Now I am going to carry out the denotative analysis of Eveline.

Eveline is a story from Dubliners by James Joyce.

Considering the title I expect the short story to speak about a woman, also the title makes immediately clear that the protagonist is girl called Eveline.

Eveline is the protagonist of the short story and she represents a phase in live that coincides with adolescence. Eveline is a story about adolescence.

The writer begins the story telling us Eveline's situation:

Eveline sits at the window, watching the avenue. She thinks of her family, and the neighbors. Years ago, the children on the avenue used to play on a field where now stand many houses. She and her brothers are now grown up, and her mother is dead. Eveline is nineteen years old, and she is planning to leave Ireland forever. She works very hard, at a store and also at home, where she cares for her old father. She has mixed feelings about her father because he is violent and always drunk. So it is very difficult for Eveline to take an important decision - to leave home.

She is going to leave Ireland for good with a sailor named Frank. He has a home in Buenos Ayres. Eveline is thinking about her possible future with Frank but she has doubts, she is unable to make a decision. She is besides blind to a promise, because she promised her dead mother to look after the family.

The story has a tragic conclusion because she is deeply conflicted and makes the painful decision not to leave with her boyfriend Frank.