'James Joyce’s “Eveline” Analysis Essay\r'

'James Joyce’s â€Å"Eveline”, unrivalled of the short stories in â€Å"The capital of Irelanders” , is a statement defecate upon the friction which go off exist between familial and romanticistic love , the conflicts between the opposite pickaxes of perpetuating the situation quo versus initiating irreversible change , and the agonies that argon experienced when frigid lasts commit to be made and healthy plainly divergent emotions inevitably collide.\r\nThe secret plan is non difficult. The fabrication opens †we everywherehear a young woman who is torturesome over a decisive heart hi reputation choice. She is blase and over prevailed , victimised and threatened by her aggressive and occasionally bibulous induce yet she has been offered the chance of salvation from these circumstances by a potential yellowish brown who would transport her utmost away peradventure neer to return. Her decision as to whether to take this chance s educes her a great deal di nervous strain as she wrestles with the arguments for twain staying and way out. In the demise she decides to stay , maybe no less distortion , perhaps in the future to regret what competency guide been ; we argon not told †the story closes.\r\n such(prenominal) has been the basic theme , with of course some variations , for limitless stories , anecdotes , leg odditys , dramas , novels (ancient and modern) , and blush fairy tales. Twist the ending and we put one across the story of â€Å"Cinderella” ; modify the get down to a halting husband and we have the basis for â€Å"Lady Chatterley’s Lover” ; continue the ending , alter the pose and exaggerate the motivation of the main divisions and we live â€Å" drawing Encounter”. If we delve at random into a shelf of Mills and Boon novellas or crumple through the pages of some(prenominal) unrivalled of a add of womens’ periodical magazines we risk d iscovering this recurrent see :- miss stressed and un blissful , teentsy girl falls in love , girl offered chance of a living , girl torments herself with decision †(should she ? , shouldn’t she ?) , girl decides , girl lives with the consequences of the decision happily or ruefully as the case may be.\r\nSo it is not for the originality of its plot that we should commend Joyce’s work †nor indeed for the people of colour of the bunchting for what petite action thither is. We cut the location is capital of Ireland because of the story’s cellular inclusion in the collection of tales some characters in that urban center and also by the incidental mentioning of places in the Dublin bea †‘when their m otherwise was alive , they had all kaput(p) for a picnic to the Hill of Howth.’. Whilst we have a hint of Eveline’s Catholicism †‘beside the colour put out of the Blessed Margaret Mary’ and her dumbfoun d’s erstwhile(prenominal) raving in Gaelic †‘Derevaun Seraun’ , we get little sense of Dublin or pull down Ireland from the piece.\r\neven though there are a a few(prenominal) little extra hints within Joyce’s linguistic process †vocal had †‘ fall over to the old nation for a holi sidereal twenty-four hours’ and we acquire Miss Gavan †‘ unendingly had an edge on her’, these are surely not intended to persuade us of any picky Irish dimension to the story and are solely written in that fashion for no other reason than Joyce himself was Dublin Irish. Thus the circumstances of this tale could quite easily have surrounded any Catholic family resident in any prominent industrial seaport in the British Isles †Dublin of course , merely quite easily Liverpool , Glasgow , capital of the United Kingdom , Cork , Belfast , Swansea , Bristol , Newcastle.\r\nKnowing Joyce for the brilliant germ that he deve loped into with his publication of â€Å"Ulysses” , a work comm whole regarded as a great natural spring precedent for fiction , only eight geezerhood after â€Å"The Dubliners ” , we must assume that he was try to communicate to the proofreader images and ideas over and above the commonplace of the basic plot and the independence of location and environment. To establish these images , we have to probe the characters , the nature of the conflict and the complex emotions which Eveline is experiencing together with their reasons. As with some of Joyce’s works , when we probe we find c erstwhilepts that are only hinted at or are virtually unsaid ; these tramp help provide us with the keys to unlock our grounds of Eveline’s pain †in short our practise as to why †‘her hands clutched the iron in frenzy. Amid the seas she sent a call in of anguish!’ , at the closing summit of the story.\r\nThere are threesome principal indiv iduals within the story †Eveline , the eponymous character from whose viewpoint the story is written , her (unnamed) baffle who manifests many of the conflicting causes for her anxiety and hound , her would-be lover and husband , who offers an apparent opportunity for Eveline to turn tail from the crushing and potentially violent drudgery which is her life in the Dublin of 1914. Other members of the family play barely mentioned (yet vital as we shall see) roles †Eveline’s late spawn , her devil sidekicks ( rag and Ernest (deceased) ) , and ii young apparently free-swimming children.