Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
About eveline by james joyce
Stylistic analysis of eveline by james joyce
Why is james joyce's 'eveline' important
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: About eveline by james joyce
James Joyce's Eveline is a short story that takes place in Dublin, Ireland, in 1914. The short story was published with Joyce's other short stories in a book call Dubliners. The story's main character is the title character, Eveline. Eveline is approximately a nineteen year girl who still lives at home in the house she grew up in, with a physically abusive father. Eveline's mother dies due to illness while Eveline is still young. When Eveline is a older she meets a young man named Frank and they begin to like each other and begin a semblance of falling in love. Frank ask her to marry him and move with him to Beunos Ayres, Argentina, before they can start their life Eveline changes her mind and decides to stay in Dublin with her father. The theme of Eveline is her sense of duty is the greatest factor behind her decision to stay with her father. When Eveline's mother is on her deathbed she ask Eveline to promise her something that creates a sense of duty that Eveline can never escape. Eveline's promise to her mother on her deathbed creates in her a sense of duty that will not let her leave with frank. As Eveline is preparing to leave her house and her father she remembers the promise to her mother, “ Strange that it should come that very night to remind her of the promise to her mother, her promise to keep the house together as long as she could” ( Pars. 14). In this promise is the largest contributing factor to the sense of duty that prevents Eveline from leaving her house and her father. There is a power to a promise made to a person on their deathbed. This power is increased when the person is your mother. Both of these factors add together to create that sense of duty that will not let Eveline leave. The sense of duty comes ... ... middle of paper ... ...ing of an obligation to her father that forces her to stay with him. From the start of the story of Eveline it is very apparent that she is ruled by her sense of duty to her home and to her father, it is not till the final sentence that we see the true hold it has on her life. Eveline's sense of duty is the driving force behind her reasons for staying behind with her father. This is made clear to us by the promise she made to her mother on her deathbed. Then it is increased by the fact that Eveline knows no other life but this one. Finally Eveline's devotion to her family and to God combined to create a sense of duty. At the end of this story we see a young lady who has the chance to have a life full of happiness, joy and love but due to a false sense of duty to a cruel father she turns her back on it and instead accepts life full of pain, hard work, and heartache.
In the novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin tells of Edna Pontellier's struggle with fate. Edna Pontellier awakens from a slumber only to find that her life is displeasing, but these displeasing thoughts are not new to Edna. The actions taken by Edna Pontellier in the novel The Awakening clearly determine that she is not stable. The neglect of her duties as a wife and mother and as a woman of society are all affected by her mental state. Her choices to have affairs and disregard her vow of marriage represent her impaired judgment. The change in her attitude and interests becomes quite irresponsible, and that change along with her final decision to commit suicide tell the reader that Edna Pontellier is not capable of making valid judgments. Had Edna Pontellier been of sound mind and body, she would not have ended her young life by suicide. The fact that she can clearly and easily turn to such an alternative suggests that she is depressed and obviously in opposition to the church. The thoughts and actions of Edna Pontellier are solely determined by her manic depressive state, her apparent repressed abuse from her childhood, and her abandonment of Christianity.
Particularly, he challenges Evey to be stronger than her past because “[it] can't hurt [her] anymore, not unless [she] allows it” (). Furthermore, the government has turned her into a “victim” and a “statistic,” but she has the power to free herself. It is Evey's responsibility to find such power within herself and become “forever changed”. Evey's transformation occurs when she leaves ignorance behind and becomes acquainted with her pain.... ...
... her true feelings with her sister, or talking to her husband or reaching out to other sources of help to address her marital repressed life, she would not have to dread living with her husband. “It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 262). Her meaning for life would not have to mean death to her husband. In conclusion, her lack of self assertion, courage and strong will to address her repressed life made her look at life and death in a different perspective. When in fact there is no need to die to experience liberation while she could have lived a full life to experience it with her husband by her side.
Her mother passed away when she was young and her father was killed by Norsefire. She knows that a father has a masculine representation in her life. V doesn’t fit in the father or lover companion, and that make her confused in where she fits. Not only does she have mixed up feeling for V but also Gordon who she lives with and at first has a father figure and later a lover. Evey has a dream about her father who turns into Gordon and tries to have sex with her (Moore and Lloyd 143). Since Evey only knows two types of male companions she ended up with both who portray protection and guidance. Once again she is dependent on her male counterpart Gordon, to feel protected. Her dream of her as a young child portrays that she is still a child in need of guidance and protection and is defenseless. Beauvoir writes, “Thus, women may fail to lay claim to the statues of subject because she lacks definite resources, because she feels the necessary bond that ties her to a man regardless of reciprocity, and because she is often very well pleased with her role as the other (2). Evey feels a necessary bond to V and Gordon but there is no mutual conditions of favors or relationship, she’s just illustrated to show how she is dependent to a man. Evey is also pleased as the role of the other because she doesn’t understand anything more than that. Her role as a female and how to behave according to social rules is all she
"Eveline" is the story of a young teenager facing a dilemma where she has to choose between living with her father or escaping with Frank, a sailor which she has been courting for some time. The story is one of fifteen stories written by James Joyce in a collection called "Dubliners". These stories follow a certain pattern that Joyce uses to express his ideas: "Joyce's focus in Dubliners is almost exclusively on the middle-class Catholics known to himself and his family"(the Gale Group). Joyce's early life, family background, and his catholic background appear in the way he writes these stories. "Where Joyce usually relates his stories to events in his life, there are some stories which are actually events that took place in his life" (Joyce, Stanislaus). James Joyce in his letter to Grant Richard writes:
The last two lines of this speech are very dramatic. Eve has such a great love for Adam that she could endure anything as long as he would be by her side, but she would be nothing without him. However, this creates a paradox. One may ask, if Eve loves Adam as much as she professes to, then why put his life in jeopardy just to make her own suffering more bearable? The answer, of course, goes back to the selfishness that has pervaded her entire speech. These lines stand out because of the spondees at the end of both of them.
