Analysis of James Joyce's EVELINE

THE ANALYSISOF JAMES JOYCE S EVELINE 2004.The aim of the essay is to analyse James Joyce sstory Eveline . In the following story the reader finds out about a youngwoman Eveline, who tries to make an important decision in her life. A readerwhile reading this story could realise the importance of the narrator fromwhich perspective the story about Eveline is told, as if told by the othernarrator it could be totally different.

From the very beginning the author creates an imageof some obscurity of the story. It is created by the way the narrator isintroducing Eveline s thoughts to the reader while she is sitting at thewindow. To create this image the author puts together in one paragraph scenesEveline really observes through the window few people passed , the man outof the last house passed things she remembers from the past

one timethere used to be a field , a man from Belfast bought the field , thechildren of the avenue used to play . and gradually introduces her family and relationship with her father.The narrator emphasises the doubtfulness of Evelineas well the reader could get this impression while reading the fourthparagraph. The author uses a kind of Eveline s inner monologue retold bynarrator to create this effect on the reader.

Question-answer style of the paragraph, at the sametime, could help the reader to see Eveline as a person dependent on the others opinion. The reader understands this because of the flashback the author makesafter the fourth paragraph, as well, where the reader could imagine Miss Gavanbeing sarcastic towards Evelin Miss Hill, don t you see these ladies arewaiting?

Look lively,Miss Hill, please. And, directly after these short unconvincing memories arguments the narrator makes the reader to notice Eveline taking thedecision She would not cry many tears at leaving the Stores. The change of settings in the next paragraph is madeby the author to notice Eveline s hope for better life. But, here again, thereader could notice the narrator s sarcasm

Then she would be married she, Eveline. because of the sentence s structure the author makes the reader to feelemphasising of the word Eveline , hence beyond this statement the reader could hear the narrator meaning actually Eveline is in doubt about imaginingherself being married . The same impression of doubt appears in the nextsentence People would treat her with respect then. The narratormakes the reader to see that

Eveline does not feel herself worth beingrespected NOW, she hopes to be respected THEN in some intangible future . After that there is a change of the mood in theparagraph, where the narrator represents Eveline to be an over sentimentalperson, not confident about herself. The reader gets this impression becausethe author uses phrases in exaggerated manner, for example,

when speakingabout her relationship with father - but latterly he had to begun to threaten her andsay what he would do to her only for her dead mother s sake. insteadof saying he ll harm her or he ll make her feel bad , besides that - And now shehad nobody to protect her - the invariable squabble for money onSaturday nights had begun to weary her unspeakably .The gradation of happenings mentioned in the sameparagraph is made to emphasise the complexity of

Eveline s situation. Thereader could easily imagine a wholly undesirable life of Eveline as thenarrator describes it using the following phrases - she had to rushout as quickly as she could she elbowed herway she had hardwork it was hard work a hard life a wholly undesirable life. The change ofsettings goes together with the change of mood in the next paragraph. Becauseof that the reader gets an image of another life with

Frank happy life.Here again the narrator retells the story of Frank and Eveline like a kind offairy tale for the reader to see that Eveline was wearing a pink glasses andtreating her relationships with Frank like a survival from her whollyundesirable life . The following phrases used here help to create an image ofFrank to be a man of her dreams and to show

that Eveline was not indifferent tohim - She was to goaway with him by the night-boat to be his wife and to live with him inBuenos Ayres, where he had a home waiting for her He was standing at the gate, his peaked cappushed back on his head and his hair tumbled forward over a face of bronze she feltelated she always feltpleasantly confused .At the end of the same paragraph the narrator showsthat the opinion of her father is more important

to Eveline as he thenarrator is not going too much in detail about her father s and Frank srelationship. There are only three sentences about that Of course, her father had found the affair and hadforbidden her to have anything to say him. I know these sailor chaps, he said.One day he had quarrelled with Frank, and after thatshe had to meet her lover secretly.

Because of the change of settings in the beginning ofthe next paragraph, the author makes the reader to realise that this is a pointin Eveline s life where changes could happen. The reader has a feeling whilereading this paragraph that there is a kind of uncertainty in these changes The evening deepened in the avenue. The white of twoletters in her lap grew indistinct.Once again the narrator of the story shows the readerthat

Eveline has an unstable character, as now, when leaving, she changes herthoughts about her father Sometimes he could be very nice ,She even fells regret towards him who was usuallyfairly bad Her father was becoming old lately, she noticed hewould miss her , She remembered her father putting on her mother s bonnet tomake the children laugh . Undoubtedly,the importance of the narrator is obvious in the story as the reader imaginesEveline to

be a person who is not grown up yet and cannot take a decisionconfidently. As for me, the narrator proved me to see Eveline like that and Ido not feel sorry for her emotional sufferings even at the very end of thestory.