Introduction
Eveline is a short story by renowned author James Joyce. It was published for the first time in 1904 in the Irish Homestead. It later made a place in his compilation of short stories Dubliners (1914). Its origin can be historically traced in the period of Irish Nationalism when anti-British sentiment was high. It was written not much later after the Irish Potato-Famine and then the subsequent movements that tried to defy the atrocious British rule during his stay in Ireland and Italy in the early 1900s.
It is a portrayal of the Irish middle-class in the early twentieth century. All the stories in this compilation are about Irish people, with an Irish setting, giving the nuance that Irish are a separate entity on their own and need independence. Though Joyce didn’t reside in Dublin during his professional life, his works are still about Dublin and his memories of this city. He draws a perfect picture of it, its citizens, and portrays his nostalgia for this city.
Dubliners is one of James Joyce’s easily accessible and comprehensible books in contrast to his other books, The Story of an Artist as Young Man and Ulysses. Though like other artistic works of great writers, this work seems deceptively simple, the more deeply it is studied, the more it yields. It is a work which he used to perfect his skills and later exhibited these skills in his later works.
In this collection, Joyce perfected the skills of characterization, plotting, dialogue, description, and point of view. Amazingly this attempt was a success. Some of the characters like Lenehan and Bob Doran from these short stories appear in his later books, in more developed forms.
The time during which Joyce wrote about Dublin, it was a rural, unsophisticated city, having no cosmopolitan value like other European cities. He blamed two factors for this underdog status, one was Britain, and the other was the Roman Catholic Church. In his stories, he has assigned both of them antagonistic roles, though not explicitly everywhere. It is a bleak description of Dublin and its inhabitants.
In these stories, he has shown the inability of the characters to move forward, as we can see in ‘Eveline,’ ‘Araby,’ ‘The Dead’ as what is the temperament of the people of the age. These stories tell of the stagnation, corruption, depravity of the people in Irish society.
The stories in Dubliners are though different apparently, but they are the different facets of a single story, a single Irish story. We can see the development of the protagonist of one story in another, though the name changes from one story to another. The story of Eveline also depicts a perfect picture of women in the twentieth century, whose protagonist Eveline Hill is unable to take the final plunge to get out of the plight she is facing.
Some critics have found relations between this short story’s protagonist and Joyce’s sister, where there are many resemblances between the two characters. Some link it with another character in the neighborhood of Joyce, who planned to run away with a sailor but ended up marrying in her native town.
Eveline Summary
The protagonist of the story, Miss Eveline Hill is sitting near a window. She is thinking about her escape plan with an Irish sailor Frank who has settled in Buenos Ayres. She is nineteen years old and works at a local store. She looks from the window to the street outside. The smell of dust is prevalent in the air, and she muses where this all dust comes from. The street is empty, and there are no people seen coming or going.
She looks across the street and remembers the field which was there in place of the bright brick houses. She recollects how she, her brothers, their neighbors’ children as Keogh, Devines, Waters, Dunns, etc. used to play with them, and her father would come there to shoo them away. Then the field was bought by a person from Belfast, and he built the bright brick houses there. Thus they lost their playground.
She remembers it was long ago and now everything has changed. It was the time their mother was alive, and their father was kind to them. Her brothers were there at home, and the elder one was alive. The kids with whom they played were no more there; some had left for other countries and some for their homelands like Waters, who were from England. Everything had changed, now she thought it was her time to change her life like others. She had decided to leave her home.
She looked around at everything at home, and with each article there, she had memories attached. She had cleaned this place many times and had never thought to part with all these. She looked at the portrait of the priest hanging on the wall and remembered he was his father’s friend and now was in Melbourne. She had decided to leave her home, but she was still thinking about its consequences.
She thought that would it be fair to leave it this way, or what will people say if she leaves home. With this, the memory of Miss Gavan, her boss at the store where she was working, came to her mind. She remembered how she never misses any chance to scold her. She had emotionally wrecked her through her incessant scolding, and Eveline would hardly control the tears coming out of her eyes.
She thought that if she left, she would have to work hard to make her value in the new country. Though she would lose her respect for her, there she will lead a happy and respectful life being the wife of Frank. She would have someone who will love her and care for her. She remembers her abusive father, who, after the death of her mother, had become a devil. He was a drinker and spent Harry’s and her money on drinking. He would take all her week’s earnings, which was seven shillings, from here on Saturday night.
