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.

Analysis
Eveline’s story illustrates the pitfalls of holding onto the past when facing the
future. Hers is the first portrait of a female in Dubliners, and it reflects the
conflicting pull many women in early twentieth-century Dublin felt between a
domestic life rooted in the past and the possibility of a new married life abroad.
One moment, Eveline feels happy to leave her hard life, yet at the next moment she
worries about fulfilling promises to her dead mother. She grasps the letters she’s
written to her father and brother, revealing her inability to let go of those family
relationships, despite her father’s cruelty and her brother’s absence. She clings to
the older and more pleasant memories and imagines what other people want her to
do or will do for her. She sees Frank as a rescuer, saving her from her domestic
situation. Eveline suspends herself between the call of home and the past and the
call of new experiences and the future, unable to make a decision.

The threat of repeating her mother’s life spurs Eveline’s epiphany that she must
leave with Frank and embark on a new phase in her life, but this realization is short
lived. She hears a street organ, and then she remembers the street organ that played
on the night before her mother’s death, Eveline resolves not to repeat her mother’s
life of “commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness,” but she does exactly
that. Like the young boy of the “Araby,” she desires to escape, but her reliance on
routine and repetition overrides such impulses. On the docks with Frank, away
from the familiarity of home, Eveline seeks guidance in the routine habit of prayer.
Her action is the first sign that she in fact hasn’t made a decision, but instead
remains fixed in a circle of indecision. She will keep her lips moving in the safe
practice of repetitive prayer rather than join her love on a new and different path.
Though Eveline fears that Frank will drown her in their new life, her reliance on
everyday rituals is what causes Eveline to freeze and not follow Frank onto the
ship.

Eveline’s paralysis within an orbit of repetition leaves her a “helpless animal,”

stripped of human will and emotion. The story does not suggest that Eveline
placidly returns home and continues her life, but shows her transformation into an
automaton that lacks expression. Eveline, the story suggests, will hover in mindless
repetition, on her own, in Dublin. On the docks with Frank, the possibility of living
a fully realized life left her.

It is yet another Dubliners tale about paralysis, as Eveline stands on the pier at

story's end, frozen in place by fear and guilt. She wants to leave Ireland, but she
quite literally cannot move, speak, or even express emotion on her face. A crippled
childhood friend called Little Keogh, whom Eveline recalls early in the story,
perhaps foreshadows her own eventual paralysis.
Death pervades "Eveline" too: the deaths of her mother and her brother Ernest, and
of a girlhood friend named Tizzie Dunn, Eveline fears her own death: "he would
drown her," she thinks of Frank, defying logic. Perhaps she unconsciously
associates her fiancé with the other man in her life, her brutal father.
Eveline seeks Argentina, a place where she hopes to avoid the very real threat of
her father's violence as well as her dead mother's "life of commonplace sacrifices
closing in final craziness."

"People would treat her with respect," Eveline thinks of married life in Argentina.
She believes she has a right to happiness, that is until she stands on the shore and
confronts the reality of the journey on which she is about to embark. Then fear and
guilt about abandoning her father and her younger siblings overwhelm her, and she
stays rather than to leave. Though it is as old and dusty as her father's house "She
looked round the room, reviewing all its familiar objects which she had dusted
once a week for so many years, wondering where on earth all the dust came from",
Dublin is at least familiar, and Eveline is a fearful young woman, obsessed with
thoughts of wild Patagonians and remembered ghost stories. "He rushed beyond
the barrier and called to her to follow," the tale concludes. "He was shouted at to
go on but he still called to her. She set her white face to him, passive, like a
helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition."
Though this is not certain, it seems unlikely that Eveline will ever leave home now.
Frank seems to have been her last, best chance.

Quotes
Eveline’s fear that history will end up repeating itself and she will end up
becoming her mother, trapped in a marriage to an abusive alcoholic and caught in a
life of poverty and flattened dreams:

As she mused the pitiful vision of her mother’s life laid its spell on the very quick
of her being—that life of commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness.” 

The promise of a new start in a new country seems like the best way to shake off
the musty old air of Ireland:

“She was about to explore another life with Frank. Frank was very kind, manly,
open-hearted. She was to go away with him by the night-boat to be his wife and to
live with him in Buenos Aires where he had a home waiting for her.”

And yet when it comes to crunch time, to the moment when she must board the
boat, Eveline is unable to do so, and instead clings to the barrier as though literally
clinging to old Ireland and the past which is dead and gone but which she cannot
leave behind

“He rushed beyond the barrier and called to her to follow. He was shouted at to go
on but he still called to her. She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless
animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.”

THEMES
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 cannot make their decisions, who cannot 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 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 cannot 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 and one of the key words in Joyce’s Dubliners is ‘paralysis’ which means
people feel immobilized, unable to move or progress, trapped in their own lives.
The same thing happened with Eveline when 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 laments her inaction.
Her mental paralysis is caused by the nostalgic feelings and the disbelief of men
that she has seen. ‘Eveline’ offers in a little snapshot an example of how deeply
such paralysis could run, even leading a young woman to forgo the chance of a
new start in favor of remaining in an abusive, dead end life

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. The irony of
Eveline, is that the very paralysis she fears succumbing to that life of
commonplace sacrifice that typifies her mother also prevents her from escaping
that world through fear or lack of certainty that to abandon the old world would be
the right thing to do. Her paralyzing world even paralyses her as she attempts to
escape it, dooming her to remain in Dublin and, quite probably, repeat the same
mistakes her mother made.

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
The protagonist of the story is Eveline is a nineteen years old hard-working Irish
girl. She is a resident of Dublin and living with her father in her childhood home
in 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. She gives all of her earnings to her father, who still scolds her
and accuses her of spending her money irresponsibly. He also has increasingly
begun to threaten her, since she is no longer a child and neither of her
brothers, Harry and Ernest, nor her mother, are around to protect her anymore.
As a result of this stress, Eveline has begun to suffer from heart palpitations.
Despite this, she still appreciates the familiarity and comfort of home, so it is
particularly hard for her to make a decision when she finds herself contemplating
whether or not to run away to Buenos Ayres with her lover, Frank. The 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 talk’s 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

Originally from Dublin, but currently a sailor with a home in Buenos Ayres, Frank
meets Eveline on a visit to Dublin. He is Eveline’s lover. 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. Eveline describes him as “kind, manly, open-hearted”
and likes hearing his stories about his travels. Frank begins walking Eveline home
after she is finished working at the Stores and eventually starts courting her. They
think about getting married. He likes music and singing. 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.
Despite Eveline’s father’s disapproval, Frank and Eveline starts seeing each other
in secret. He is a confident and resolute person. Frank invites Eveline to become
his wife in Buenos Ayres. Joyce implies that Frank may be of a higher social or
financial status than Eveline since he takes her to the theater and they sit in a
section that Eveline is “unaccustomed” to. Aside from that, not much is known
about Frank’s thoughts or intentions. Eveline is not in love with Frank, or at least
not yet, but it is unknown whether or not Frank loves her. They have only been
seeing each other for what seems to Eveline like a few weeks. But they decide to
flee away. Frank calls Eveline 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.