4. Eveline {Adolescence} Flashcards
Genre
The short story “Eveline,” concerned with the practical realities of the titular protagonist’s daily life, is an example of Modernist literature. In many of his works, including “Eveline,” Joyce uses stream of consciousness, a writing technique that was new at the time and is used to depict characters’ passing thoughts and feelings.
“Eveline,” like the other stories in Dubliners, is also a work of realism. The story portrays the everyday reality and experiences of Eveline, a young woman living in early 20th-century Dublin.
Gender
“Eveline,” significantly, is the first story by Joyce to be written from a woman’s perspective, and it focuses on Eveline’s practical concerns as a young Irish woman living and working in Dublin. As such, it could be classified as an early feminist story.
Women had limited opportunities in society during this time; in order to change their social circumstances they often had to rely on their male family members or husbands.
Eveline feels helpless as she struggles to decide what she wants and ultimately cannot act on that desire. Her paralysis at the end of the story reflects the confinement felt and experienced by many women at the time.
M Pilar Sanchez Calle- ‘the portrayal of women is complex, a masculine point of view prevails’
Jeri Johnson states that Eveline is presented in competing codes of femininity; dutiful daughter, battered woman, (failed) romantic interest/heroine.
Mood
The mood of “Eveline” is overall apprehensive and melancholic. The story follows Eveline’s evolving thoughts and emotions leading up to the moment she must make this decision. As such, the mood throughout the story—its general atmosphere—reflects Eveline’s anticipation, fear, and desperation.
Before Eveline is to board the boat for Buenos Ayres, the story’s mood becomes melancholic. Detailed imagery of the station and boat create an atmosphere of darkness and sadness.
This sense of sorrow all comes to head at the story’s anti climactic ending, when Eveline is unable to accompany Frank to Buenos Ayres. The fearful imagery in the passage allows readers to empathize with Eveline’s sadness, apprehension, and ultimate paralysis.
Tone
As the protagonist, Eveline, thinks and recalls events, people, and landscapes throughout the story, she feels different emotions. As such, the story’s tone changes to reflect how Eveline is feeling. It is overall passionate, as it is informed by Eveline’s intense emotions.
At the beginning of the story, the tone is nostalgic as Eveline thinks of her childhood.
The story’s tone grows apprehensive immediately after as Eveline begins to question her plan to leave home for a new life in Buenos Ayres. Joyce’s figurative description of Eveline feeling tense, the idea of leaving fills her with hope. She insists that “in her new home, it would not be like that. She would be married—she, Eveline.” The tone here is optimistic as Eveline considers her future and a life away from Dublin.
After this moment, though, Eveline thinks of her father, and the story’s tone turns mournful. This change in tone is significant because it reflects Eveline’s Catholic guilt over abandoning her responsibilities, and her sadness and inner conflict persists throughout the rest of the story.
Theo Q Dombroski states ‘ the nature of a character’s relationship with his family often reflects their spiritual failure’
Although in the sentence prior Eveline describes the difficulties of her work, the tone here is straightforward, even pleasant. However, Eveline later contradicts herself in a moment of desperation after she remembers her mother repeating the senseless phrase “Derevaun Seraun” and tells herself she must “Escape!” This difference in tone, an example of irony, highlights the conflicting nature of Eveline’s thoughts and feelings.
tldr: conflicting tones reflect inner conflict
Style
“Eveline” is an unusually short story, at under 2,000 words long. It is written from a third-person omniscient point of view, meaning that the story’s narrator is separate from the protagonist Eveline but has access to her thoughts.
The story’s style is characterized by stream of consciousness, a technique common in early 20th-century Modernist writing that attempts to capture the rhythm of a character’s thoughts, often through the use of disorienting pacing and inventive or unusual language. (pay attention to the language which describes her or refers to her)
Setting
Like the rest of the stories in Dubliners, “Eveline” takes place in early 20th-century Dublin, James Joyce’s place of origin. Published in 1914, it captures Dublin during the rise of Irish Nationalism, a time characterized by great change, transformation, and a search for identity.