He has been violent to her mother, and she had spent a miserable life. At her deathbed, she had uttered some nonsense words which she couldn’t understand and had become terrified. She had asked her to promise to take care of her family. After her death situation had deteriorated and she had a miserable life, which she has now decided to change by leaving home.
She started thinking about Frank, who had come to change her life. Initially, they met openly, but later, when her father came to know, she told her not to meet him ever. Her father quarreled with Frank and threatened him if he met his daughter. He was suspicious of the sailors and spoke badly of Frank. People around knew that she and Frank had an affair; they were courting each other. He used to sing her songs, and that pleased her. He used to take her to different places, and they had visited ‘The Bohemian Girl’ together.
She had written two letters, one to her father and another to Harry. This was to let them know that she was going for better. She again remembered her father, who had become irritable with the passage of time and took care of her when she once fell ill. She heard, and Italian who was playing music, and that reminded her of her mother’s last days.
The idea of her mother’s last days terrified her, and she stood up to leave for the station. She arrived there and could see many people coming and going. There she found the ship that was bound to take her and Frank. Frank was there, and the ship was blowing the whistle. He held her hand, asking her to come on board. Her thoughts were busy, and she couldn’t decide. She thought as if this ship would drown her, and she decided to stay. Frank kept calling her, but she stayed intact to the railing, having refused to go.
Themes in Eveline
Many forms of Death
Death is both figuratively and literally discussed in this short story. In the example of people who are no more part of Eveline’s life are described as though ‘they are no more.’ But this is not the case in the majority of the persons who are alive but are no more in contact with her. This going has become the metaphor of death. She describes life before her mother’s death better than what it is at present.
She also describes those who left Dublin and never asserts her emotional response to these happenings. From this, meaning can be inferred, which is those people die who leave Dublin. She fears this thing that she will be considered dead by those who know her, and this fear of evanescence makes her halt and change her decisions.
Marriage is also a metaphor for death for her because, as a result of it, she will lose her identity, and she will be no more. Her husband will become her master and identity, and she will ‘drown’ in unknown seas. In those times, when women married, they lost all their rights and liberties, so marriage can be compared to slavery. According to Joyce, the meaning of life in Dublin is death.
Those who can not make their decisions, who can not live their life according to their will, are not living. As the Dubliners are entrapped, so they are dead. So it can be concluded that life in Dublin means death.
Catholic Values and Confinement
One of the major factors that need to be blamed for the failure of Eveline’s escape plan is her Catholic religion. Catholicism teaches sacrifice, promises, and guilt. When Eveline considers all these factors, she smells heresy because, for her own ends, she is deserting her father. At the end, she decides to sacrifice her own future and freedom for her family, and that will result in rewards from God.
This religion teaches to keep promises, and her promise with her mother binds her to stay home, and if she doesn’t do so, she would be committing a sin. She also considers the promises that she has made with God, and to keep them; she abandons her plans and Frank. To protect herself from being counted as a sinner, she gives up her plan, and her religion fetters her instead of liberating her.
In case of the commitment of sins, the concept of guilt and heavy conscience is invented by Catholicism, and this deprives a person of his/her peace of mind. She considers the ‘gloomy’ whistle as a sign from God, and she decides to stay. Thus as a whole role of religion in the promotion of oppression, either on the individual or societal level is undeniable.
Nostalgia
Nostalgia is another prominent theme in Dubliners. In Eveline, the protagonist’s main fetter is nostalgia, her thoughts begin and end with nostalgia, and that stops her from liberating herself. She is aware of the problems of the Dubliner life that emotionally kill a person. But she can’t leave Dublin because with it all her memories and identity will die, she won’t have the memory of sacrifices that she gave for her family.
She will have to start life anew, and that is the thing she doesn’t want to. She is ready to sacrifice her life, which is a reality but doesn’t want to sacrifice her memories and nostalgia, which is an abstract idea. This nonsense thought prevents her from taking that bold step and adopting a new identity. It is her misperception that her memories and nostalgia will keep her alive, and if she left, she would die as soon as she loses her identity.
The same feeling can be found in other women who didn’t stand for their liberation because they didn’t want to lose the identity that was assigned to them by men. It can be further extended to Irishmen who didn’t stand for their liberation because they didn’t want to lose their colonial identity. This feeling of nostalgia results in immense losses that are irreparable. For historical mistakes, there can be no emendations made, and they carry dire consequences.
