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James Joyce’s Eveline: A socio-economic and Cultural representation of Dublin of early 20th Century

Question: Write down the main them of the short story Evline.

Eveline, a famous and integral tale from James Joyce’s short story collection “Dubliners” (London, 1914), is the first story in the collection focusing on a female protagonist. The story presents a glimpse of women plight in Irish society during the close of nineteen century. The story also introduces us a unique style for its era, “the stream of consciousness”, where action takes places in the protagonist’s mind.

Actually, the story deals with the crisis of the choice of a nineteen-year damsel. She is on the horns of a dilemma, whether she should stay with her tyrannical father or should leave Dublin holding the hands of the beloved.

        At the very beginning of the short story, we see the girl, Eveline, sitting by the window, looks out onto the street recollecting her childhood, when she played with other children in a field now developed with new homes. Now she is waiting to leave her home, but before leaving she reviews her ever-familiar objects “from which she had never dreamed of being separated.”

        However, we will now critically look into Eveline and how she suffers in her family, and why she prompts to leave the family. In fact, her desire for escape is prompted by the dilemma of choice. The situation is not at all favourable on the part of a nineteen-year damsel. She is the only bread earner of her family. So she has to work a lot both in the house and the business. But everywhere she is criticized rather than being recognized. Her abusive father does not earn but always takes money from her. He is very rude and domineering person even he sometimes beats up his children. So she seems to be captivated in the prison of routine. Consequently, the burden on her shoulder becomes so heavy that she cannot tolerate it. So she longs to escape. As the narrator says:
“She had consented to go away, to leave her home. Was that wise? She tried to weigh each side of the question.”
Furthermore, she is afraid of her would be situation. She does not want to face the same situation as her mother did.

        Again, there appears a golden chance for the girl to escape the captivity of the family. Frank, her beloved, a kind open hearted sailor, shows her dream that he would take her away to Buenos Ayres. So she must not miss the opportunity to escape the unpleasant world. As the speaker narrates:
“Frank would save her. He would give her life, perhaps love, too. But she wanted to live. Why should she be unhappy? She had a right to happiness. Frank would take her in his arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her...”
In fact, the longing for escape is one of the modern man’s characteristics and a modern theme. In almost all modern literature, we find the tendency of escape as in TS Eliot’s “Love Song of J Alfred PrufrocK”.
Now we will discuss why she fails to flee away. In the sea port, at the dock, the boat is ready, they are about to embark on a ship together. But at that time, she becomes deeply conflicted and most unexpectedly refuses to go away when hears an organ grinder outside, which reminds her of a melody played on an organ on the day of her mother’s death and of  the promise made to her mother to look after the home in absence of her mother. As the writer comments:
“…it should come that very night to remind her of the promise to her mother, her promise to keep the home together as long as she could.”
At that time, she considers herself as a selfish. Her mother is no longer alive as her brother Ernest; her remaining brother Harry in on the way in church-decorating business. So her father, an old man, will miss her every moment, her brother and sister also miss her tremendously.

Eveline revises her view of her life at home, remembering the small kindness: her father’s caring for her when she was sick, a family picnic before her mother’s death etc. these memories overshadow the reality of her abusive father and deadening job. Her sudden certainty comes as an epiphany; she must remain with what is familiar.

After all, the world beckoning her from behind is an uncertain one beautiful from afar. For uncertain happiness, with a strange man, to an unknown country should she leave the family? 

When the boat whistle blows and Frank pulls on her hand to lead her with him, Eveline resists. She clutches the barrier as Frank is swept into throng moving towards the ship. He continually shouts “come!” but Eveline remains fixed to the land, motionless and emotionless. She finally becomes frozen and looks like a painted picture, even her beloved seems to her to be a stranger. Thus her longing for escape gets paralyzed and become numb. As the writer says:
“She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.”
There is another reason why she fails to escape. Generally the Irish do not like the expatriate and to an expatriate. As a typical Irish should she go to Buenos Ares however beautiful the country may be? So her patriotic feeling makes her stop from escape.



At last, we can say that, Eveline, a master piece of James Joyce, possesses very simple story with a high connotation. As a result it becomes a unique piece of literary art, because “the simplicity is the essence of art”.

This paper is prepared for you by Talim Enam, BA (Hons), MA in English.
If you have any query, suggestion or complain regarding the article, please feel free to contact me at +8801722335969. You can also follow me at www.fb.com/talimenam and www.fb.com/enamur and visit my blog http://talimenam.blogspot.com


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