The Theme Of Choice In Eveline

By James Joyce

The choices we make in our life have an effect on us and sometimes even in others' life one way or another in future. The choices at times can help benefit or in some way destroy of life and our future. James Joyce being one of the best authors of the 20th century described the process of decision in the best way in his one of the most celebrated short stories "Eveline." This short story explores the theme of importance of decision in a woman's life and takes a critical look at life in Dublin, Ireland in the early 20th century. Furthermore, the themes that underlie "Eveline" were not only relevant for the time the story was wrote in, but are just as relevant today.

Eveline is a young lady of 19 who has faced countless challenges in her life. In this story she faces one of her most difficult choices...show more content...

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. It shows that fate is what we decide and it influences to our future life even if we don't accept it. Everybody is given a chance in her life at least once, but some appreciate it, some don't. Many authors of short stories allow the reader to make their own judgments of 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." Joyce sends the message through his main character Eveline that everybody has a climax in his or her life which manages her/his future life, even it is more responsible for women in this kind of society. Nevertheless, fate depends on our decisions and we decide how to live despite the fact that ends with good or bad

By James Joyce

Choices In the short story "Eveline," written by James Joyce in 1914, Eveline lived a poverty stricken life with her father, whom was an abusive drunk. Eveline struggles with wanting to leave her dead end life or stay and take care of her father, which she believes is her duty. James Joyce's "Eveline" tells a story of a girl who longs to live her own life away from her dark depressing home and her abusive father and start a new life with Frank who offers her a new life that she has only dreamed of, yet her inner struggles to leave may just be enough to keep her there. Eveline's home life is nothing but a dark depressing tragedy that she is longing to get far away from. Eveline was now the only child left in house. She was to care for her...show more content...

It was hard work a hard life ..." Eveline wanted to get away. She wanted a new life away from her troubles at home where she could be a woman with a purpose. Frank is offering Eveline the chance of a life time to escape her spiraling downward hole of a life where she doesn't have to be belittled every day and can start a new life where she is a respected woman. Frank was offering Eveline the chance to get away and have a new life: "She was to go away with him by the night–boat to be his wife and to live with him in Buenos Ayres where he had a home waiting for her." She had a whole new life just handed to her. A life where she could be respected and have someone take care of her. He showed her how much he cared in just the simplest of ways: "He used to meet her outside the Stores every evening and see her home." Simple gestures like that showed how he wanted to take care of her. He is wanting to show her what it was like to be taken care of instead of taking care of everyone else. Frank is the one chance that Eveline may ever have to get away. Eveline's father knows that and tries to make sure his daughter never sees Frank again: "Of course, her father had found out the affair and had forbidden her to have anything to say to him 'I know these sailor chaps,' he said. One day he had quarrelled with Frank and after that she had to

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In the short story "Eveline" by James Joyce, the title character Eveline is fearful of making a change in her life by moving with her boyfriend Frank from her homeland of Ireland and making a life with him in Buenos Ayres. Joyce illustrates that one of our most inherent qualities as humans and one that Eveline displays is that we are resistant to change. Through Eveline's relationships with her father, Frank and various peripheral relationships, Joyce demonstrates to us how Eveline has come to have certain beliefs about change.

There is overwhelming evidence in Eveline's life that change is good, yet she continues to resist it. Eveline saw her mother make many common sacrifices and give up her freedom of choice in everyday...show more content...

He does not want a worldly man such as Frank having any influence on his daughter. He believes that if Eveline did become serious with Frank he, as her father, would become a lower priority in Eveline's life. She would most certainly leave the house and quite possibly move far away, which would be yet another change the old man would have to endure.

Other factors lead to Eveline being fearful of change. Not only change in commitments but change in physical surroundings are things she does not embrace, though she has been surrounded by change most of her life; when she was a child, she would play in the field with the neighbor children every evening, until it was built upon. She has also experienced change in the form of death; childhood friends, her brother and her mother – all are dead. Death is not a positive representation of change to be sure. As Evelyn ponders change, she comes to the realization that the physical surroundings of her everyday life would no longer be there. The furnishings, the pictures, the curtains, even the dust would be distant memories! Things she has unknowingly drawn comfort from her entire life would not be there to comfort her; they would be gone. Change may not be something she wants.

