Eveline Textual Analisis 

The extract that I'm going to analyze is taken from Eveline, a short story written by J. Joyce.

The purpose of the analysis is to demonstrate that Eveline is subdued by her inability to live and to succeed in something.

Eveline is an unhappy, Irish teenager of 19 years old with a lot of fears, troubles and difficulties.

Her story is set in Dublin during the first three decades of the 20ieth Century and it talks about working class narrow life: the one that Eveline is unable to face.

Right from the beginning the atmosphere is suffocating, obsessive and Eveline is presented as a middle aged woman, not a young girl. She is introduced through her thoughts, fears, feelings, indecisions, her job and her reputation at home (the idea that her parents have about her) and at work. In addition Eveline is characterized not by her physical description, that is absent, but with the juxtaposition of scenes. There are indoor scenes and outdoor scenes, in Eveline's mind. Eveline is always inside her house, she watches outside and she goes out travelling with her thoughts.

Eveline is afraid, she isn't self-confident and this is the reason why she stays always at home: she needs to feel protected. Nobody in her family, in particular his father, puts faith in her; only her mother thought her able to do something well, and as a consequence she asked her to take care about the house, and the family the day in which she died.

Also at work no one has a good opinion about her. She works in a shop but she is too slow and the customers complain.

Eveline thinks about all the negative aspects of her life (her mother and brother death, her father mistrust in her skills and abilities and her difficulties at work) and she realizes that the only possible way to solve her problems is to go away.

She has got the possibility to cruise with Frank, her boyfriend, and to build a new life with him in Buenos Ayres, but she was not able to escape.

She decides to stay on the harbour and not to go on the boat.

The reader knows Eveline's reflections because the third person omniscient narrator adopts the point of view of Eveline. The narrator uses the narrative technique of the interior monologue: he is in Eveline's mind and he writes all the "dialogue" that the main character does with herself.

The narrator builds Eveline characterization using the language of sense impression. The reader smells, sees and hears what Eveline is smelling, seeing and hearing.

Considering her inability to decide what is better to herself and her desire to be protected, to hide herself, is clear that she hasn't got a personality and she doesn't know who she is.

Eveline hasn't got an identity because she is grown up being influenced by the opinion that her father has got. She wasn't able to built her way of thinking, her point of view and now, "tired" about the condition in which she lives, being aware not to be independent from her family, she is doldrums.

In addition, she has the possibility to improve her condition, but she has to choose: to perform her duties (promises she made to her mother) or to built her life.

She decided to perform her duties.

Even if Eveline escapes from Dublin and from her life, anything will change if she doesn't build her identity. When she will create her independence, she will become free and her life takes colours (She is frequently associated with old or dusty things as the curtains, the old photo of a priest, the evening, conveying the absence of vitality in her life as in her house colours lacks).