Women and Society
Eveline is the first female-oriented story in Dubliners. Eveline is a typical twentieth-century woman who faces the majority of the problems that were usual then. In that society, the hierarchy was the organizational structure, and women had inferior value to men. This led to the oppression of women by men. Women were subjugated and thus made powerless. This space was filled by a man who was powerful, and thus he used to pretend that he is doing her a favor by bestowing his power on her, and she should be grateful.
Thus in Eveline, the protagonist is in need of a male who can support her emotionally and physically and fill the void for her. She finds that in the form of Frank but her cynicism of him prevents her from breaking the chains, and she is not able to subvert the system. Woman’s perception in that society is of a fragile and delicate being that needs protection, and this view was shared by both men and women. This is a hurdle in Eveline’s way, and she accepts it, leading herself to a closed alley.
She does not take the risk because her mother had not done so, and she follows suit, making her a conformist instead of being a rebel. This is a trap that can’t be broken until a woman defies this concept and considers herself in par with men.
Escapism and the Exotic
Eveline is weary of the hardships and the bleak life that she is leading. She wants to change the situation she is living, and for that purpose, she wants to flee to Argentina. She is not respected here, and she is eager to have respect. For this purpose, she wants to get married to Frank so that she is respected.
The society in Argentina will be different, and people won’t judge her for her past. This is an insinuation towards her sex-related activities in the past where there may have been certain dark shades, and she wants to get rid of them. She fancies that escape will be a solution to all her problems. The idea attracts her, but when the time to take a decision comes, she can not decide because it in itself is a hard struggle.
Through this theme, the author conveys the message that escape doesn’t always yield positive results and may even worsen the situation. One more thing, in Dubliners, we notice that there are rare opportunities for escape, and for this reason, many characters fantasize about the escapes they expect to find.
Paralysis and Inaction
In the majority of the stories in Dubliners, the inability to take bold steps is noticed clearly. The same is the case with Eveline; she takes the step and reaches port but is unable to board the ship. She is paralyzed at the final moment when a single step can change her life, and she refuses to take this step. It is clearly shown to the reader through the slow slideshow of all the happenings, and he/she laments her inaction. Her mental paralysis is caused by the nostalgic feelings and the disbelief of men that she has seen.
She knows the domestic violence that men use as an instrument to oppress women, and the same may happen at Buenos Ayres, where Frank may exploit her. This paralysis is also a result of the long colonial rule of the British, which has caused the Irish to lose confidence in themselves. Nostalgia plays a critical role in her stay because she wants to stay attached to the few good memories that she has and doesn’t want to make a new start. She is fearful of the new challenges that she may face.
She prays to God to make her able to make a decision, which again shows her inaction because she is the one who has to take the decision and execute it. She feels powerless, and this is also a contributing factor to her inactivity.
Corruption
Corruption is one of the major themes in Dubliners as it moves the plot forward in a number of stories. In this story, we can notice the same. If an attempt is made to define corruption, we can call it deterioration, depravity, and loss of moral sense. In Eveline, the majority of the characters have lost the moral sense and can’t decide between good and bad. It prevents progress and is complementary to paralysis.
If seen in the context of other stories in this collection, the church is the main portal of corruption; it is itself corrupted and leads to the corruption of minds. It is a slave-making machine, killing the individual conscience; rather, it enforces social conscience, which is emotional blackmailing instead of conscience. In this story, we can see that Eveline’s father is morally corrupt and shouldn’t be permitted to lead the family but is still allowed to do so. This leads to the moral corruption of the family members, and they are complicit in deteriorating the situation.
So the whole Dubliner society is corrupted, and that is the reason they are not able to take steps to liberate themselves from the chains of English.
Eveline Characters
Eveline
Eveline is a nineteen years old girl. She is a resident of Dublin and is abused by her father. She has spent a miserable life after the death of her mother. She faces domestic abuse, and there is nobody to help her, so she decides to flee from her home with Frank, who is her boyfriend. Her parents or siblings haven’t loved her, and to seek love, she has come to Frank. She expects that he will fulfill her emotional needs and will stand by her side when she is in need.
She works at a local store and faces emotional abuse from her boss and the store owner, Miss Gavan. This has created a longing in her for respect, and she yearns for the time when she would be respected in Buenos Ayres. Her city has given her abuses and tragedies, she wants to end it, and Frank is a hope. He has taken her on picnics, and she believes that he would substitute for a better family.
