Anony Mous
Mrs. Connolly
12 AP Language Period 6
Date
Rhetorical Analysis of “Eveline”
James Joyce’s use of the English language constructs stories full of emotion and
weight. In his short story “Eveline” Joyce employs diction and syntax to convey
passiveness and lifelessness. This tone guides a theme of paralysis from the beginning to
the end of the story.
Syntax and diction masterfully convey the theme and tone of the story. In this
introduction, the syntax is reversed. A typical sentence has a subject-verb construction,
emphasizing the object performing the action. In reversing the sentence to “In her
nostrils was the…” Joyce sets a passive tone. There are no detailed verbs in the sentence,
emphasizing the paralysis. Another example of syntax is Joyce’s contrast of passive and
active verbs. An animate person, Eveline, is portrayed as inactive; “Her head was
leaned” is passive and she “sits watching”. Joyce even takes the action of smelling away
from his human subject. In contrast, the inanimate idea, evening, “invades”. This is an
active verb that portrays Eveline as paralyzed and lifeless. This notes that Eveline feels
out of control of her surroundings and her life, and allows outside forces to take control
and shape her future. Diction also presents the theme and tone in the introduction. Joyce
uses dull, inactive words to reveal passiveness. “Curtains”, “dusty”, “sat”, “tired”, and
“leaned” create a still-life image of Eveline. Her character is not mentioned, just her
action, which serves to illuminate her lifelessness. Contrasting passive and active verbs
and eliminating strong verbs and characterization are effective uses of syntax by Joyce.
Similar construction builds the closing. Active and passive verbs contrast with
each other. Frank is portrayed as very animated and active; “he rushed”, “called to her”,
and “was shouted at”. These hurried verbs give life to contrast the lifeless Eveline.
Passive voice expresses her actions; “she set her white face” and “her eyes gave no
sign…” reflect inaction. The use of polysnydeton also removes lifelike qualities from
Eveline by connecting love, farewell, and recognition in such order. Deep human
emotions-love-lovers to casual emotions-farewell- to the near animalistic emotionrecognition, Joyce effectively conveys lifelessness. By connecting these words with the
conjunction “or” instead of a comma, the sentence must be purposefully slowed down to
emphasize the emotions. The diction in the closing also presents the theme and tone of
the story. Eveline’s passiveness expresses itself not only by stating “passive”, but
through terms like “white face”, “helpless animal”, “barrier”, and “follow”. These terms
collectively form a lifeless and submissive Eveline. She controls nothing and is
unresponsive to any stimulus. The theme of lifelessness and paralysis is tied into the
opening.
James Joyce’s manipulation of diction and syntax builds a strong theme and tone
which connects it from beginning to closing. “Eveline” is a lifeless character paralyzed
by their surroundings.