Eveline: structural analysis

Title: Eveline

Characters: Eveline, her family (father, mother and her brother), Frank

Setting: Dublin ( Eveline's house, fields around the house, the shop where Eveline works, pier)

The short story is arranged into two parts: a longer one and a very short one.

First part: from the first part the reader can understand who the protagonist is and who the other important characters in the story are. The narrator provides the reader with information about all the main characters (social status, what they do, what is their role in the storyline). The most relevant information is about Eveline: the reader knows all her feelings and thinks. She seats at the window and she thinks about her future and her past. No one acts in the first part, which has an introductory function for the conclusion of the short story.

Eveline is unable to make a decision: she lives in a difficult situation and she wants to escape with her lover Frank, but she is not sure to go to Buenos Aires with him.

Second part: the second part is very short and concludes tragically the story. The setting is different: we are at the pier, an open space far from Eveline's house. She is unable to decide, the boat leaves but without Eveline.