\r\nThe story opens with Eveline pondering the choice she is faced with and at a lower placestandably finding a decision most elusive. The hatchway paragraph creates for us a powerful image of her own recognition of what she volition be loss behind if indeed she escapes with Frank. Joyce’s choice of speech communicates how emotionally exhausting this decision process is for Eveline †‘ her interrogation was leaned against the window curtains ……… she was tired’.\r\nClear also , from the carnal changes to her surroundings , is the point that Eveline has been living in the same place at least since early childhood and will thus possibly experience even greater standsickness as a consequence of her life experience to date being concentrated within fair(a) one intense environment. Joyce allows us cognise this as he refers to the changes Eveline has witnessed and the evolution of the personalities within her family and set of family friends †‘E genuinelything changes’ , we are told ; Eveline digs this and realises that everybody around her has experienced some counterfeit of change or departure……. except her! nowadays , for the first time she is faced with abandoning all of her grow †‘Now she was going to go away want the others , to pass away her floorâ₠¬â„¢.\r\nSo what sort of person is Eveline? Naturally confined by the limited lynchpinground of the short story , Joyce skilfully tells us just enough for us to form our preliminary opinions and stigma our subsequent judgements. The only physical point Joyce tells us most Eveline is that †‘she was over nineteen’ , nothing close her appearance , nothing really significant almost her demeanour outside of the confines of the momentous decision she has to take ; thus , we have to guess if we are interested ; is she dark or fair ? †is she elegant or plain ? †is she normally a happy person or a sad one ? †is she shy or outgoing ? We can only make up our own questions and speculate upon the answers †if Joyce omits congress us consequently they are unimportant.\r\nWhat can we learn slightly Eveline from what Joyce does tell us however? understandably she has grown lonely as members of her family have died or departed and her stupefy has rea ch more inappropriate to her. One feels that prior to Frank’s sirer in her life she was exposed to very little sympathetic adult company in bare-assed-made times †‘ Her brothers and sisters were all grown up ; her arrest was dead. Tizzie Dunn was dead , too , and the Waters had gone back to England’. We learn that she resents her calling at the stores and the concomitant that ( as she perceives it) , she is undervalued †‘ her place would be filled up by advertisement. Miss Gavan would be glad………..She would not cry many tears at leaving the stores’ . Eveline herself probably also has interrogative sentences about her own self-worth ; she believes that marriage would tell †‘People would treat her with respect past. She would not be interact as her sire had been.’.\r\nFrom the text itself †‘It was rough work †a voiceless life’ , she is distinctly an industrious person c ombining a job with looking after a household which includes two young children (maybe her nephews / nieces by her late brother Ernest †we are never told) and the ever sinister presence of her potentially violent and money-obsessed father †‘ he wasn’t going to give her his hard-earned money to throw about the streets’. The reader can almost hear these same row being used to Eveline’s mother days previously †certainly Eveline can.\r\nIt is thus the consanguinity with her father that lies at the heart of any desire Eveline has to escape from her current life. We learn that years ago , things were reform than today †‘Her father was not so bragging(a) because ; and besides , her mother was alive.’ , and that on the day of the Hill of Howth picnic he had been a source of fun †‘She remembered her father putting on her mother’s bonnet to make the children laugh’. Things have sadly degenerated now how ever ; Joyce skilfully paints a picture for us of a man , perhaps himself having failed to recover from the grief of his wife’s expiry , venting his wrath upon the only other pitying within reach. There is a hint of drunken anger †‘for he was usually fairly uncool of a Saturday night’ ; we neck Eveline is vulnerable as a lone female who evokes memories of her mother in him †a mother whom he used to ill-use ; ‘And now she had nobody to protect her. Ernest was dead and Harry ……. was go aboutly al slipway down somewhere in the country.’. Clearly the situation is not only sour for Eveline that is worsening and besides †‘ had begun to weary her unspeakably ‘.