2

Contents:

1.  Introduction:  3

2.  Modes of Entrapment  4

3.  Conclusion.  10

4.  Bibliography:  11

3

1. Introduction:

“Eveline” is the second of James Joyce’s stories that got published. First it appeared in the Irish Homestead in 1904 before being published as the fourth chapter of the Dubliners in 1914.

It is Joyce’s first attempt to write from the point of view of a woman. This young woman, having a dull job and “leading a life of quiet desperation with a brutal father, is offered escape by a sailor” (Tindall 21). Although this offer seems very promising, Eveline does not manage to leave her home behind. Instead, she accepts a life full of frustration. To understand this inability and lack of courage one has to take a closer look at the environment surrounding her. ”Who and what is Eveline that her life […] should be ending before she is twenty?” (Beck 111), is a valid quotation. We will see that Eveline is kept imprisoned in a cage made of tradition and subordination hard to break out.

“Eveline” is not a story of action but a narration taking place only in the protagonist’s consciousness. Therefore the interest does not lie in the events, but in the reasons leading to the final decision. The story, like all Dubliners, shows Joyce’s critical and melancholy view of life in his native town Dublin.

4

2. Modes of Entrapment

The first expository lines introduce Eveline sitting without motion to watch the avenue;

her head leaned against the dusty curtains ¹ . In this dreary, dust-filled atmosphere her thoughts travel to her childhood memories where she still seemed to be “rather happy” (374). But in present times “the last vestiges of happiness crumble away” (Hart 48). Even in her childhood joy was something transient when it was stopped by her father

using his blackthorn stick ² to hunt the playing children. Nevertheless, he “was not so bad then” (374), a statement implying his growing cruelty towards Eveline. Apart from her father’s violence the reader learns about the loss of her mother. In the first part of the story the potential of change of life still dominates (“Everything changes”, 374); however, this will alter in the course of the story as Eveline’s world becomes increasingly static (cf. Hart 48). The opposition between change and nochange is an element of the narration (cf. Hart 48) which is “continuously sustained in the brooding consciousness of its main character” (Beck 110). Her life’s monotony is mirrored in the description of the setting: The few mentioned familiar objects of the room she had dusted through these years silently comment on the bleakness of her home and life. The fact that “she had never dreamed of being divided” from those objects might be an indication of the unreality of the project “to leave her home” (374, my

italics). By anadiplosis ³ of the word “home” its importance is stressed; it becomes a key word of the text, just like the opposite word “escape” which is mentioned later. As there are already lying farewell letters in her lap (cf. 376) her decision to leave is already determined before the story starts. But now her choise is reasserted (cf. Hart 49); Eveline broods over the question “Was that wise?”. She shows her doubts and confronts the reader with the conflict of the story. In a “medley of recollections” (Beck 119) she enumerates the advantages and disadvantages. But her arguments to stay at home seem moderate; she looks like she is desperatly searching for reasons.

¹ This image of the lovelorn woman at the window was a common one in Victorian writing and art.

² The blackthorn stick is the clichéd weapon of the stage-Irishman.

³ This term describes the repetition of a word at the end of one sentence in the beginning of the next

sentence.