Eveline, By James Joyce (1914)
Yuna Song
Rating: 7.5/10
I thought that 'Eveline' is a story that shows the central theme of the “Dubliners”, paralysis, very intuitively. Even being beaten by her abusive father, Eveline doesn’t choose to escape with Frank in the end, and this symbolizes the representative concept of paralysis.
What made me feel sorry about Eveline throughout the story was that even her escape with Frank, meaning "release and freedom," was also the way through the reliance on men. In other words, binding and marrying another man was essential for freedom from her father, who is also a man. Therefore, Eveline's paralysis may have been attributed to bounding by a paralyzed environment in which even her mother, who was sacrificed in a family, could not escape from the patriarchal ideology of the family; however, it may be also be interpreted as lethargy resulting from the unconscious recognition that she’ll be under the control of the men no matter what choice she makes.
While reading 'Eveline' and doing some research, I found out that there are truly diverse analyses possible regarding it. Each perspective had its own validity, so it was fun for me to read stories from different perspectives, which I gave 7.5 out of 10. (200 words)
