Dubliners, Eveline
Eveline
1. CHARACTERS Eveline is the central character in the story, who is a nineteen year-old girl planning to escape her mixed up life by leaving Dublin with her fiancé to go to Buenos Aires. In the story, her father plays an abusive and cruel man who threatens to beat her and takes all of her money; however Eveline still cares for him and her siblings. *Frank is Eveline's fiancé, and a sailor, who wants her to run away with him to Buenos Aires. A smaller role in the story is Eveline’s dead mother, who asked Eveline to hold the family together for as long as she possibly could.
2. QUOTE ABOUT EVELINE “Then she would be married—she Eveline. People would treat her with respect then. She would not be treated as her mother had been” (32-33). Eveline is a woman faced with having to make a life-altering decision. This challenge suggests that during this time, Irish woman had many boundaries and restrictions which lead them to ultimate suffering. Eveline’s painful choice about her life also shows self-control and panic. Eveline plans to flee to Argentina, where she hopes to stay away from her father’s violence as well as memoirs of her dead mother. When the narrator says, “People would treat her with respect,” he is suggesting that Eveline thinks about her life as a married woman in Argentina, and that she believes she has a right to be happy too. However, memories brought back the notion of the domesticated woman that she has grown up to be all her life, and while Eveline stood on the dock ready to go aboard on her journey, reality had set in. Her feelings of familiarity, fear, and guilt took over her desire to freedom and self content.
3. PLOT AND SETTING The story begins with Eveline sitting inside of her family’s house remembering her childhood, with some happy memories as well as her father’s violence toward her and her brothers. Throughout the story Eveline reflects upon people she has known who have left Ireland or died. She also thinks about
1. CHARACTERS Eveline is the central character in the story, who is a nineteen year-old girl planning to escape her mixed up life by leaving Dublin with her fiancé to go to Buenos Aires. In the story, her father plays an abusive and cruel man who threatens to beat her and takes all of her money; however Eveline still cares for him and her siblings. *Frank is Eveline's fiancé, and a sailor, who wants her to run away with him to Buenos Aires. A smaller role in the story is Eveline’s dead mother, who asked Eveline to hold the family together for as long as she possibly could.
2. QUOTE ABOUT EVELINE “Then she would be married—she Eveline. People would treat her with respect then. She would not be treated as her mother had been” (32-33). Eveline is a woman faced with having to make a life-altering decision. This challenge suggests that during this time, Irish woman had many boundaries and restrictions which lead them to ultimate suffering. Eveline’s painful choice about her life also shows self-control and panic. Eveline plans to flee to Argentina, where she hopes to stay away from her father’s violence as well as memoirs of her dead mother. When the narrator says, “People would treat her with respect,” he is suggesting that Eveline thinks about her life as a married woman in Argentina, and that she believes she has a right to be happy too. However, memories brought back the notion of the domesticated woman that she has grown up to be all her life, and while Eveline stood on the dock ready to go aboard on her journey, reality had set in. Her feelings of familiarity, fear, and guilt took over her desire to freedom and self content.
3. PLOT AND SETTING The story begins with Eveline sitting inside of her family’s house remembering her childhood, with some happy memories as well as her father’s violence toward her and her brothers. Throughout the story Eveline reflects upon people she has known who have left Ireland or died. She also thinks about