My Personal Reading Of Eveline
Giulia Paparot
4^a
A.S. 2009/2010
Meaning of the title
Eveline…
Denotation
Denotative analysis…
Structure
The short story is arranged into three parts…
Narrative Technique
Kinds of narration:
• Direct speech
• Free direct speech
• Indirect speech
• Free indirect speech
Style used.
Characterization
Main character
Eveline
Secondary
characters
Eveline’s father
Frank
Message
Reading the title the intelligent reader may
understand that the story tells about a
young girl, called Eveline.
This short story belongs to a collection of
shorts stories, by James Joyce, the name of
which is “Dubliners”.
Dublin is considered the centre of paralysis,
and so, people can understand that
the protagonist of this story represent this
feature.
The narrator tells us a story regarding to a girl,
who lives in Dublin. This girl wants to leave the
city with her boyfriend but she can’t because she
feels still connected to the promise she made to
her mother before her mother’s death. The
promise is to look after her family. In the short
story are told her thoughts, her feelings and her
memories. In the end she doesn’t leave because
she feels like paralysed, she cannot move. It
describes the Dubliner’s way to behave: they are
unable to act.
The short story is arranged into three parts. Each
part has a function:
The first part introduced the situation (Eveline, the
protagonist, is sitting at the window at home,
feeling tired).
The second part tells the reader Eveline’s thoughts
about her past, her present and her future.
The third part is the conclusion and shows Eveline
and Frank at the station. Eveline doesn’t move.
It is a dramatical conclusion.
A narrator can choose how to make the reader feel
using some different kinds of narration:
•When he uses direct speech and free direct speech
the reader feels as if he were present in the scene;
•When he uses free indirect speech or thought the
reader feels as if he were into the character’s mind;
•When he uses indirect speech he makes the reader
feel not closer to the scene.
•When the narrator uses the technique of
showing he reports the scene and the
words said by the characters without
saying his comment.
•When the narrator uses the technique of
telling the scene reported is filtered
thought his eyes.
Eveline is the protagonist of the short story.
She represents perfectly the people of Dublin,
because she behaves herself as if she were
paralysed, unable to act.
She hides her inability to act with the connection
made to her family, in particular to her father, by
the promise she gave to her mother.
Eveline’s father is not a saint of man. Reading Eveline’s
memories the reader can understand that he is always
drunk, and that he mistreat his family.
Frank is Eveline’s boyfriend. He is a sailor. He represent
the opposite of Eveline, in fact a sailor is a man without a
real steady point, who can leave one place to an other
without many problems and worries.