Background1: James Joyce’s “Eveline”
Background for “Eveline”
 4th story out of 15 in Dubliners (“Araby” is the 3rd, so this comes
immediately after it)
 Joyce’s attempt to portray the social, religious, and personal
restrictions (paralysis) placed on women in late 19th/early 20th
century Ireland: Eveline must choose to either care for her
father and family (and oblige the promise made to her mother),
or leave Ireland for a foreign land with a sailor named Frank.
Style
 Stream of consciousness elements (3rd person narrator
limited to Eveline’s thoughts and internal conflicts)
 Realism/Naturalism (same thing): style of literature that
attempts to portray realistic situations and leave interpretation
up to the reader. Often intended by the author (and certainly is
in this case) as social commentary. And related to this…
 Dubliners is known for Joyce’s difficulties in finding a publisher
who was willing to publish a book that contained such a
negative tone towards religious and political institutions (and in
some stories, sexual themes). Joyce, in reply to his publisher’s
concerns: “I seriously believe that you will retard the course of
civilization in Ireland by preventing the Irish people from having
one good look at themselves in my nicely polished lookingglass.” You have to love (or hate) that sort of undisguised pride
in his work.
 Symbolism: just because it’s realistic in content doesn’t mean
it doesn’t contain symbolism, and in Joyce’s case, extensively
so. Consider:
o The Man from Belfast (who builds the house). Hint: a man
from Belfast is a man from the North.
o The photograph of the priest and the dust in Evie’s home
o Buenos Aires (Ayres) (foreign land? Other? Escape?
Intertextual allusion to Araby?)
1
Much of this information is from enotes.com
o Mention of The Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque: let me
tell you a little about her.
 Patron Saint of those who have lost family
members, among other things.
 The story of Margaret Mary: before sainthood she
had a vision of Christ crucified, but alive. He
reproached her for forgetting him, claiming that his
heart was full of love for her. In response, she
sought out a convent to become a nun.
 Before she could become a nun, she was
subjected to various trails to prove her
commitment.
o Derevaun seraun! Derevaun seraun!
 Subject to debated meanings amongst Joyce
scholars. In the story, it’s the phrase Evie’s mother
utters before her death, so at the least, she
associates it with death. Could just be nonsense.
Some Joyceians claim it to be corrupt Gaelic (Irish
language—phonetically, it sounds like it) meaning
any or none of the following:
 Worms are the only end (thanks for that,
Mom)
 The end of pleasure is pain (not much better)
 The end of song is raving madness (either
way, it’s not good)
 And of course, never forget the motif of paralysis in its many
forms: social, physical, spiritual, etc, along with Joyce’s concept
of the epiphany.