30 pages • 1 hour read
James JoyceEveline
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1904A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Eveline Hill
Joyce never reveals Eveline’s physical features, but her reminiscences and observations provide the reader with a clear idea of her inner state and the experiences that have shaped her. She is on the brink of leaving home, but she still struggles with whether leaving is wise. Feeling despair over her life’s difficulties, Eveline nevertheless fears the uncertainty of creating a life in a new land across the sea with a man she has not known long. Her indecision hovers over the text and clouds the brightness of her potential escape from her father’s abuse and her meager earnings.
Eveline is somewhat naïve and inexperienced despite her young exposure to death and trauma. She thinks “it had been an excitement for her to have a fellow and then she had begun to like him” (22), indicating that Frank is her first romantic entanglement (or one of her first). When Frank sings of “the lass that loves a sailor, she always felt pleasantly confused” (22), and she only calls him her lover after her father forbids her from seeing him. Eveline does not seem to know her own feelings; instead, she is happy to have a man’s interest and the chance to seek a new, happier life.
Even when Eveline does choose to leave, she still does not illustrate full autonomy. When the reader first learns of her decision, Joyce phrases it as, “She had consented to go away, to leave her home. Was that wise?” (21). It is not an escape that she came up with, nor do her thoughts credit her with making the choice. It was Frank’s suggestion, and Eveline is simply going along with it to escape her current life. Whether she is living under her father’s authority or following Frank to Buenos Aires, Eveline remains passive, choosing to follow only the paths laid in front of her—or not choosing and being forced into a path through her indecision and fear.
Frank
Frank, an Irish sailor, is more experienced than Eveline. The only person for whom Joyce provides physical description, Frank provides the double allure of escape and attraction. Described with “his peaked cap pushed back on his head and his hair tumbled forward over a face of bronze” (22), Frank is attractive in both looks and personality; he is fond of music, Eveline recalls, and he sings a little. Eveline thinks of him as “very kind, manly, open-hearted” (21) in opposition to her father, who drinks and threatens her.
Frank also intrigues Eveline with his worldly stories and sense of adventure. “He had tales of distant countries” (22), Eveline says, including his first job as a deck boy on a boat headed for Canada, his trip through the Straits of Magellan, stories of “the terrible Patagonians” (22), and more. His exploits brought him to Buenos Aires, where he was able to secure land and a home. Frank tells Eveline that he came back to Ireland for a holiday, and eventually, he asks her to marry him and move to Argentina. His house in Buenos Aires represents escape, protection, and happiness. Eveline’s thoughts about her home in Ireland contrast with the assurance that Frank has “a home waiting for her” (21). In the end, however, Frank stands alone on the boat to Argentina, calling for Eveline to follow but seeing in her face “no sign of love or farewell or recognition” (23).
Father / Mr. Hill
Much of Eveline’s inner conflict as she observes her childhood home centers around her father. Mr. Hill, simply called “father,” provides a view into the complexities of a life ruled by alcohol and abuse. As was typical of the time, his alcohol use is only alluded to when Eveline admits that “he was usually fairly bad on Saturday night” (21). Eveline fears his violence, although, until this point, he has only ever hit her brothers and mother. One brother, Ernest, passed away sometime before the story begins, and the other, Harry, is often in the country. As such, Eveline no longer has anyone to protect her from her father. The danger has increased in recent years, particularly as Eveline has begun working to help support the family. She admits that “the invariable squabble for money on Saturday nights had begun to weary her unspeakably” (21), implying that her father takes her wages to buy alcohol.
Despite her fear and weariness, Eveline retains some fondness for her father. She thinks about his age and recalls happier memories. He recently cared for her while she was sick, even reading a ghost story to her, and she fondly remembers a picnic when he made the children laugh by wearing her mother’s bonnet. Eveline holds a letter addressed to him as she contemplates her future, and his presence looms over her inner conflict.
Mother / Mrs. Hill
Another nameless character, Eveline’s mother is represented as particularly limited and unhappy, although Eveline believes that the family was happier when her mother was alive. Eveline notes that her mother led a “pitiful” life of “commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness” (22-23), and Eveline wants to avoid her fate. Anticipating her future with Frank, she thinks that when she marries, she will be treated with respect. “She would not,” she thinks, “be treated as her mother had been” (21). A description of her father’s violence follows this thought, indicating the abuse her mother suffered. Mrs. Hill’s final words, said with what Eveline calls “foolish insistence,” were “Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!” (23). Eveline does not know the meaning of these words, which are assumed by scholars to be Irish or corrupted Irish, but the remembrance of them creates a jolt of fear, chasing Eveline out of the house and toward the docks.
Despite the mother’s fleeting appearances, she makes an indelible mark on the narrative and Eveline’s experience. On her deathbed, Mrs. Hill insisted that Eveline promise to keep the family together, a promise Eveline recalls through the presence of a street organ playing the same Italian song played on the night her mother died. Eveline runs to the docks because the family has already splintered since her mother’s death. Despite her anguished fear of becoming her mother, Eveline is unable to board the boat to Argentina, keeping herself frozen in her mother’s role and her unhappy duty.
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