All of these realizations about change are due to Eveline considering the biggest change in her life: the change she is most fearful about, moving away from Ireland to be with Frank in Buenos

By James Joyce

Point of view is very crucial to stories, it tells us the story and the way it gets told. There are four point of views which are the following: omniscient, third–person limited, first person, and objective. "Eveline" by James Joyce is told in third–limited person point of view which only focuses on the thoughts and feelings of Eveline. The narrator demonstrates the knowledge of one character but lacks knowledge in other characters. In Eveline, we only see the situation and setting through her eyes. "The Lottery" is told in the objective point of view which doesn't show any knowledge of one character's feelings or thoughts. The narrator is telling what he sees or hears, we only get the process of how the lottery works. Each point of view has it's impactful effect that gives the story surprises like in the Lottery. If we were told infirst person then maybe it wouldn't give the surprising twist like it did. In Eveline, the readers didn't think Eveline was going to stay because she didn't know what she wanted, she was too afraid to make a huge decision for the first time in her life. If we would've gotten it in her point of view then maybe it would of been predictable and not have an effect on the audience. In Eveline, we see a young woman who holds onto her past which stops her from finally getting her freedom. In the beginning, she "sat at the window watching evening invade the avenue...she was tired." She was tired of being in a home where she only used to make food and

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In "Eveline," James Joyce uses the juxtaposition of the ever–changing setting and the unchanging stoic character of Eveline in order to exemplify the character's reluctance and inability to move forward. James Joyce is known for his juxtaposition of light and dark throughout his short stories, specifically in his story "Araby." I would argue that Joyce is using the contrast of opposing forces described above between the setting and the character in a similar way as he was light and dark. "Araby" and "Eveline" were both written in the year 1914 and "Eveline" precedes "Araby" in the larger work. They are both part of Joyce's larger work Dubliners which is a work of fifteen short stories. This compilation of stories all share the...show more content...

The story begins with Eveline "watching evening invade the avenue." (Booth 552). From her window Eveline sits as day turns to night. We even read that "in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne." (Booth 552) In the first two sentences of this story the setting around Eveline is changing while she remains sitting with her head against the window, it doesn't even say she smelt the cretonne just that the smell was in her nose. Air is flowing, but Eveline doesn't even notice. We learn a little about her family history and how that has also changed with time. We learn that she has two brothers; one of them is dead and the other is not at home anymore. We also learn that her mother is dead, and her father is a violent man (Voogd 48.). Eveline still poised by the window in her room remembers how the scenery she is watching has changed over time. The new red house across the street used to be a field in which she and the neighbor kids would go to play. She recalls being happy and then it seems she makes the statement, "Everything changes." At this time we learn that Eveline has plans to leave just like the others, and for the first time in the story Eveline moves. In Eveline's first movement of the story we watch as she looks across the room "reviewing all its familiar objects..." the reader is then

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James Joyce

James Joyce's "Eveline" is a short story following a nineteen–year–old Eveline, who faces a difficult decision of leaving a life she is accustomed to and moving to an unknown land with a man she barely knows. She needs to make a choice between two contrasting figures; Frank, a man who offers her stars in the sky and her father, whom she fears. In one hand she holds the weight of uncertain happiness, in the other, inevitable misery. Following her mother's death, Eveline assumes the role of a parent and inherits all the chores accompanying it. She works hard at home and "the Stores", but for all her troubles, Eveline gets little respect in return. Now with one brother dead and other away on business, she is left alone to keep the family together and bear her father's ever increasing abuse. She struggles to make the right choice, but in the end, her struggles are in vain as she stands paralyzed at the dock watching her lover and her life gently slip away. As "She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue", we can visualize Eveline separated from the world, like a prisoner in her father's home. A hard life has taken a toll on a young girl: "She was tired", not only of hard work but being submissive and accommodating all the time. Recalling the field brings back memories of times when she was happy playing with her friends; that field now stands covered by houses, much like her life, weight down by responsibilities. She misses those days and "wants a

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James Joyce

James Joyce's short story, "Eveline," displayed Eveline's indecisiveness on whether to leave home or stay at home. In the first part of the story, Eveline lost the physical presence of her family and friends; they either preceded in death or moved to another place. As she tried to develop her new life with her father, she noticed her father's violent actions that she does all she can to escape the violence (Joyce, par. 9). When she explored life with Frank, she developed feelings for Frank in order to escape home. However, Joyce ended the story with her motionless as the boat takes Frank without her. This leaves readers wondering what happened to Eveline.Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic criticism gives readers insight of what happened to...show more content...

Not only does the id contained the darkest wishes, it also contained her fears, mostly from her father. Joyce developed the father's character by saying that Eveline's father "was not so bad then." (Joyce, par. 2). However, as Eveline became nineteen, Joyce explained the father's change of character, as Eveline "felt in danger of her father's violence." As a little girl, she saw her father "go for" her brothers, Harry and Ernest; as Eveline became a mature girl, her father would threaten her to "do to her only for her mother's sake," leaving her defenseless against her father's violence (Joyce, par. 9). In addition, her father met with Frank and quarreled against him, leaving her to keep her affair a secret (Joyce, par. 12). The change in her relationship with her father gave her intense fears that she could suffer the same fate as her mother. With her experience of the deaths of her family and friends and the abuse of her father, her deep desire to leave home came from those past experiences. However, her treatment of love and respect from Frank gave her expectations for better things in her life; those expectations are home to her where she can experience love, as she did long ago, and a husband she found attractive that will give her respect, different from her mother. The id makes this her first priority and ultimate mission in the story so Eveline can find happiness at all costs. Freud's second