This extract comes from Eveline, a short story in Dubliners (1914) by James Joyce, one of the
leading writers of the modernist movement. The story belongs to the short story genre and offers
a realistic view of life in early twentieth-century Dublin. The passage appears at the end of the
story, when Eveline must decide whether to leave Ireland with Frank or stay behind. This
moment represents the emotional climax of the narrative, where her fear and indecision reach
their peak.​
The scene is set at Dublin’s North Wall station, a symbolic space between two worlds: the safety
of home and the unknown freedom abroad. The mist, the crowd, and the sound of the ship create
a tense, almost suffocating atmosphere that reflects Eveline’s anxiety. The extract focuses mainly
on Eveline, while Frank appears briefly as a figure of movement and escape. The passage’s
structure moves from her inner hesitation to her final paralysis, ending in complete emotional
stillness.
The central theme is paralysis, one of the key ideas in Dubliners. Eveline’s inability to act
reveals the power of duty, religion, and fear over personal freedom. Her “maze of distress” and
her silent prayer show her inner conflict between loyalty to her family and the desire for a new
life. The sea becomes a symbol of both liberation and danger, as seen in “All the seas of the
world tumbled about her heart,” suggesting that freedom also brings the risk of losing herself.
The story is told through a third-person limited narrator using free indirect discourse, which
blends the narrator’s voice with Eveline’s thoughts. This technique allows readers to experience
her confusion and fear from inside her mind. Joyce alternates between external description (the
station, the mist, the movement) and inner reflection, creating a rhythm that mirrors Eveline’s
hesitation. The repeated commands “Come!” and her desperate “No! No! No!” give the scene
intensity and rhythm, showing the fight between movement and immobility. The language is
literary but clear, with emotional restraint typical of Joyce’s style. The main semantic fields
relate to religion, the sea, and imprisonment. Religious vocabulary (“prayed,” “God,” “duty”)
reflects Eveline’s moral upbringing, while images of the sea and iron railing evoke the physical
and emotional barriers that trap her. Joyce’s use of metaphor (“a bell clanged upon her heart”),
simile (“like a helpless animal”), and personification (the sea as a living, threatening force) gives
the passage emotional depth. Repetition and contrast between movement and stillness, freedom
and fear reinforce the story’s central tension.
This extract reflects the style of Dubliners as a whole: realistic, concise, and focused on the
moment of revelation or “epiphany.” The climax here is not action, but recognition Eveline
realises she cannot escape, revealing Joyce’s theme of spiritual paralysis that defines his vision
of Dublin life.​
This extract marks the turning point and emotional resolution of Eveline. It transforms hope into
paralysis and freedom into fear. Through its careful balance of content and form symbolism,
repetition, and psychological realism Joyce captures the human struggle between comfort and
change. The passage stands as a clear example of his modernist style and his deep insight into the
quiet tragedies of ordinary life.
Perplexity and ChatGPT have been used as a tool to make this commentary, and when it comes
to making sure I understand the abstract, understand the structure of the commentary and how to
develop the response with my own words, ChatGPT’s answers have been a lot more useful than
perplexity’s. And when it comes to the prompts used, I have asked questions about everything
surrounding the extract, the proper way to organize a commentary and how to balance correctly
the analysis of content and form and make sure they are clearly connected (i.e: “Can you suggest
a few key quotations from the extract that would best support my arguments about theme and
style?”, “How would you summarise the main ideas of this passage in three sentences that
capture both form and content?”, “What stylistic devices (metaphor, repetition, personification,
etc.) can be found in this extract, and how do they contribute to the theme?”, “What symbols or
recurring images can be identified in this extract, and what do they represent?”... Using AI tools
such as ChatGPT helped clarify the structure, ensure coherence, and refine the academic style of
this commentary. It proved useful for organising ideas efficiently while maintaining precision
and formality in the final version.