Reflective Statement on Eveline by James Joyce
Reflective statement on “Eveline” by James Joyce
Before the interactive orals, I wasn’t sure or fully convinced about the reasons why Eveline would want to stay in Dublin. Everything seemed right in place for her to begin a new life with a man she supposedly trusted and wanted to be with. The interactive orals gave me a better understanding of how much of an impact the 'Irish Diaspora', 'Roman Catholicism', the 'Role of Women in Ireland' and 'Ireland in the New World' contributed to her paralysis and seeming inability to give up her old life and start a new one. The first presentation in the interactive orals was about 'Roman Catholicism'. Eveline was portrayed as a strong Roman Catholic in the text. The interactive orals made me realise that the Roman Catholic Church played a huge part in her decision to stay due to fear of condemnation by the whole community as the church made a huge emphasis on sexual and moral conduct and ‘running off’ with a man (Frank) was highly contradicting of this. The second presentation was about the 'Role of Women in Ireland in the early 1900s'. Women had a strong role in the home.Their main priority was to see that the family was well taken care of and in the text, despite Eveline not having children of her own, she still had the responsibility of taking care of two orphans. As well as this, the writer states that she made a promise to her dead mother to keep the family together. Therefore, I concluded that these responsibilities acted as influences on her decision to stay in Dublin. The third presentation was about the 'Irish Diaspora' which I thought was cleverly used by James Joyce to convey to the reader that Evelyn was indeed ‘paralysed’ and needed to escape because this period of time involved a huge proportion of the Irish migrating to other countries such as Canada and America. The last presentation was on 'Ireland in the New World' and this theme helped me to draw to the conclusion that the writer
Before the interactive orals, I wasn’t sure or fully convinced about the reasons why Eveline would want to stay in Dublin. Everything seemed right in place for her to begin a new life with a man she supposedly trusted and wanted to be with. The interactive orals gave me a better understanding of how much of an impact the 'Irish Diaspora', 'Roman Catholicism', the 'Role of Women in Ireland' and 'Ireland in the New World' contributed to her paralysis and seeming inability to give up her old life and start a new one. The first presentation in the interactive orals was about 'Roman Catholicism'. Eveline was portrayed as a strong Roman Catholic in the text. The interactive orals made me realise that the Roman Catholic Church played a huge part in her decision to stay due to fear of condemnation by the whole community as the church made a huge emphasis on sexual and moral conduct and ‘running off’ with a man (Frank) was highly contradicting of this. The second presentation was about the 'Role of Women in Ireland in the early 1900s'. Women had a strong role in the home.Their main priority was to see that the family was well taken care of and in the text, despite Eveline not having children of her own, she still had the responsibility of taking care of two orphans. As well as this, the writer states that she made a promise to her dead mother to keep the family together. Therefore, I concluded that these responsibilities acted as influences on her decision to stay in Dublin. The third presentation was about the 'Irish Diaspora' which I thought was cleverly used by James Joyce to convey to the reader that Evelyn was indeed ‘paralysed’ and needed to escape because this period of time involved a huge proportion of the Irish migrating to other countries such as Canada and America. The last presentation was on 'Ireland in the New World' and this theme helped me to draw to the conclusion that the writer