In Dubliners, James Joyce tells short stories of individuals struggling with life, in the city of Dublin. “It is a long road that has no turning” (Irish Proverb). Many individuals fight the battle and continue on the road. However, some give up and get left behind. Those who continue to fight the battle, often deal with constant struggle and suffering. A reoccurring theme, in which Joyce places strong emphasis on, is the constant struggle of fulfilling responsibilities. These responsibilities include; work, family and social expectations. Joyce writes about these themes because characters often feel trapped and yearn to escape from these responsibilities. In “The Little Cloud”, “Counterparts”, and “The Dead” characters are often trapped in unhappy living situations, often leading to a desire of escape from reality and daily responsibilities.
Both “Araby” and “Eveline” are characterized by melancholic, even depressive mood. In the first case, the sadness associations are developed by the motifs of darkness and silence that reinforce the boy’s psychological state. The boy says that “All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves” (108) which means that he wants to become invisible, to disappear, and darkness and silence are helpful for him alleviating his pain: “I was thankful that I could see so little” (108). In “Eveline”, the mood is also melancholic and depressive, but this time the feeling of melancholy is combined with nostalgia and a fear of the uncertain future. It reveals itself in Eveline’s memories of her deceased mother, her brothers, her friends, in her looking at the things associated with her previous life: “Perhaps she would never see again those familiar objects from which she had never dreamed of being divided” (1). And what concerns the tone, in both “Araby” and “Eveline” it may be described as serious though not solemn as the narration lacks too eloquent expressions, and the context concerns more daily routine than some elevated
Setting is one of the most significant elements in a story. The setting goes far beyond the simple physical attributes and external face value. It seems "Eveline" solely takes place in Dublin in an old room, but the setting actually plays a key role in the story. The setting in "Eveline" helps the reader to better understand the behavior of the main character. The setting in "Eveline" is paralyzing, and this helps the reader to understand why Eveline does not go with Frank to Buenos Aires.
Darkness is used throughout the story as the prevailing theme. James Joyce's story begins at dusk and continues through the evening during the winter. in the Araby of Ireland. He chooses this gloomy setting to be the home of a young boy. who is infatuated with his neighbors sister.
By not taking that opportunity, Eveline probably missed a life of exploration with Frank. Eveline would have had the chance to know what independence feels like and she would have had the chance to experience individual freedom. Instead, her life afterwards is a life of regret and imprisonment with her family. Being an only child, she is bound by her family’s actions and their duties. Eveline has taken on an incredible part of the burden in keeping the family together. Her father is an overbearing and unfair man who takes his daughters earnings for himself; and rather than appreciating her sacrifices, he ridicules her. As she now lives with her dad and her two brothers, she feels tired and frustrated with her dad’s commands and her everyday life. Everyday, she sadly waits for frank to come back into her life once again and fill her life with happiness. Eveline may possibily in the future live her freedom when her controlling father passes away, but perhaps it will become too late for her to experience the freedom she wanted.
To sum up, even if Eveline had settled to take off with Frank, she would have always be reminded by the “dust” she had deserted, the chores unfinished, and the job uncompleted. The culpability would have been as asphyxiate as the dust is. “..she could hear the street organ playing. She knew the air. Strange that it should come to that very night to remind her of the promise to her mother, her promise to keep the home together as long as she could.”(5). Eveline then comprehends that she is designed to live the equivalent life her mother lived surrounded by the same community, the same stuff, the same obligations, and the same old dust. When it comes down to meeting Frank at the port. She “..gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.”(6). It is as if her intimate dust had been disrupted by a slender gust, only to resettle once again and envelope desires.
"Strange that 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." (Joyce 32) How is it possible for one to not follow out a parent's last wish? Eveline's mother's last request was for her to take care of the family. That is a great responsibility to be put into a child's hands. Everyone deserves a chance to be happy, so why did she go along with something that would only continue to make her life miserable? Eveline felt tangled knowing that it was all up to her to keep the family together, and to support her father, so she decides to stay. "She always gave her entire wages-seven shillings-…" (Joyce 30). This is again another example of what Eveline does for her family. After working all hours of the day, in the end, she gives all of her earnings to her father. It gives her a sense of purpose in a weird sort of way.
In the story “Eveline”, Joyce’s main character Eveline has ambitions to escaper her life in Ireland. For the main part of the story she is waiting in front of a window ready to leave for a new life with her lover Frank. “She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror. Escape! She must escape” (29). This illustrates the theme of escape by showing her dissatisfaction with her life in Ireland. She is reluctant due to a promise made to her mother to stay and take care of her family. Being an independent person she longs to leave Ireland however, she decides to stay at the end of the story with complete awareness of her decision. “NO! No! No! It was impossible. Her hands clutched the iron in frenzy” (34). She could leave her father and live a happy life instead she lives this displeasing life. Eveline is overwhelmed by her unending struggle with her will to leave.
Eveline is an individual stuck in the boring routine of life, but is given the opportunity to take a chance and possibly make a better life for herself by leaving Dublin and going to Buenos Ayres with a man who she loves named Frank. However, in the end, Eveline chooses to not take the opportunity given to her and instead decides to continue with the monotonous routine of her life in Dublin. Many authors of short stories allow the reader to make their own judgments about characters. However, Joyce decides to show his frustration with Eveline at the end of the story and judges her harshly. In fact, Joyce goes as far as to call Eveline a “helpless animal”.