"Eveline" is a short story taken from "the Dubliners" by James Joyce. Escape and paralysis are the central themes: Eveline feels trapped by the stifling conditions, poverty and family situations, that entrap her at home. Eveline’s dream is escape from the tedium of Dublin, but she is unable to escape because she finds herself frightened to leave her family and Ireland. Her action is the sign that she in fact hasn’t made a decision and she remains fixed in a circle of indecision. Eveline’s paralysis within an orbit of repetition leaves her a “helpless animal,” stripped of human will and emotion.

The author is hidden, he is invisible and his richly drawn characters tell and represent the story.

Right from the start the reader can realize the girl’s passivity; as a matter of fact she is introduced “sitting at the window, watching the evening invade the avenue”. In addition to this the choice of adjectives such as dusty reinforces the idea as something old. The reader can also perceive a feeling of dissatisfaction with her present life. The contrast between her past life and the present one is clear. Infect the girls says: “one time and now”. Her past life was happy because her mother was still a live and her father “was not so bad than”. Unfortunately now everything has changed and she is going to live with her boyfriend Frank. However if on the one hand Frank represents a way to escape from her a boring life, on the other hand she can’t make up her mind whether to live or not with Frank. The girl’s indecisions are in a certain way the representation of the passivity of all the inhabitants of Dublin. Although she is not happy with her present life Eveline’s sense of duty toward her family and the promise she made to her mother to look after the house prevent her from living with Frank.

Almost out the end of the story the reader can notice the novelist uses a description of the girl “setting by the window leaning her head against the window curtain…”. Such a stylistic choice turns out to be useful to reinforce again the girl’s passivity once.

As regards the narrative technique the story is told by a third person narrator who often disappears and what comes to the surface is mainly Evelin’s thought.

The short story Eveline allows the novelist to give voice to the representation of Dublin and its inhabitants at the beginning of the XX century. The city and its inhabitants seem to share a sense of passivity and paralysis very similar to the one which characterizes the character of Eveline.