The short story Eveline, by James Joyce belongs to Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short tales first published in 1914.

Right from the title we understand the main protagonist, Eveline. She is nineteen years old, outwardly feel in love with Frank, a sailor. Her mother and her brother Ernest were dead, her second brother was always down somewhere in the country,so she lives with her father.

In the first small introductory sequence the writer starts to present Eveline, by describing the place where she is and what she is doing, using mainly the simple past.

The verb “invade” in the first line refers the relation between the character and the place: “the evening invade the avenue” so, she feels threatened by world around her, powerless, protected only by a dusty cretonne curtain.

One man passes his way home, probably to red houses built on a previous field where Eveline was used to play with other children. That let she think about her past life with her brothers. Joyce refers her memories always by using the “to be used to” form.

The first second sequence start from line 21: Joyce breaks her memories saying “everything changes”. The use of simple present breaks with other tenses, suddenly bringing the attention to Eveline’s present.

Eveline returns to contemplate the room, looking at her familiar objects, the photograph hang on the wall. The writer uses the past perfect: Eveline reflects on choices she has done, and if they are correct. 

The doubt on her choice introduces the reflection about the consequences: what could be life of people around me, if I were not?

 She concludes that her life is very hard, “but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life”.

The fourth sequence deals with Frank, her fellow. She tries to imagine life with him, and what she loves of him.

In the third and fourth sequence is mainly used the past perfect: Joyce uses this tense when Eveline is considering the effects of her choice.

From line 100 we have the fifth sequence: the two letters make Eveline think about beautiful moments with her dad. After that the sound of an organ make she think about her mother’death day. She feels frightened and then she deicides to escape with Frank.

Last sequence deals with the departing of two lovers, but she does not feel sure about her choice. “All the seas of the world trumbled about her hear”, so she leaves the idea of a new life with Frank.

In this short tale James Joyce uses the verb tenses in order to refer to a precise action: the all story is set in the past, so past simple is used to describes Eveline’s actions. Instead the use of “to be used to” form is related to Eveline’s memories; finally the use of past perfect refers to doubt, when Eveline reflects on consequences of choices she had done.