Eveline is stepping towards maturity and wants to leave like others to make her life. She is a dreamer girl but isn’t able to achieve her goals because she can’t take bold steps. She can’t decide, and though she knows that her home is hell for her, still she can’t take the risk.
Eveline’s Father
Eveline’s father is a drunkard and abuses his daughter. He takes all her pay from her on weekends and domestically abuses her. It was he who made the life of his wife a hell and now is doing the same with his daughter. There is an implicit suggestion of sexual abuse of his daughter, but it is not clearly stated. He is a selfish person and knows only his needs. After the death of his wife, he has never helped his daughter with her needs, if he has done, so it is once or twice at the illness of Eveline.
He is a typical father who was never caring and took once or twice his children on a picnic. He didn’t let them play when they were kids. There is no suggestion of his occupation, and this suggests that he lived his life like a parasite and sucked on his family’s blood. He doesn’t want to lose his daughter when one of his sons has died, and another is away from home and comes rarely. He can’t afford to lose his daughter, who works both as a maid and earner for his drinks. He is an oppressor and a type.
Eveline’s Mother
Eveline’s mother is a miserable character like Eveline. She has spent a wretched life, but like typical women, she is the one who still takes care of her husband. She is the one who has accepted the hierarchy in the family and recognizes her husband sovereign and higher in rank than her. There are suggestions in the story that she had faced abuse like her daughter and on the deathbed talks nonsense.
She loves her children and wants to pass her responsibilities to her daughter. This can be translated as the maintenance of the hierarchical system. She can be held responsible for the oppression of her daughter and is an accomplice in this crime. She is a weak character and a type.
Miss Gavan
Miss Gavan is Eveline’s boss and is an irritable character. She seems to have psychological problems and takes pleasure in humiliating others. She is a typical woman who enjoys gossiping about others and is a nasty person, as described by Eveline’s thoughts. She is a judgmental person and easily forms opinions about others, as is shown in Eveline’s thoughts about her leaving home.
Harry
Harry is Eveline’s brother and stays away from home due to his work. He is a church decorator and keeps moving throughout the country. He is an obedient son and often sends money to his father. Unlike his elder brother, he is not much liked by his sister, and it can be inferred that he is also an accomplice in maintaining male dominance.
Ernst
He is Eveline’s elder brother and has died. She shows her love for him, and this suggests that he cared for her and was different from the rest of the family members. There are some implicit indications of his being maltreated in the example when his father comes to beat him when he sees him play. Though he didn’t join the children in the playground, his father still used to stalk him if he is there. The reason for his death is unknown, and he is missed by his sister.
Frank
Frank is Eveline’s lover and is a sailor on a ship. He has left his homeland, Ireland, and has naturalized in Buenos Ayres. He has come back to Ireland on a short trip and courts Eveline. They think about getting married. He takes her on picnics and takes care of her. He is a young and adventurous man, Eveline’s father warns him that he should not meet her, but still, he does so. He comes to her store and takes her on dates. He is gifted with a good voice and sings songs to Eveline.
His characteristic features show him a person in stark contrast to Eveline’s father. He is a confident and resolute person. He shouts at her to come on board when the ship is about to leave. Though it is not known that he is doing this because he is losing a chance to establish his own position as a hierarchical head or due to love. The former point has some leverage because he grips her strongly to lead her to the ship, but she stays stuck to the railing. Frank is a metaphor of hope for Eveline, but she also sees the potential devil that he may become and thus quits her plans.
The Priest
The Priest’s picture is hung in Eveline’s home. He is her father’s friend, and when somebody comes to their home, he tells him/her about him that he has left for Australia. In the Irish liberation movement, the church had played the role of the accomplice of the oppressors, and this picture probably represents the colonial forces who have left to colonize new lands. He is her father’s friend and very well elaborates on his character by suggesting his crimes and abuses.
Eveline Analysis
This story, like the rest of the stories in Dubliners, has little action outside the mind of the protagonist. The major part of conflict takes place inside the mind of the protagonist, and the climax is reached when she decides not to board the ship with Frank. The plot is dependent on the internal actions taking place inside the mind of Eveline. Foreshadowing and reminiscences of the past are the hurdles that inhibit the action from taking place. It is written from the female perspective, and the writer has beautifully portrayed the war inside a woman’s mind.
Through the use of symbols and realistic imagery, the reader is attracted to the story and feels himself a part of the story. There is no alienation left as everything is clarified in a short narrative, and the reader feels as if he himself is a part of the action. The plot is beautifully woven and rhythmically moves from inside the mind of the protagonist to the outside world and eventually resolves inside her mind. This leaves her in a permanent dilemmatic situation, and she may feel regret for the decision she has taken.
