The heartache of losing a loved one is indescribable. Many people live out their lives based off how that one person would want them to live. James Joyce's short story, "Eveline," is an example of how promises are hard to break. As James Joyce writes his stories, his characters and themes share similarities within his own life, giving them more value and much more meaning behind the importance of the story.
To begin with, "Eveline" is the story of a young teenager facing a dilemma where she has to choose between living with her father, who has beaten her in the past, and escaping with Frank, a sailor which she has been with for some time. This story is one of fifteen stories written by James Joyce in a collection called "Dubliners". The story, “Eveline”, is the first one in Dubliners to be written in third person, and the first one to experiment with what has become known as stream of consciousness (Vooged). These stories follow a pattern that Joyce uses to express his ideas: "Joyce's focus in Dubliners is almost exclusively on the middle-class Catholics known to himself and his family"(the Gale Group). Joyce's early life, family background, and his catholic background appears in the way he writes his stories, giving a personal meaning to them. "Where Joyce usually relates his stories to events in his life, there are some stories which are actual events that took place in his life" (Joyce, Stanislaus). So when looking twice into the story, I automatically wondered if James Joyces had a life that he wished to run away from, but that wasn’t the only question that was running through my head. James Joyce, in a letter to Grant, Richard wrote: My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin fo...
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Voogd, Peter De. "Imaging Eveline, Visualised Focalisations in James Joyce’s Dubliners." Ebscohost. Ebsco, 1 Apr. 200. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Florio, Joseph. "Joyce's 'Eveline'." Explicatior. 181-85. 1993. 22 Apr. 2014.
Ingersoll, Earl G. "The stigma of femininity in James Joyce's "Eveline" and "The boarding House". The Gale group Literature resource center - periodical display. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Joyce James. "Eveline". Literature and writing process. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan Day, and Robert Funk. 4th ed. Upper saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1996. Web. 22. Apr. 2014.
Joyce, Stanislaus. "James Joyce". Short Story Criticism: Experts from Criticism of the Works of Short Fiction Writers. Ed. Sheila, Fitzgerald. 1989. Web. 22. Apr. 2014.
The Gale Group. "James Joyce." Literature resource center - Document Display. 2 Feb. 2000. 22 Apr. 2014.
Source #3: Kennedy, X.J., and Dana Gioia. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
_______. Critical Review of Short Fiction. Vol. III 4 vols.. Pasadena, California: Salem Press, 1991.
Campbell, Joseph. Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.
Few people, if any, in the twentieth century have inspired as much careful study and criticism as James Joyce. His work represents a great labyrinth which many have entered but none have returned from the same. Joyce himself is a paradoxical figure, ever the artist, ever the commoner. He has been called the greatest creative genius of our century and, by some, the smartest person in all of history. His most famous novel, Ulysses, is considered by many to be the greatest novel ever written. Beyond all of these superlatives lies a perfect case study in the creative mind and process.
James Joyce wrote the book Dubliners; Joyce expresses many different types of emotions throughout the book. The emotions portray individuals in society, and light and dark. The emotions of individuals are examined throughout the stories by other members in society. The stories that express the ideas are: “The Encounter,” “Eveline”, and “The Dead.” The symbolism of individuals in society expresses many different situations that are happening in the characters lives. The symbolism of light goes along with the idea of feeling happy and enjoying life. The theme of dark shows the individuals fighting, and having a negative outlook on life.
"Eveline" is the story of a young teenager facing a dilemma where she has to choose between living with her father or escaping with Frank, a sailor which she has been courting for some time. The story is one of fifteen stories written by James Joyce in a collection called "Dubliners". These stories follow a certain pattern that Joyce uses to express his ideas: "Joyce's focus in Dubliners is almost exclusively on the middle-class Catholics known to himself and his family"(the Gale Group). Joyce's early life, family background, and his catholic background appear in the way he writes these stories. "Where Joyce usually relates his stories to events in his life, there are some stories which are actually events that took place in his life" (Joyce, Stanislaus). James Joyce in his letter to Grant Richard writes:
Studies In Short Fiction 18.1 (1981): 65. Literary Reference Center. Web. The Web. The Web.
Twentieth Century Interpretations of Dubliners. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: 1968. Torchiana, Donald T. Backgrounds for Joyce’s Dubliners. Allen & Unwin, Inc. Winchester, Massachusetts: 1986.
In Joyce’s stories “Eveline”, “Counterparts” and the “Dead”, the theme of escape and responsibility is represented by the characters desire to flee their lives. These stories symbolize Joyce’s interpretation of life in Ireland. With careful analysis it can be inferred that the miserable situations portrayed in these stories can be directly tied into how readers may view life in Ireland. Like the characters in Dubliners people desired a better life for themselves in and out of Ireland. The themes common to these stories show an appreciation to opportunity and success in the world. The themes of escape and responsibility present in a readers mind a looking glass for viewing life and society.
Eveline is an individual stuck in the boring routine of life, but is given the opportunity to take a chance and possibly make a better life for herself by leaving Dublin and going to Buenos Ayres with a man who she loves named Frank. However, in the end, Eveline chooses to not take the opportunity given to her and instead decides to continue with the monotonous routine of her life in Dublin. Many authors of short stories allow the reader to make their own judgments about characters. However, Joyce decides to show his frustration with Eveline at the end of the story and judges her harshly. In fact, Joyce goes as far as to call Eveline a “helpless animal”.
1 Joyce, James : The Dead , Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol.2, sixth edition
In Dubliners, James Joyce tells short stories of individuals struggling with life, in the city of Dublin. “It is a long road that has no turning” (Irish Proverb). Many individuals fight the battle and continue on the road. However, some give up and get left behind. Those who continue to fight the battle, often deal with constant struggle and suffering. A reoccurring theme, in which Joyce places strong emphasis on, is the constant struggle of fulfilling responsibilities. These responsibilities include; work, family and social expectations. Joyce writes about these themes because characters often feel trapped and yearn to escape from these responsibilities. In “The Little Cloud”, “Counterparts”, and “The Dead” characters are often trapped in unhappy living situations, often leading to a desire of escape from reality and daily responsibilities.
James Joyce began his writing career in 1914 with a series of realistic stories published in a collection called The Dubliners. These short literary pieces are a glimpse into the ‘paralysis’ that those who lived in the turn of the century Ireland and its capital experienced at various points in life (Greenblatt, 2277). Two of the selections, “Araby” and “The Dead” are examples of Joyce’s ability to tell a story with precise details while remaining a detached third person narrator. “Araby” is centered on the main character experiencing an epiphany while “The Dead” is Joyce’s experiment with trying to remain objective. One might assume Joyce had trouble with objectivity when it concerned the setting of Ireland because Dublin would prove to be his only topic. According the editors of the Norton Anthology of Literature, “No writer has ever been more soaked in Dublin, its atmosphere, its history, its topography. He devised ways of expanding his account of the Irish capital, however, so that they became microcosms of human history, geography, and experience.” (Greenblatt, 2277) In both “Araby” and “The Dead” the climax reveals an epiphany of sorts that the main characters experience and each realize his actual position in life and its ultimate permanency.
Peake, C.H. James Joyce: The Citizen and The Artist. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1977. 56-109.