Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
CTullis - Modernist Fiction: V. Woolf and J. Joyce. Eveline's paralysis
by - (2012-01-30)
Up to 5 A - Modernist Fiction: V. Woolf and J. Joyce
The short story "Eveline" from a collection of short stories called "Dubliners", by James Joyce, deals with the personality and the way of think of the main character Eveline. She's a Dubliner adolescent and she well represent Dubliner's way of life because she has a sort of paralysis. To explain the paralysis, let's analyse Eveline's interior monologue about her indecision to make a voyage to Argentina with her lover Frank.
The intelligent reader understand that Eveline had the intention to leave in the second paragraph when, after the description of her habits in the past, Eveline thought that everything would have changed because she would have left her home. But Eveline's intention is only an illusion because she is so linked with her habits, with her past and with her home. In fact in the third paragraph she looked around the room and the intelligent reader understand that Eveline feels at home only among familiar objects. She's afraid of the unconscious and the routine makes nature of her life. Also in the following paragraphs the reader can see Eveline's difficulty to cut with her past because she doesn't seem to have any positive feeling about her feature: she had to left her shelter, her work place, her father who sometimes can be kind with her. Speaking of which, Eveline's father may be one reason to leave Dublin: she's violent, always drunk and he didn't give money to her. He contributed to make Eveline's life hard. It is talking about her hard life that Eveline thought that the voyage may be a way to escape.
Eveline's fiancé is the opposite of her father; she would have a best life with him but she is too afraid to act and her paralysis had just decided for her: she won't leave. The promise to her dead mother to keep the house together contributed to her decision.