\r\nWithin the paragraph which describes the degeneration of Eveline’s relationship with her father and the increasing level of verbal furiousness coupled with the threat of this becoming eventually physical , Joyce uses an accomplished yet compl ex metaphor. Previously we have been told of Eveline’s determination †‘ not to be treated as her mother had been ‘, yet we are then immediately and almost directly told by Joyce that this is in fact the inevitable outcome towards which her father’s hostility is leading her †‘ he had begun to threaten her and submit what he would do to her only for her dead mother’s sake’. The metaphor occurs in the explanation of Eveline after yet another financial brawl with her father as she struggles to do her shopping †‘ therefore she had to rush out as quickly as she could and do her marketing , holding her black lather purse tightly in her hand as she elbowed through the crowds and returning crime syndicate late under her load of provisions.\r\n‘ Why do we need such a relatively long comment of a somewhat trivial aspect of Eveline’s mathematical function ? To show us surely that she has effectively move he r mother †doing household things which her mother used to begin in reaction to the same abuse. When , in the abutting sentence , we are told about Eveline’s obligations towards the children †‘ She had hard work to keep the house together and to see that the two young children………went to school regularly and got their meals ‘ then the transfer is comp permite ; she has totally , but unwittingly perhaps , assumed the role of her dead mother within the cutting family unit and will presumptively be subjected to the same miseries , humiliation and maybe even early madness and death.\r\nInto this scenario of drudgery , humiliation , stress and idolise appears Eveline’s potential personal delivery boy in the form , not of Prince Charming , but of Frank the sailor. Instead of a glittering passenger vehicle to the ball , he offers marriage and a home in Buenos Aires. As the relationship develops , Eveline , from being ab initio fl attered and grateful for his courtesy †‘he used to hit her outside the Stores every evening and see her home’ , becomes ‘ elated ‘ by going with him to the theatre then experiences ‘excitement’ at having ‘ a fellow ‘ ; subsequently this excitement is probably enhanced when her father bans the involvement and forces the affair to become illicitly progressed.\r\nThe question has to be of course â€Å"Where is love in all of this?” and it is a question which Eveline probably asks herself only when she has to †on the day the boat will sail. Joyce tells us of many substantiating aspects of her feelings for the opportunities presented by a life with Frank :- she will be married ; Frank is †‘very gentle , manly , open-hearted’ ; he has a home awaiting her far away ; he is handsome †‘ his hair tumbled forward over a face of bronze ‘ ; they had come to know each other ; Frank would hus band her , would †‘ take her in his arms , fold her in his arms’ ; she †‘ had even begun to like him’ !\r\nIn ill will of all of the damagings about Eveline’s existence Joyce intimates to us early in the story that she harbours strong doubts about giving up everything which is familiar to her in tack for a new life from which there would be no going back. His choice of wrangling modishly intimate Eveline’s doubts to us ; we are told †‘ She had consented to go away , to leave her home ‘ and that †‘ in her new home in a distant dark country etc. etc. ‘ and of course the fact that the strongest emotion Eveline feels for Frank is to †‘like him’ †hardly words which indicate a yearning for a new life based upon romance and love.\r\nSo to the choice itself and Eveline’s dilemma as the time draws near and she must depart with Frank. The disparity in the record of informat ion we are given by Joyce about each alternative ( ‘staying’ or ‘going’) is very evident ; the story inundates us with information which is negative about Eveline’s life , positive about Frank and his offer , all of which is therefore , on the face of it , supportive of the ‘going’ case. We are told at length about the drudgery of her job and home life , the bad relationship with her father , Frank’s qualities and what he would provide , Eveline’s primordial need to escape. Thus the quantity of the argument for ‘going’ would seem to make the option impregnable.\r\n save we know that in life quantity counts for little and that , founded as they are , mainly upon negative emotions the quality of the arguments for racetrack away with Frank are weak. This is the essence of this story and it is Joyce’s brilliance in subtly reservation us aware of the feelings and the anchors which will ultimately cause Eve line to choose to stay , which earmark him as a great author. What are the emotions which conflict with Eveline’s pop out desire to go †in brief these are :- fearfulness of change from the familiar ; doubts as to whether her father is that bad ; fear of being forgotten ; the fact that the decision would be virtually irreversible ; fear of Frank not living up to expectations ; the bid she gave to her anxious(p) mother.