Eveline is a short story belonging to Dubliners. In James Joyce's idea, Dubliners, as a collection, had the function o write a chapter of the moral history of his country. The main character is the adolescent Eveline, a girl belonging to the working class who perceives external reality as a thread and who lives in the past.

The short story is made up of seven sequences, mainly used to make the reader know about the character's life and reflections. The first sequence has an introductory role. In the following sequence the writer gives background information about Eveline's past and about the setting. The third sequence deals with Eveline feelings. Furthermore, to convey the idea of her home, James Joyce uses a symbolical realism with some objects, and also the dust and the repetitive actions that let the reader understand the girl's paralysis. Therefore, all her thoughts are related to the past, that seems to be rather happy and make her impossible to leave home. The fourth sequence is about her relationship with the father. It's outlined her importance for the family as she's the only one able to run it. The fifth sequence deals with the figure of Frank, that represents the possibility of leaving home and escape from reality. The sixth sequence takes back the beginning of the novel, as Eveline returns thinking about her past and her family. Her mother's dead memory causes a desire of escape as she feels overwhelmed by it. The seventh sequence is set in North Wall station where she's about of leaving the country with Frank. Yet, while Frank is getting on board, Eveline refuses to follow him and stops on the quay, unable to control her fears and face her choices and her decisions.

The writer uses various narrative techniques as the third person free omniscient narrator and the stream of consciousness, that allows the reader to understand that Eveline has got no point of view. The verbs tenses have a particular importance in the text. For example, the use of the simple present in the text is never referred to Eveline's life, but to the others. Furthermore, the simple past is used to narrate Eveline's vicissitudes, showing that her present is make alive by the memory of her past. This concept is also outlined by the used to form and the past perfect, that are linked to a past where everything seemed better and more bearable. The present conditional represents her being unable to make decisions and choices.

James Joyce's use of the language is very important in the text's economy, as helps the witer to convey the message or Eveline feelings, like with the words dust, reminding death or dream, reveling that her voyage to Argentina is not possible.