syntactical point of view the narrator changes because we have three direct styles, the reader may have the feeling that he is listening to the exact world that cross Eveline's mind even if there are not inverted commas. Interesting is to notice that thinking about her voyage she immediately considered that at home ”she had shelter and food“ and ”those she had known all her life about her“. Again Eveline thinks of her past and her present to make sense of the future, this explains the difficulty for her to cut with her past. She doesn't seem to have any positive feeling about her future life; the new passes through the old and even worse through what other people think of her. The petty mentality of gossip seems to interest her more than nourish her expectations. The all sequence underlines the low quality of her existence, there are two semantic choices that underline the point, hard is very frequent as an adjective and regularly is another adverb which is repeated twice. The sequence symbolically ends in lines 70-72 highlighting the concept of hard ship in Eveline's existence and clearly brings to surface that the idea of leaving home is more a form of escape than a real choice.
The following sequence is about the Eveline's relationship with Frank. Joyce speaks about ”to explore another life“ like the exploration of the forest where you don't know what you may find. Even there would-be escape is by the night-boat. Grey and darkness still scape Eveline's existence. Eveline's memories go back to the first time she met Frank. The man himself seems a statue then again memory crosses her mind whenever Eveline is well treated such a behavior displaced her Frank appears as the romantic man every girl is looking for, as in a dream. He also sings love songs to her and she feels confused. The intelligent reader understand that Eveline's father doesn't like Frank from the expression ”her father had found out the affair and had forbidden her to have anything to say to him“ and ”...he had quarreled with Frank“.
The fifth sequence deals with Eveline's indecision: on one hand she wants to leave her old life but on the other hand she is not sure about what to do. It expresses the nature of the main character, characterized by lots of feelings and inner conflicts. She remembers the promise she made to her mother on her deathbed, that is ”to keep the home together as long as she could“. Her mother becomes the reason why she decides to stay in Dublin. Moving to Buenos Ayres means breaking the promise made and leave her family alone.
The last sequence deals with a kind of personal monologue, Eveline is terrified and she asks herself what she will do and what will be the consequences of her choice even if through her movements (”she gripped with both hands at the iron railing“ or ”her hands clutched the iron in frenzy“) and her thoughts we can understand her real intentions. In order to convince herself that what she wants is to stay and not to leave with Frank, she begins to think about ”all the seas of the world“ and that if she went with him she would certainly be drowned. At the end of the short story Joyce, through gestures and thoughts, reiterates the indecision and the paralysis that characterized Eveline and all Dubliners.