On a more specific level, most of the story takes place in Eveline’s family home.
It’s significant that Eveline lists people who have moved away interspersed with people who have died, as this suggests that—at least in her mind—leaving Dublin isn’t all that different from dying.
This is largely because, as a Catholic with a strong belief in self-sacrifice and duty to her family, Eveline feels obligated to stay here. Yet Eveline’s surroundings in the room, like the “dusty cretonne” curtains and the “yellowing photograph” of a priest hanging on the wall, also subtly evoke death and decay. Together, then, both Eveline’s room and the avenue outside create the sense that she is trapped and fated to experience a kind of mental or spiritual death, regardless of whether she chooses to stay or leave Dublin.
tldr: all the motifs, imagery and symbols around her suggests death is near (spiritually) joyce uses the idea that paralysis leads to a spiritual death more extensively in The Dead.
Herring stated that centuries of religious and political oppression created a general paralysis of mind and will.
Trevor L. Williams stated that ‘above all there is paralysis: sexual, linguistic, alcoholic, marital, financial; even history itself seems to have stopped.’
Joyce himself commented that ‘I call the series Dubliners to betray the soul of that hemiplegia or paralysis which some call a city.’
This sense of confinement mirrors the general experience of women at the time, as roles and expectations for women were extremely limited. As such, women like Eveline often saw men like Frank as their only means of escape or access to greater opportunities. The references to death both inside and outside Eveline’s home, however, suggest that she will feel trapped and dissatisfied no matter where she decides to go.
tldr; she would have a spiritual death either way.
Professor Walz states that ‘At the end of The Dead, Joyce suggests, as he had done in all his public life stories, that people who live meaningless lives of inactivity are the real dead. ‘
Theme: Paralysis and Inaction
Joyce’s use of perspective and his characteristic stream-of-consciousness style allow the reader to see Eveline’s thought progression clearly as she contemplates running away to Argentina with her lover, Frank.
Eveline’s inability to make a decision, a sort of mental paralysis, results in actual physical paralysis at the end of the story
Eveline’s paralysis is also caused by her sense of powerlessness. She continually looks to two things to save her from her situation: Frank, or men in general, and religion/God. But this feeling of helplessness, however rooted in women’s roles and society, is also part of the reason Eveline is unable to take control of her fate and make a decision.
she is subdued totally to be a damsel in distress.
Theme: Escapism and Exotic
As in many of the other stories in Dubliners, the protagonist of “Eveline” has a desire to escape from the drab, brown Dublin life.
However, when it comes time for Eveline to actually board the boat with Frank, she decides against her escape. This implies that perhaps the idea of an escape was satisfying in itself, but the actual act of escaping is too scary. Eveline liked having the opportunity for an escape, and it temporarily soothed her anxiety.
It is possible that all she really desired was some kind of reassurance in the form of another potential path.
Additionally, she seems to realize that an escape does not necessarily promise a happy ending and she could easily end up with a violent husband, just like her mother did. Joyce seems to see all Dubliners as trapped by society.
The opportunities for escape are scarce, so instead many of his characters choose to fantasize about the exotic and satisfy themselves with more of a mental escape.
Katherine Mullin- Eveline masquerades as a simple anti emigration propagandist fiction, like much of what was published in the Irish Homestead where Eveline was published, but it actually interrogates the terms and functions of the nationalist propaganda it supposedly embodies.
Garry Leonard says ‘Joyce works within the formula of the anti-emigration story and uses it to show that people stay where they are in Dublin, not because they discover wisdom of doing so but because they are trapped.
Theme: Women and Society
Eveline is the first female protagonist that Joyce introduces in Dubliners, and many of her thoughts and desires are influenced by her role as a woman in 20th Century Dublin. Whether or not she is aware of it, her decisions are greatly affected by outside social forces.
As a woman, she does not have a lot of mobility when it comes to her status.
The need to justify her own desire to be happy is also a result of social oppression. This is because society has told her that she is a caretaker and should be driven by others’ needs, not by her own desires or pursuit of happiness.
