Analysis of Eveline

"Eveline" is a short story taken by the collection of short stories called "Dubliners" written by James Joyce. The text is written in a third person omniscient narrator. The text is organized in 12 sequences.

The first sequence has introductory function. It introduces Eveline. Eveline is 19 years old, she lives in Dublin, she belongs to the working class and she is an orphan. Joyce decides to introduce her as a watcher, not as somebody acting. This sequence has a negative connotation because of the verb "invade". The verb is taken from the semantic field of the "war". She feels menaced by the external word.

The second sequence has the function to tell the reader Eveline's past life. Through what she observes, Joyce introduces us to something about her childhood. With the syntactical form "used to" Joyce implies past habits. All the verbs are at the past tense except the sentence "everything changes", it implies something that changes in the style and in time.

The third sequence analyzes Eveline's attitude towards her home. Eveline lives the present only through the memory of the past and through the hopes and the illusions of the future. She feels homesick of her objects before leaving. The sense of her routine is conveyed by the alliterative use of the sound "r" (round, room, reviewing). Eveline sometimes seems to dream about the possibility to take a distance from her situation. Eveline speaks about her father's friend, that is the Priest. From the structural point of view Joyce wants to introduce the theme of the voyage, but it underlines Eveline's inability to take a decision.

The fourth sequence notices that thinking about her voyage, Eveline considers what she has at home. Again Eveline thinks of her past and her present to make sense of her future. This explains the difficulty for her to cut with her past. She doesn't seem to have any positive feeling about her future. Joyce's symbolic realism can well be seen in the sentence at line 39 "and her place would be filled up with an advertisement". Here she seems to perceive herself in terms of a vacancy. Eveline has not at all any self esteem. She always thinks about people's idea of her in negative terms.

The fifth sequence underlines the petty mentality of gossip that seems to interest her more than nourish her expectation. In this sequence her father is described and the reader can understand that he is often drunk. The reader can also understand that she has a hard life because she has to look after her brother and because her father considers her unable to do the shopping. Also the way Joyce describes the way she goes to buy provisions is to return to the reader an image of hard life in terms of hard relationship.

The sixth sequence is about the relationship between Eveline and Frank. Joyce speaks about (line 73) "to explore another life" like the exploration of a forest where you don't know what you may find. Grey and darkness always shape her existence. Eveline's memory goes back to the first time she met Frank. Whenever Eveline is well treated such a behavior displaces her. Frank appears as the romantic man every girl is looking for, as in a dream. He sang love songs to her and she felt confused.

The seventh sequence evidences Eveline's decision to leave her home. Before leaving she writes two letters, one to her father and one to her brother. The darkness of the evening makes the two letters almost indistinct. The darkness covers everything even the white of the two letters. She thinks over her feelings towards her father and her brother. She tries to capture some memories from the past.

The eighth sequence underlines the promise that Eveline made to her mother before she died, and evidences the importance that the promise still has to her. Joyce uses the past continuous to underline the passing of the time. The simple past focuses our attention on her mother's death.

The ninth and the tenth sequences focus the attention on her mother's pitiful life and death. Eveline realizes she must escape in order to live a better life with no pains. She feels she has to look for happiness somewhere else. Frank could save her. He is an external figure, he is not from the family and from the house. He is not covered with dust and so he can maybe help her.

The eleventh sequence describes the harbor. Eveline is not safe there, she feels a "maze of distress". James Joyce uses the simple past to describe Eveline's mood and how she behaves . The sequence begins with the verb "she stood" which immediately underlines Eveline's immobility.

In the last sequence James Joyce underlines Eveline's inability to follow Frank. In this sequence Eveline realizes she can't leave her home, her father and last but not least her childhood. She is paralyzed. Notice that the only verb which is used at the present tense is "come", which implies an action she is not able to do.

Eveline is paralyzed she is unable to change her life, even to make it better. She is somehow aware of all the limits of her grey every-day life, but she can't react, She is a "helpless animal".