Genre
James Joyce is a modernist writer, and the majority of his works represent a realistic picture. Eveline is a short story, which is the kind of fictional narrative. Dubliners is the beginning of his modernist works, which sets the scene for his upcoming masterpieces. Eveline presents a feminist perspective of life in Dublin and adds to the modernist narrative which seeks to counter the problems posed by the era preceding it. It is a comparison between domestic and modern life.
Realism
This is a realistic work, and scholars have found instances of Joyce’s real life in this story. Dubliners saw hurdles in its publishing because no publisher was ready to take it. There was a realistic description of things and places in these stories, and for this reason, the publishers feared lawsuits. There is a realistic representation of life in Dublin, and we can confirm the instances that happened with Eveline because it used to happen to a number of women in the twentieth century. Through the realistic representation of things, the writer is both able to delight and instruct the audience regarding a rampant problem in society.
Tone of the Story
The tone of the narrator is passionate and tells the story through an intimate narrative. The emotions and feelings of the protagonist are clearly described, and it seems that the narrator feels for the protagonist and wants her to get out of this miserable situation. The narrator in this story offers a self-conscious examination of the city of Dublin.
Point of View
Eveline is narrated from the third-person omniscient point of view. The narrator allows the reader to know both the internal development of the story in the mind of the protagonist and the external development in the real world. The action is told with a rhythmical remembrance of the past so as to let the reader decide if the protagonist is doing right or wrong.
Symbols
Dust
Dust is used as a symbol of monotony. It keeps gathering in the home, and Eveline is bound to clean it. Her life is monotonous, and there is no change taking place in it. She will take care of home, father, and things, and there will be no change, she grows tired of it and wants to change it. Dust may also mean emptiness and uselessness of life. It has made her fed up with life, and at one point, we note when she says, ‘where does this dust come from.’ She doesn’t want to know the reason behind so much dust but her disgust with the monotony.
Water
Water has many connotative meanings, and one of them is fear. Water in the form of the sea represents fear because of its immensity and being unknown. The protagonist fears to board the ship because it may drown her. This expresses her fear of the life that is about to join but is reluctant and eventually gives up. Sea also represents freedom, and she fears unlimited freedom like the fear of the unknown, she admires it but from a distance.
Religion
Religion is used in a symbolic, logical way as the instrument of oppression in this play. It is the reason behind maintaining the status quo, and the system doesn’t change, as discussed in the themes section.
Setting of the Story
The spatial setting of Dubliners is Dublin and its suburban areas. The temporal setting of Eveline was the early twentieth century when women were struggling for their rights. In Eveline’s opening, the setting is her house, which later changes to the station, while the temporal doesn’t change much as the action doesn’t take much time.
Writing Style
The writing style that the author has employed in Dubliners can be named ‘Personal Naturalism.’ Because there is no single technically specific style in these stories, the narratives vary. But they have some common features. These are the realistic touch, affectionate description, not leaving a single thing untouched, and the reader feels satiated with all the details.
In describing Eveline, the author has employed sentimentality. Joyce doesn’t exaggerate the happenings in the story, and for this reason, his works are naturalistic, describing things the way they are. He doesn’t alienate himself from the characters and makes them round, which gives them a personal touch, not leaving them wooden characters having no impact on the readers.
Literary Devices in Eveline
Imagery
Imagery in Dubliners is unmatchable because it very well describes visually Dublin of the early twentieth century. In Eveline, the imagery from the description of home with reference to past and present, the street and neighboring area near the residence of the protagonist are so well described. The reader feels as if it is a motion picture leading him/her through the alleys of Dublin and introducing him/her to the people.
Allusions
Dubliners is filled with allusions; in Eveline, there are references to Michael William Balfe’s opera ‘The Bohemian Girl’ and Charles Dibdin’s ‘The Lass that Loves a Sailor.’ There is also a historical reference to St. Mary-Margaret Alacoque.
Epiphany
The protagonist, through meditation, has come to the decision that to avoid the fate that her mother faced, she needs to flee. And for this purpose, she plans her escape, but it proves short-lived, and she reverses her decision, leading to an anti-climax. Thus the story ends dramatically when the ship that is a hope for a new life leaves, and she stays fast to the railing. Frank, who is a metaphor of hope, leaves, and she is left in desolation.
