Eveline by James Joyce: an analysis

Some notes about the short-story by Joyce

1. EVELINE from “Dubliners” by James Joyce

2. Main elements - a psychological dilemma included in a few pages - Eveline has to decide to stay or to leave - the story is divided into three sections: her background, her meeting with Frank and then her final decision - the objective description of reality is mingled with her impressions

3. Narrative technique Even though the novel is not told in the first person narration, Joyce shows everything from Eveline’s perspective. In this way the reader has free access to Eveline’s thoughts and memories. Words have an allusive symbolic appealing meaning. Interior monologue, free direct speech and free indirect speech.

4. Setting The presence of the window gives the idea of the threshold between the outer world and her At the same time the crowd at the port reveals that same sense of loneliness and loss she was experiencing.

5. CHARACTERS All the characters are seen through Eveline’s eyes: her father, an abusive violent figure, Frank, her boyfriend who is reliable, sincere, her dead mother who is crucial and especially the promise she made to her. Her mother represents the prototype of all female characters and their sense of sacrifice to defend their family.

6. THEMES The unpredictability of decision-making and the epiphany at the very end of the story. Paralysis vs escape: she wants to leave but at the end she can’t Eveline represents the first woman starting a new age but she fails: she gets an example of the mythical method The burden of family connections.