My Personal Reading Of
Eveline
Luca Fioretti
IV^A
A.S. 2009/2010
Title Meaning
Eveline
Denotation
Story Line
Structure Analysis
The short story can be organised into two main sequences:
1. The first one is about showing Eveline’s thoughts while
she is sat at the window: she thinks about her life (the
past, the present and the future life) and present life’s
conditions. In this part of the short story there are also
other characters, for example Eveline’ parents and
brothers. The feature of this part is that Eveline only
thinks, she doesn’t act and the reader only knows his
thoughts, perplexities and fears. The narrator shows
Eveline in her characteristics: she is a static character.
2. In the second sequence it is presented another person:
Frank. He is Eveline’s boyfriend and he is the person who
tries to release Eveline from his static personality. They
are going to life that life for a better one, but Eveline
cannot react, she is unable to change her situation.
Narrative Techniques
Kinds of Narration:
 Third person omniscient narrator
 Third person limited narrator
Stiles:
 Free direct style
 Free indirect style
 Free indirect thought
 Direct speech
Characterization
Main Character:
Eveline
Secondary Characters:
Eveline’s Parents
Frank
Other People
The main character of the short story is a young
woman called Eveline who is sat at the window
watching what is happening in the avenue. She is
thoughtful because she is thinking about her past,
her present and her future life. She is alone: her
mother is died and her father is not at home; she is
going to leave that life because Frank, her
boyfriend, promised her that they would go to
Buenos Aires. But Eveline is not sure about what
she is going to do: a lot of thoughts invade herself,
she cannot act, she doesn’t know what to do. She is
paralysed because she is unable to take a decision.
Reading the title of the short story Eveline written
by James Joyce which belongs to the collection of
short stories Dubliners, the reader imagines that
the short story can tell the story of a woman or a
girl or a child with this name.
“Her head was leaned against the window curtains
and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne.
She was tired.”
“ […] she heard his footsteps clacking along the
concrete pavement and afterwards crunching on
the cinder path before the new red houses.”
“Few people passed.”
“The station was full of soldiers with brown
baggages.”
“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.”
“It seemed a few weeks ago.”
“ […] she prayed to God to direct her, to show her
what was her duty.”
“The children of the avenue used to play together in
that field -- the Devines, the Waters, the Dunns,
little Keogh the cripple, she and her brothers and
sisters.”
“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.”
"Miss Hill, don't you see these ladies are waiting?"
"Look lively, Miss Hill, please."
"I know these sailor chaps," he said.
She remembered her father strutting back into the
sickroom saying:
"Damned Italians! coming over here!"
Eveline’s characterization is made up by her
feelings, thoughts, memories: the narrator wants to
give to the reader a sense of stasis, absence of
acting which are the features of Eveline’s
personality. Eveline is submitted to her father.
The narrator does not describe Eveline from her
physical features but only with her typical
behaviour and her reactions.
- Eveline’s mother is died but she has got a relevant
importance in the story. Like for the other
characters the narrator doesn’t make a physical
description. She is a women, so she is Eveline’s
landmark: Eveline’s behaviour is the result of the
lack of mother figure.
- The characterization of Eveline’s father is made up
by references, examples of his personality and his
behaviour. The reader knows that the father is
always drunk and he submits Eveline to his
Frank is a person who can act, react and rebel to
the unhappy and bad life. He is the only person
who has got dynamism in the story: he wants to
change Eveline’s condition of submission to her
father.
Other people like Eveline’s brothers, children which
played with her in the childhood or the Italian
organ-player are only bit players which are useful to
complete, make reality the story. These characters
are not described, sometimes we know their name
and sometimes we don’t.