Eveline is a short story belonging to Dubliners by James Joyce and it is part of the section devoted to adolosence.
Right form the start, Eveline, the protagonist, is looking at the outside world from her house and she percieves external reality as a thread since the night arrival is seen as an invasion.
In the second sequence the reader is informed about Eveline's past, especially childhood. When Eveline remembers the past, she doesn't say it was an happy period, but that it seems to be an happy period. Eveline isn't certain of nothing, she is paralyzed, that is she haven't got a point of view. Moreover the insistance on time references create a gap and a contrast between her present situation and the memory of her past situation. The expression "everything changes" makes the reader understand Eveline has lost the control of her life and she hasn't awareness of the flowing of the events.
The third sequence begins with an the explamation mark "home!" that expresses Eveline's feeling. The relationship with her home is made up through objects and repetitive action. The reader understans Eveline's life is repetitive and soffocating. The broken and old object and the dust remind death and moreover they are expression of a symbolic realism, that is they symbolize a way to be and, in this case, the paralysis and the fear of facing the world.
The fourth sequence presents the doubts afflicting Eveline. She does not think to act but she thinks what the poeple will say about her behaviour. Her uncertainty is expressed by the use of the conditional tense and by use of questions.
In the fifth sequence Eveline's mind returns to think about her hard life but she condiders it bearable , demonstrating in this way her paralysis and her lack of a point of view.
In the sixth sequence Eveline's fiancee Frank is presented. Frank looks like a perfect boy, able to guarantee stability, that's why he represents for Eveline a way of escape from a life she does not like.
The evening comes and the day of the departure approaches but she keeps thinking about her family and her happy moments. She is blocked in the past, she isn't able to act in the present and she tries to hide from an unknown future.
When she comes back to reality and she stops thinking, the sounds of external world takes her back to think about the past. She remembers her mother's death and, as a consequence, the life of privation she should face.
In the nineth sequence Eveline's will to leave emerges. The departure becomes a necessity and Franks represents the only way to achieve happyness.
The last sequence demonstrates what was supposed before: Eveline's inability to act. When she is about to leave her face becomes white, her eyes lifeless and she isn't able to act loosing in this way the only possibility to change her life.