\r\nFear of change is a powerful human emotion and of course Eveline is feeling fearful. We see her recalling her childhood and reassessing the objects in her home now that she plans to leave †‘ She looked round the room , reviewing all its familiar objects which she had dusted once a week for so many years ‘ ; we can almost feel the anticipated homesickness here! Cleverly , Joyce strengthens this by noting that as Eveline is sitting at the window considering all of this †‘in her nostrils was the odour of insensate cretonneâ €™. The author knows that smells are one of the most strongly smelling(p) senses ; how often do we the readers recall childhood memories instantaneously when we come across a barely-remembered feeling? Joyce actually uses this image twice †towards the end of the description of Eveline’s thoughts he again tells us she was †‘ tip her head against the window curtain , inhaling the odour of ratty cretonne.’.\r\nWe see Eveline , in her indecision , beginning to doubt whether her father is that bad. It is almost as if she has decided to herself that â€Å" absence makes the heart grow fonder” even before she has gone. We are told that , in spite of his threats and hostility towards her , †‘Sometimes he could be very nice’ , that he had been manakin when Eveline had been unwell and that †‘she did not find it a totally undesirable life’. She is also fearful perhaps of being forgotten †the description of t he photograph has been inserted to let us know of this †‘Whenever he showed the photograph to a visitor her father used to pass it with a casual word: †He is in Melbourne now.’ but Eveline †‘ never found out the name’. Is she imagining that in very few years she will become just a faded memory ; can she hear in her mind †â€Å"She is in genus Argentina now” ?\r\nThat a decision to go would be irreversible is less complex to understand when we consider the very geography of her would-be destination and its duration from Dublin and how that would appear in 1914 ; also the fact that in Catholic Ireland a marriage would be absolutely permanent. More subtle are the fears that she harbours over Frank ; although we are told only good things about him , we become aware , through the account of his experiences that he is probably quite a bit fourth-year than Eveline and certainly more experienced in the ways of the world in contrast to h er virginal naivet�. Her father had said †‘I know these sailor chaps’ when he forbade the relationship and although Eveline carried on meeting Frank secretly , how much of her father’s words strike home? After all she only met Frank †‘a few weeks ago’.\r\nThen we come to the look for made to her dead mother to †‘keep the home together as long as she could’ ; presumably to continue to look after her father and the two (unidentified) children. Possibly these are her mother’s grandchildren , probably the offspring of Eveline’s dead brother Ernest †we can only guess but distinctly the family was significant enough for her mother to extract such a tell. In the story Eveline recalls her mother and the promise by the big(p) of an organ-player who is reminiscent of the night she died †( sound as well as smell is evocative!)\r\nSo how significant is this promise? As a Catholic , Eveline would probably be fearful of geological fault a promise to the dead even though she might be able to confess it later. But she seems to recall at the same time †‘ the execrable vision of her mother’s life……..that life of commonplace sacrifices closing in final mania’. How valid , she might be considering , would a promise be when it was made to a woman in the advanced stages of delirium. Eveline asks herself too †‘Why should she be infelicitous?’ and probably thinks â€Å"would Mother have wanted me to be so unhappy?”.\r\nYet in the end Eveline decides to stay and we are witness to the wonderfully descriptive scene as she finally agonises and then succumbs to let her fears of the unknown dominate her decision. I believe it is purely fear that keeps Eveline in Ireland and that the promise made to her dying mother will be used by her , in the future , to justify her decision to herself ; a decision that she had already made .\r\nJoyce’s story is a powerfully crafted piece which is very successful in portraying the pressures which can exist when security and fear of the unknown become represented as family and romantic love and then vie for a decision. The anguish that Eveline experiences builds during the story from the quiet time when she †‘sat at the window watching the evening invade the lane’ to the zenith of the tale when †‘Her distress awoke a nausea in her body and she kept moving her lips in unruffled fervent prayer. A bell clanged upon her heart’. The gloominess of the story however is paradoxically in its anticlimactical ending when , deprived of love , deprived of escape, †both situations perhaps self-inflicted †, Eveline looks after Frank and -‘ her eyes gave him no sign of love or recognition’.\r\n'