Eveline’s role as a woman also affects her views and experiences with violence. since she grew up in this environment, she has been exposed to violence and is somewhat used to it. There seems to be a great deal of blame placed on Eveline’s mother.
When Eveline does in fact end up staying, it becomes clear that the decision to stay in an abusive relationship is complicated and much less of a decision than it seems, or perhaps not even a decision at all.
Theme: The Many forms of Death
“Eveline” addresses the subject of death both literally, as when Eveline lists off the people in her life who have died, and figuratively, in several other life events that become metaphors for death. She seems to be very aware of death, and the fact that she has been left behind, either by people dying or leaving.
While Eveline experiences many emotions related to her decision to leave Dublin, she never expresses any strong feelings about death. She refers to her mother’s death, saying life was better before she died, but never really expresses any grief or heartbreak in the text. This lack of emotion takes the drama out of the literal death.
Marriage is also a metaphor for death since it signifies the end of an individual life and the beginning of a shared life. This is especially true for women in 20th-century Dublin, who essentially adopt their husband’s status and identity.
Erica Gregory- Joyce strives to provide a female perspective of marriage that is often lacking in the maledominated Ireland.
Trevor L. Williams stated that Joyce saw marriage as a legal apparatus both embodying the state power and religious oppression. (joyce refused to marry nora for 27 years)
Trevor L. Williams further suggests that for Dubliners, marriage is seen as an an elevated state of ownership.
When Eveline makes her decision not to leave Dublin, she essentially gives up all possibility of change. She will not likely find another way to leave, and will be confined to her monotonous life, which Joyce equates with death.
Joyce’s biggest critique of Dublin life seems to be this idea that Dubliners are trapped, forced to repeat their monotonous day-to-day tasks without ever really actively “living.” Life in Dublin, according to Joyce, is death.
Theme: Catholic Values and Confinement
Joyce clearly illustrates Eveline’s desire for freedom, but in the end she stays behind—partly because of her Catholic background and its religious teachings involving guilt, sacrifice, and promises.
Catholicism plays an important role in Eveline’s life, and generally speaking was the dominant religion in 20th-century Ireland. Eveline’s Catholic values play a large role in her inability to leave, and she ends up sacrificing herself for these values emphasized by her religion.
Joyce is critiquing Catholicism and its emphasis on guilt, since ultimately Eveline’s guilt causes her to stay in Dublin with her abusive father.
Symbol: Dust
Dust represents monotony. The dust in the house keeps collecting no matter how frequently Eveline cleans it, paralleling the monotony of Eveline’s life in Dublin.
In the opening lines, Eveline breathes in the scent of “dusty cretonne” and notices that she is tired. The dust is a reminder of her endless daily tasks, which seem empty of meaning.
It calls to mind the Biblical phrase “from dust to dust,” which implies that dust is simply the absence of existence, either pre- or post- life.
Symbol: Water
Water, specifically the sea, represents the unknown, and Joyce uses it to illustrate Eveline’s fear of the unknown. The sea also represents freedom, which is one and the same as the unknown to Eveline. She is afraid of both freedom and the unknown.
Symbols: Red and Brown
Just as in the story “Araby,” Joyce uses the color brown to signify the dreariness of Dublin. However in this particular story, he also contrasts it with the new red houses that are being built on Eveline’s street. So here, brown represents Eveline’s childhood image of Dublin, and red represents the changes that have happened in Dublin since Eveline has become an adult.
This contrast from brown to red is a change, but it is a very small one. Eveline knows that Dublin is changing, but the changes are tiny in comparison to the changes that moving to an entirely different country would present.
tldr; represents superficial change
Allusion: The Bohemian Girl
Eveline and Frank go to the theater to see The Bohemian Girl, an Irish opera composed by Michael Balfe. It’s significant that this is the opera Eveline went to see, since the main character, Arline, reflects on her childhood much like Eveline does at the beginning of the story. It’s possible, then, that Eveline identifies with this character.
At the theater, Eveline feels “elated” and carefree. Through Frank, she is able to access the kind of comfort and social status she desires.
