Eveline Left Frank Essay

Abraham Park
Professor Dettmer
Engl 1210 -1601
September 10, 2014
Eveline left Frank Dubliners is a collection of short stories written by James Joyce, an Irish writer. Many of the stories that written in Joyce’s book, Dubliners, were based on true events and personal experiences while he lived in Dublin, Ireland. The shortest of the stories, “Eveline” is about a young woman, Eveline, who has to choose between staying home, living a “hard life” (5) or running away, getting married with “her lover” (6). This short story is t about a few hours of Eveline’s time and the majority of her time is spent sitting at a “window, leaning her head against the window curtain, inhaling the odour of dusty cretonne” (6). With not many things happening in the story, little to no character development occurs; however, through an omniscient narrator, our understanding of the main characters become developed by the end of the story. The story begins with “She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue” (4). From a literary standpoint, starting a story with “she” would be considered a pronoun antecedent agreement error because the sentence does not have any prior subject for “she” to be referred to. Joyce purposely does this. In the beginning of the story, the protagonist of the story is simply known as “she” (4); but, by the end of the story, we learn who “she” is, not only as “Eveline” but all the meaning that comes with the name. The next few sentences, Eveline hears “footseps clacking along the concrete pavement” (4) and the narrator goes into a memory of Eveline of when she was younger, playing with her childhood friends in a field, near the same avenue. However, the pleasant memories come to a halt. “That was a long time ago… [Eveline’s] mother was dead (4). The reminiscent story told of Eveline’s childhood creates a connection between Eveline and her environment. We are also introduced to her mother, a key figure in Eveline’s life. Although Eveline’s mother is no longer alive, she holds a great influence over Eveline’s life. After thinking of her mother, Eveline looks inside the room that she is in, “reviewing all its familiar objects” (4). Not only does Eveline have a connection between her and the avenue she used to play at, but to the things in her room as well. A connection strong enough where “she had never dreamed of being divided [from the ‘familiar objects’]” (4). Of the objects, she sees a “broken harmonium” (4). Later in the story, “Down far in the avenue she could hear a street organ playing” (6). This reminds Eveline of her mother, suggesting me to think that the harmonium belonged to her mother. It reminds her not only of her mother but a promise made to her mother, “her promise to keep the home together as long as she could” (6). Eveline then trembles as she hears her mother’s voice saying “Derevaun Seraun! (6) meaning, “The end of pleasure is pain!” This frightens Eveline and stands up to go to Frank. Frank was the man Eveline was supposed to run away with. “Frank was very kind, manly, open-hearted” (5). Everything written about Frank throughout the short story is positive. “He had a home waiting for her” (5). Not only did Frank have a good personality, but was well established with a home in “Buenos Ayres” (5). The narrator never mentions how long Frank and Eveline have known each other, but we do know it’s more than a few weeks and that “they had come to know each other” (5). Frank’s sincerity towards Eveline surfaces where he would “meet her outside the Stores every evening and see her home (6). Frank also took Eveline to the theatre and told stories of specific “distant countries,… ships… and terrible Patagonians” (6) that he had encountered. He became “her lover” (6). Frank was good to Eveline. “Of course, her father had found out the affair and had forbidden her to have anything to say to him.” (6). Eveline’s father is

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